Olympic Day Fun Run

Olympic Day is celebrated all around the world including here in the Federated States of Micronesia. Saturday morning fun runs launched in all four states of the FSM, including Pohnpei. Digging through my t-shirt collection my oldest Olympic Day shirt dates to 1998 - there have been at least a dozen years of Olympic day runs here on Pohnpei.

Olympic Day is based on the three pillars "move", "learn" and "discover. The event today included Upward Bound students who are attending an in-residence summer program, spending their summer learning, discovering, and moving.

My son finished faster than in any previous event, clocking in not more than two minutes behind me at around thirty-three minutes. He was pushed to his personal by aunt Limat, who ran side-by-side with him giving him encouragement. She remains an inspiration to me, and seeing the two of them running side-by-side brought me great personal joy.
My daughter also clocked a fast personal time of fifty-one minutes. I was a tad slow at 30:44. A drop at the turn-around forced me to rerun the turn-around. What with the drop, I also paused for a photo opportunity with Sokeh's rock as a backdrop. Still, that was not even a minute, so I was slower than I have been. Maybe I can blame summer doldrums and thicker air.
Rendy the run winner, my daughter, and former student and now father of running team runners, Bolkario. Rendy too noted that his time was not where he wanted it to be - so maybe there was something in the air this morning. A convective cell producing thunder and cloudy skies made the run dark with the air temperature at the dew point - saturating humidity.
On the back of the shirt an interesting sponsor emblem for us out here: McDonald's. McDonald's is an official sponsor the Olympic games through 2012 and supports Olympic efforts in 201 countries through this partnership. The FSM is eligible for support although there are no McDonald's located in the nation ranked second for percent of the population with a body mass index above 25.
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