Cairo, Nebraska is a rural town of 750 just outside of Grand
Island. Pronounced Caro, the residents of this close-knit community accept
their daily responsibility of correcting the easy mispronunciation. It was,
after all, named Nebraska’s
hardest-to-pronounce city.
“I’m not sure why we aren’t pronounced like the Cairo in Egypt. Our streets are
all named after Pharaohs, there are camel and pyramid themes throughout town,
but it’s pronounced like the syrup. We understand that people are going to
mispronounce it, but that doesn’t make it less frustrating to hear it said
wrong.”
And this secret language among locals is what drew Tanya Poehler and the Pharaohs
from Cairo to one another in the first place.
“We saw one another at other races through the years, and once you hear someone
say ‘Karo” instead of KYRO you know you’re in the presence of the locals. We
kind of snowballed, collecting more at each race.”
For the last five years, the Pharaohs have made the trip to Lincoln for the
Market to Market relay.
“Our former captain Peg was the first to sign us up. The race always sells out,
so we’ve always had to rely on the lottery to get in. Through some kind of
luck, we’ve always been able to secure a spot.”
The one thing they haven’t been lucky enough to secure in
years past was an early start time.
“We’ve always loved Market to Market, but we ended up with a lot stacked
against us. We generally always ended up with a late start time. Late starts
are probably great for people who are fast, but that’s not us! We don’t run it
competitively, and sometimes we would have a sub who wasn’t as prepared for the
race. Sometimes the weather slowed us down. There were a lot of legs we were
doing the handoff pretty much alone.”
The energy of the crowd is what makes Market to Market worth putting on year after year. We use that energy to power all of our events, and if you’re missing the crowd, you’re missing Market to Market.
“This year, we landed an early start time. Like I said,
we’ve always enjoyed it, but this year was just different.”
“We started at 5:40 in the morning. Every leg, we were there with all of the
other runners. We got to enjoy all of the aspects of the run we had missed in
years past. We even ended up getting competitive on the last leg. There were
two other teams that were really close, and we were all going to run over the
finish line together, but something in me just got swept up! I couldn’t wait
for the team to join me, I had to get there before the other two teams. I took
off and crossed first!”
That last minute decision may not have resulted in a victorious team photo at
the finish line, but it did result in the Pharaohs setting a personal record.
“10 hours and 11 minutes. I’m so proud of us! And this year,
there was still so much energy at the end, and we finished early enough that we
were finally able to hang out at the after party. Pink Gorilla does so much to
make these events exciting and fun, and this year we really had the opportunity
to enjoy all of the touches that make these events great. It was the best year
yet!”
We are thankful for teams like the Pharaohs of KARRRRRRO who sign up year after
year, bringing the fun that makes this event great for us all! We can’t wait to
see you all next year!