Race Day!

Race day. The time has finally come to celebrate the 5 months of training our athletes have endured and race. As coaches it's hard not to be nervous. In a place where preparing months in advance for, well, almost anything is counter-cultural it has been an uphill battle at times. We have had to teach our athletes patience, dedication and hard work. Do we think we have succeeded in teaching them these values...some days yes...most days no :)...but we try our best. Additionally, as women coaches we have had challenges with gender power imbalances...but once again, we keep pushing forward. Perhaps most nerve-racking is how visible we will be at the track meet. Every other team has been practicing for maybe three weeks so if we get beat tomorrow (due solely to natural talent) people will talk about how we "wasted our (and our athletes') time." Any chance to discount something as crazy as training for months will be utilized. I keep telling myself that our athletes are strong and, if they don't give up, they will persevere. We'll see! Currently Michaela and I are getting our hair put into full braids...just a little pre-meet debauchery. Here are a couple stories to highlight different challenges and cultural barriers that we have endured (below).

Track Team Drama: It is crazy how much pride and the need to win affect things on this island. Unfortunately our track team has been victim to this self-centered pride. There is a group of old men with high titles that will do anything to protect their egos. Historically Kitti, another municipality in Pohnpei, has always won the Championship Week Track and Field meet (this is our big race). However, Michaela and I have been training our athletes for 5 months now and everyone is talking about how PICS 1(our team) is going to beat Kitti this year. We have had Kitti coaches and athletes come observe practice and a few experiences of coaches (who fall into the "high title, older men" category) cheating. For example, Kitti has really strong sprinters but they are lacking strong distance runners so at the track meeting they decided that each team could only enter TWO athletes in the 1500, while every other event would allow FOUR athletes from each team. Kitti knew that we would get all of the points in the 1500 so they just limited the Field. What sucks most about this is how it affects the athletes. We have two athletes who have been training with us for MONTHS and now will be unable to run at the meet because of the old men's decision to limit the 1500. It's disappointing how winning supersedes letting athletes compete. We even asked if they could have a heat that didn't count towards team points (just so the athletes could at least run) but they wouldn't allow it.

Another ridiculous attempt at cheating happened last week. We had started training an athlete (McCaffrey) in October. Initially he was far from being a "stand out" athlete. He was uncoordinated in sprint drills and his running form was all over the place (Michaela and I enjoyed many "secret" laughs watching him struggle through the drills...horrible, I know!). He didn't make the "varsity" team last year; however, over the last 5 months he has been extremely dedicated to our training regimen and to our surprise he is currently tied as our #1 runner. He is FAST! If there was ever a success story from our training, it's McCaffrey. Anyway, we had a time trial last Thursday and McCaffrey wasn't there. Later we found out that the "JV" coach, who McCaffrey had ran for last year, decided to "take him back." McCaffrey is a really nice kid who can't say "no" to much of anything so when the JV coach approached him and said, "so you're running with us, right?" McCaffrey just shrugged his shoulders, which was interpreted as a "yes." Michaela approached the JV coach about this and he said (a complete lie), that McCaffrey had come up to him and asked to be on the JV team. He said that he thought we were training McCaffrey this entire time for his team. This could not be any further from the truth. Grant it, yes, if we would have known from the start that McCaffrey was going to run for the JV team we still would have trained him (we're here for the kids, first). However, because we thought he was with us, we centered our team around him. Can you even imagine this happening in the states? A coach trains an athlete for 5 months and then another coach steps in (one week before the competition) and persuades him to join his team (hopefully this hasn't happened to any of you coaches!)?? The JV coach hasn't even lifted a finger to coach his team yet. They have had maybe two practices and the meet is this tomorrow. It seems like he was just planning on throwing a team together at the last second and stealing our top runners (he also tried to take one of our girls). Luckily, we were able to talk to him civilly and get our athletes back. CRAZY.

Another track story is regarding our athletes' biggest fear during the competition. They aren't afraid of "bonking," which is basically running out of steam during a race, pulling a muscle or having poor weather conditions. No, no, no. They are terrified of black magic. Supposedly Kitti uses a lot of black magic that can make people slow, sick, have rashes, go insane or even die. It has gotten so bad that some of our athletes' parents won't let their kids run because of black magic. They wholeheartedly believe in it and if we don't win the track meet, I know they are going to think it was because Kitti used black magic. They say that only a few people know how to do it, but apparently they will be sitting on the bleachers whispering spells and pointing at people in attempts to help Kitti win.

"Broken Balls" (yes, I"m going to go there...these stories just have to be told): So, cultural difference, and I'm just going to put this right out there without beating around the bush: there is a culture difference when it comes to talking about one's testicles to a person of the opposite sex, a teacher, or a coach. I have now had two young men come up to me and talk about their "broken balls" since I have been here. The first was a student. He came into my office, limping, and asked me if he could miss class. When I asked him why (big mistake) he looked around the room, leaned in, and whispered, "my balls." I was so taken off guard that I stumbled through some follow-up questions, which I should have just avoided, and pushed him out the door! When I asked the student what happened, he just took his hands and first cupped them in a way to symbolized "normal sized"...testicles... and then he gradually began to move his hands further and further apart to symbolize them "swelling." The best part was, I (his teacher) was having a terrible time keeping a straight face, while he was completely serious. TOO MUCH INFORMATION! The minute he left my office I just put my head in my hands, shook my head, and laughed.

The second "broken balls" incident happened last week with an athlete. I saw him after practice and he appeared to be in pain. So (of course) I asked him how he was. He looked at me and just shook his head. I then asked if he was injured/sore ("madok"). He simply replied, "Not good." I looked at him, concerned (he's one of our toughest distance runners) and asked why (big mistake). He then replied (in tattered English), "I am hurt in the balls." I stopped (tried not to smile) and said, "Wait, what? (yet another mistake on my part)" and he replied, "my balls, they are not good." Again, I was caught off guard and rather than just saying, "okay...make sure you rest," and running away, I continued to asked how it happened (WHY MEGHAN???). He said that an enemy kicked them and that they really hurt. I was obviously uncomfortable, so I quickly tried to give him some ungrounded advice to try and wrap up the "balls talk"...."Uh...do you have...um...Tylenol? You should take that...and..hmm...elevate your legs(???), maybe(???)...do you have access to ice (???!!!???!!)...it might help to ice (ouch!) (???!!!)." He took my advice and went home. The next day he reported that his balls were a little bit better. Wonderful.

So life has been VERY interesting in Pohnpei as of lately! I'll try to send an update after tomorrow with some pictures from the meet and of Michaela and my braided hair!