Ohayo. Ohayo. New Jersey.

If you know me, you know that I often say that  I go running, but what those runs amount to is never anything to write home about.  Well it looks like Justin may be turning a new leaf in actually being able to run.  Today, my junior high school had its “marathon.”  In this “marathon,” there were two options: a 6 km course or a 10 km course.  Coming in to school this morning I had no that this was happening.  I heard marathon mentioned during the morning announcements and what I can only assume was concern over the fact that it was raining.  But once all the students started to gather in front of the school, I started to figure out that the big race was today.

Throughout the week, the students trained by going on 6 km runs during their gym time.  Now this is the ENTIRE school, not just the cross country running kids.  This is what I found to be so impressive.  Back when I was in middle school, the longest we ever had to run was just 20 minutes (oh Friday run, how I despised thee).  Unless the student had some sort of prohibitive injury, they would do the 6 km even if they had to walk the entire time.  So today, as we gathered outside to prepare for the start of the race, the rain started to stop and we were left with ideal running conditions: an overcast sky and a cool temperature.  As the 10 km group took off, I thought, “Gee wouldn’t it be great if one of the teachers ran along with the students, just for inspiration?”  Then the 6 km group was gathered to start and I noticed that none of the teachers were running—they had to be strategically placed to provide directions along the course.  Then I had another thought, “6 km really isn’t that bad.  I should go ahead and do it.” 

And so I ran home (right next to the school), changed into appropriate running gear, and took off about five minutes after the official start of the 6 km group.  Now since I’ve been in Japan, I’ve been running a grand total of four times.  None of which were even close to 6 km.  I have done upwards to 13 miles in one go, but that was ages ago.  Nonetheless, I was able to catch up with the students and make a decent go of it.  I think I did it in around 33 minutes, which isn’t impressive, but it’s not bad.  My favorite part was running up next to the unsuspecting students and surprising them (bikuri!).  I think they appreciated it and I was even able to motivate some of the walkers into running, at least for a little bit.  I was pretty happy with myself and I think I impressed the teachers as well for diving in.  I’ll have to shoot for the 10 km next year.