When I first saw the banner proclaiming that a 5K fun run/walk was scheduled for an upcoming Saturday morning I was quite intrigued. A few locals walk at the track but I had never seen a Micronesian out for a morning or evening jog. As a general rule, the Micronesian body type isn’t built for running. To refer to them as stocky would be kind.
The parking lot was already full and people milled about when I arrived for the 7:00 AM race. Perhaps there were 150 people, its hard to say – my perspective on what constitutes a crowd has undoubtedly been altered during the time I’ve been on island.
Many people take the term ‘fun run/walk’ literally. Others use the event as an opportunity to forget that years or even decades have passed since a high school coach barked encouragement from the side of a track. I fall into the latter category. I always expect the simple process of lining up at the starting line to take inches off my waist and put hair back on my head. It doesn’t.
As I looked right and left I saw a mixed crowd that included the very young and the very old. The race was sponsored by the local college so a smattering of youthfulness was mixed in. Just like what often happens in races in the U.S., pint-sized participants clogged the starting line. They are a road hazard worse than potholes and cause one to run gingerly for the first few hundred yards until the crowd thins out and the risk of tripping over one of them decreases.
At the quarter mile mark a few of these munchkins were still running surprisingly strong. Generally, this can be a little demoralizing to the over-the-hill jock like myself. To make matters worse, the sound of these kids running is the all too familiar thumbing sound of flip-flops smacking the pavement. Yes, some of these kids run in flip flops (or zorries as they are called locally).
Zorries are the national shoe of Micronesia. They are worn everywhere. I wear them to work. Old ladies in dresses wear them to church on Sunday. I even once saw a kid wearing them while snorkeling. If Micronesia ever sends a man to the moon, that astronaut will be wearing zorries. A magical substance keeps the zorries firmly attached to the bottom of a Micronesian foot and, as a result, they can perform any task without having the zorrie slip off the foot.
Five or so minutes into the race the zorrie parade finally started to recede which lifted my spirits considerably. For the next two miles I only had to contend with the gravitational forces of the equator. I have found that gravity is stronger near the equator and therefore it takes considerably more energy to lift a foot and push it forward. Gravity plus the heat and humidity, which was probally in the 80 to 90 percent range, presented their challenges but I plodded my way towards the finish line finishing in a time of 24:12 which I think placed me about 15th among all competitors.
Only the first place finisher in each age category was recognized and I was competing in the large and tough 18 to 49 age bracket. My bracket was won by an American who just three seasons ago was still running on his college cross country team.
Some prizes were raffled away after the race and each prize was really two prizes. For example, someone won a cell phone and a 20 pound bag of rice. The grand prize winner won a television and a 20 pound bag of rice. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, rice is a staple of the Micronesian diet.
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