Wind, rain, and smoke on COMFSM 5k
On Friday I had been honored by my colleagues and my students by being named both Faculty of the Year and winner of the Student's Choice award. I felt embarrassed at the accolades, making two trips to the podium.
The next morning was the College of Micronesia-FSM 5k fun run. I joined along with my three children, the college, and the community for a morning of exercise and fun.
I was running and juggling, an activity known as joggling. I do not have fancy "auto-squish" joggling balls, I just use three tennis balls.
Although the past two runs have seen me finish in under thirty minutes, wind, rain, and smoke would contribute to a time over thirty minutes.
Outbound at the start my youngest was in front of me, a first, and I came alongside her at weather station hill. This was the first time I was not in front of her from the get go. She was running with a determination I had never seen before, and moving fast. I ran with her for a while, encouraging her, and feeling a tinge of regret as my pace carried me past her.
The route was the "lower route" here on Pohnpei, out onto the causeway, where the gusty and bouncy wind wreaked havoc with my airborne orbs. The wind was an east wind which put Nett Point ridge into play, creating the pulsing wind waves that come from wind being lifted over the ridge and then coming back down onto the water and then bouncing across the Nett lagoon and the causeway. This hits as a cross-wind, quartering tail outbound, quartering headwind inbound.
The wind, a water stop, and runner cross-traffic, and cars made the turn-around complex. Traffic was heavier than normal and I made a mental note that one should not hold a run on the Saturday of both mother's day Sunday and FSM Constitution day Monday.
Inbound my motion added to the apparent wind speed, and I dropped my tennis balls many times, both onesies and twosies, but no nuclear meltdowns. Still, keeping the three spheres under control and restarting multiple times left me winded. The tree canopy enclosed windless hill up to Spanish wall was a relief. Joggling up hills in no wind is easier than joggling on flat terrain with a gusty cross-wind.
Southbound on main street rain hit the course, adding greatly to the number of objects in the air. Turning at Namiki, I was oxygen deprived when I hit a patch of dense, acrid, early morning uhm smoke. A perfect triple of wind, rain, and smoke.
I finished in 30:34, slow but fast enough to be the first male faculty member across the finish line. This would bring me back to the podium for a third time in twenty-four hours, a humbling triple.
My son came in second at 38:13 with his older sister just behind him at 38:43.
My youngest built on her fast start to finish in a lifetime personal best of 42:15. This was twelve minutes faster than her January time. Knocking twelve minutes off of a 5k time is not something most runners expect to accomplish, there is a joy in those beginning years when huge gains are still possible without effort. The run had its impact, however, as her foot was sore from her zori and she had pulled off her zori. Fortunately she has semi-local feet.
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