Wait, Didn't I Just Do This?

Thursday evening I went to Krämer's to celebrate the birthday of Lori, one of the AGs. There was a lot of regulars including most of the AGs. Rene and Jane provided a chocolate graham cracker cake with coconut that was tasty. Eventually, some of the AGs left and I began talking with Sarah, one of the Peace Corp volunteers here doing turtle conservation work. She was chatting with a reef conservationist visiting Palau doing survey work on Palau's reefs. He is currently living on New Caledonia, so we talked a bit about island living and comparisons between the two and back home. Sarah decided to leave because she was going to run a 5K race the next morning. I was a littel surprised since it would be Friday morning, but she said it was PCC Charter day. Then, knowing I had run the PPR relay last weekend, she proceeded to twist my arm (figuratively, thankfully) to get me to show up at the race. Needless to say I was a little dubious, especially since I would have to wake up at 4:30 am to get to the PCC track in time. By the time I got home it was nearly midnight, but I decided I might as well run.

Just as I had less than a week ago, I awoke while it was still dark and got ready to run. As I drove to the track it was raining, but that is only a minor inconvenience in Palau. When I reached the track I didn't see many people, but I found an organizer and they put me in a truck to take me to the start of the race at the KB Bridge. When we arrived there was a surprising number of people, at least a hundred, standing under the bridge to stay out of the rain. Many were PCC students and I recognized others from the previous race. The President was participating in the race, so we waited until his arrival to start the race. As if on cue, it stopped raining and we took off. The course was the Bridge to PCC, the same course I raced last weekend. Naturally, it wasn't exactly a 5K and was closer to 6K. There were definite moments where I had deja vu all over again. The first half of the race I felt great and kept a good pace running with Sarah (who would eventually win the women's division). I was very strong up the hill to topside. After that I started running out of gas and I began to slow. The last kilometer the previous evening festivities and improper hydration caught up to me and caused a cramp in my side. I had to slow down and three people passed me, but I kept running and finished without stopping. Despite slowing at the end, I still finished ninth overall. I haven't finished that high in a race since high school. There are very few true distance runners in Palau, so mostly these races are won by expats. After recovering, I took my t-shirt reward and got home about a quarter to seven. All that effort and my day was just beginning. I went to work just like any day and did my best to stay awake. After work it was our regular frisbee game and I had hoped to take it easy but I ended up running a lot. That night I was exhausted and collapsed into bed.