Wonderful explanation, especially the very last part! Summarized very succinctly!

yes and no, there is actually a specified timeline of the universe's expansion down to the minute and even the second(or less than second lol). let me see if i can find the one that I was taught on... ok, so on second thought... Obviously I can't just upload a book to reddit, but the graphic and explanation in this link is similar enough to my understanding that i'm trusting it to teach you. https://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_bigbang_timeline.html

basically, it cannot be said that the universe expanded at the speed of light for multiple reasons:

one being the universe didn't expand, it is currently expanding. It never stopped, we can measure it right now if we wanted to and if we were rich enough. I had to specify that first because if I didn't I would be allowing you to be misled.

two, being it entirely depends on which distance away from us (or Planck's constant, which was the very beginning of the very beginning, meaning it is currently impossible for us to measure anything before it occurred because it was the beginning of time as we know it) and at what point in time you are measuring. If we measured a galaxy next to us right now, it would not be expanding away from us at the speed of light because the distance between us is way smaller, but if we were to measure a galaxy on the other-side of the universe it would most likely be expanding away from us past the speed of light because the distance is *impossible to comprehend*. Keep in mind speed is just distance/time, and so is unfortunately not very helpful in this specific example... i'm actually pretty unwell rn so if this explanation makes absolutely zero sense, I sincerely apologize, I tried my best and if you have further questions I will try my best again to clarify.

I'd hazard a hypothesis and say it's because of the noses extra pressure sensitivity, when your nose is hit (the outward center of your sinuses, which connects either directly or indirectly every sensory organ in your head) the rapid pressure change is sensed along with the standard impact and pain. whats happening is two senses are being activated at once, versus being punched in the side of your face really only activates one type of sense, being "standard" pain, think of it like when you're eating and you can smell the food so the food is far more delicious. When you cannot smell the food you are eating, the flavor is much more mild and the experience is less rich because only one sense is being activated. when both are activated your brain combines the sensory information into one experience and makes it far more enjoyable, same with the nose being hit, two senses versus one being activated, so the experience is far stranger and almost has a third "dimension" to the pain.