Independence Day Marathon

October 1 was Palau's 13th Independence Day and to celebrate they had festivities all last weekend. On Saturday morning, I participated in the Independence Day Marathon. Palauans have a habit of calling any run a "marathon" when they are usually much shorter than an actual marathon. Being mostly word of mouth, I really didn't know the exact distance before I arrived at the PCC track early Saturday morning. I met up with Sarah at the track and we found out the run would be an eight mile run to the northern tip of Babeldaob. Buses drove us up the west side to the causeway in Ngaraard State. From there it is eight miles to Ollei, the dock at the end of Ngarchelong where I've stopped a few times on the way to Kayangel.

At the small dock next to the causeway, we had about 25 runners ready to participate. A few of the Bangladeshi workers who typically participate in these runs surprisingly showed up because they are Muslim and are fasting as part of Ramadan. Still, with no food and little water in their system they were going to run the race. We got started about 6:30 am and the beginning of the race was nearly all steep hills. Sarah and I ran together and kept a good pace. We soon separated ourselves from most of the field and were off by ourselves. With no one else around, we could have easily been off for a job by ourselves and not running a race.

The course wound nearly continuously uphill through Ngaraard village and then over the border into Ngarchelong. The views from the road were beautiful because it is a peninsula and at times the ocean was visible on both sides. I ran very well over the first half of the course and felt really strong, but the constant hills wore me out. Frisbee is great sprint training, but I don't do much endurance training. About 5-6 miles in I was tiring and couldn't keep Sarah's pace anymore, so she went ahead and I slowed a bit. I kept plodding along and made it through Ngarchelong village and then down to Ollei. I finished fifth in 1:11:30. One of the Bangladeshi workers was the next to finish three minutes behind me and with the state he was in I was surprised he didn't pass out. I received a t-shirt and a small towel as a reward.

After the race, I hung around chatting with Sarah and a few other peace corps volunteers. Later in the morning, there was a bike race from the Capitol to Ollei. Phil was participating, but was confused on the time and started an hour earlier by himself. He arrived at Ollei well before the other racers and we all got a good laugh once he realized his mistake. Ceremonies were taking place a little later in the afternoon so we hung around during a brief heavy rainstorm.

The President is a passionate Harley fan and for the second year in row he invited a Guam biking group to come over and celebrate Independence Day by driving their motorcycles around the compact road. They arrived later in the morning with the President at the front of the biker group. We ate some Palauan food and had some really interesting crowd watching with the bikers mingling with the Palauans. By mid-afternoon we were tired, so Phil, Pete, and I hitched a ride back to Koror with some of the bicyclists.

Saturday night I went to the airport to welcome Carmen, the new court counsel, and her husband James. In a wild coincidence, Carmen and I had actually met before Palau. We both worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas three years ago while in law school. I didn't get to know her all that well then because we worked in different divisions, but she befriended Heather the other intern in my division. Heather told me that Carmen had applied for the job and I was thrilled when CJ hired Carmen. Erin, Ben, and I picked Carmen and James up at the airport and brought them to their new apartment in Malakal. Despite their long trip, they wanted to know more about Palau so we all went out for a small dinner and talked all about life in Palau. They were exhausted and I was exhausted, so we called it a night.