Sonmin Undokai (Adult Sports Day)

[picture #1: Zamami students finish their eisa performance]
[picture #2: Geruma (foreground) en route to a surprise tug-of-war win over Aka, an island five times their size]

As part of my continued marathon training I had to wake up and do a 15k at race pace this morning, which meant either (a) my legs were tired or (b) my legs were stretched out for the 5k I was favored to win at sports day. My legs didn't care because their pace lost everybody by 2k in the race. I maintained a solid pace the rest of the way to win by over a minute amidst a raucous crowd. I get a lot more crowd support than most because I know the student and teacher population of all five teams. (Zamami is broken into its three villages: Ama, Zamami proper, and Asa, and then there's Geruma and Aka islands.) Though I felt fast I was disappointed with my time of 19:43.

I also competed on the men's 800m relay team. Our first runner had a slim lead over Aka island, but tripped and fell 150m into his 200m leg and lost significant ground. I was our third runner and only had the distance to the Aka leader to close, which I easily halved, but our anchor (4th runner) was a bit slow (and he had already thrown up after the 5k). It would've been a tight race without the fall.

My 5k win brought some fame I was hoping to attain, especially with the old people and the single ladies. I had a number of 'congratulations' handshakes all afternoon and, after the results were announced (Zamami won over Aka by a slim margin), 'arigato goizamasu's.' I didn't understand why people were thanking me until it was explained that the points gained in my win are what put Zamami in the lead - and since I was Zamami's only individual event winner (and the 5k garnered the most points), it was natural to credit me. I didn't complain, until I had to give two speeches. I gave them both in English (one was translated), since that was really the only option. I talked about how cool Sonmin Undokai was and that we don't have anything like it in the States that brings out such complete participation.

In the evening we had a concert at the port that was the first of a November weekend series. It was the same taiko, eisa, hula, and music performances that I've seen many times, but I don't tire of it and neither do the hundred community members (plus tourists) who turn out.