a school marathon!!
so my story of success starts with a young, middle school girl with eyes alight and shining with hopes of doing well during her very first season on the cross country team. she started running, slowly, barely making it two miles. throughout her high school cross country career, she ran through ups and downs - figurativally and on the course. those difficult and nearly impossible - seeming two miles streched to six a day before it was all over and done with. or so she thought . . .
of course the girl of which i'm speaking is myself. i was a runner during my school years. what i didn't know wasn't over and done with was the running bug coursing through the blood in my veins. through the several years since graduation, in various phases and cycles of my life, i've, at times, freshly felt the bite of the running bug, inspiring and spurning me on to hit the pavement once again.
well, that bug bit me almost the moment i arrived in japan last year in 2004. and then this year, when the weather changed from horrible to fabulous and i revved up my motivation, my old, dirty, beat-up running shoes pounded my previous running paths. this time, however, is a little different. for the first time since high school, i've wanted to keep it up for longer than a couple of months. perhaps, like other sayings, once you're a runner, you're always a runner. it's in my blood, just like traveling. the feeling of being out there on your own, in the zone, and listening to your music is close to unbeatable. if you run for long enough, your second wind kicks in, creating a natural high - yet clean and extremely good. your body feels so strong when you run for distance, during, and in particular, after.
soon it will be too cold to run outside, like it almost is now, and then it will be impossible, due to the snow, until next april or may next year. i'm going to miss it i know.
it just so happens that, in japan, every elementary, middle, and high school has an annual 'marathon'. it starts with 800 meters or so for the youngest kids, and by the time the kids hit high schools, that 800 meters has stretched into several kilometers.
out of all the schools in the joetusu city region, my schools runs the longest distance. and i rather like that! the boys were originally supposed to run 17 kilometers (story to ensue), and the girls, 13 kilometers. and according to my trusty ole' favorite converter site, 17 kilometers is 10.563 miles, and 13 kilometers is 8.078 miles. and i was ready! i was excited. i'd been running since june of this summer. last year i didn`t run at either of my schools because i was at the opposite school each time they decided to have the marathon.
as soon as i found out the marathon was coming in the fall, i started doing one long run a week. now, i'm not talking about running super long runs, like actual marathon lengths, but i was running nonstop for about an hour and anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes. it felt so good.
and then the runner's nightmare happened. i got shin splints. shin splints affect you heavily, with shooting pains exploding in your shins (hence the name) every time your foot comes into contact with the ground. this go round - i'm a pro when it comes to having shin splints - it was very painful from my ankles to my knees.
thus, i had to quit running for a while so as to heal my strained ligaments. with a small break, i recovered enough to run a little before the marathon - pain free - enough times to be prepared for the school marathon. i was pumped!
the marathon was postponed due to torential rains, and we finally had it on a friday instead of wednesday. the courses, however, were changed because there wasn't enough teachers to cover all the checkpoints (those teachers had business trips that day). it turns out the boys would run the girl's course, and it was shortened to 12 kilometers; the girls would only run 10 kilometers. i decided i would run with the boys - 7.456 miles - because i was prepared for that.
and the results - drum roll please . . . . i came in 150th out of 220 boys total in an hour and 15 minutes. and i beat several girls running a much shorter distance (parts of the course were converged, including the ending kilometers). yes! it felt great.
i hadn't seen the course beforehand, but if i had, i feel like i could have done it faster. i held off too much in the beginning, pacing myself, trying not to burn out. if i knew the course, i would have known where to pace and where to speed up. oh well. there's always next year. . . .
the finish line at the school
I had to take pictures down from this post.
of course the girl of which i'm speaking is myself. i was a runner during my school years. what i didn't know wasn't over and done with was the running bug coursing through the blood in my veins. through the several years since graduation, in various phases and cycles of my life, i've, at times, freshly felt the bite of the running bug, inspiring and spurning me on to hit the pavement once again.
well, that bug bit me almost the moment i arrived in japan last year in 2004. and then this year, when the weather changed from horrible to fabulous and i revved up my motivation, my old, dirty, beat-up running shoes pounded my previous running paths. this time, however, is a little different. for the first time since high school, i've wanted to keep it up for longer than a couple of months. perhaps, like other sayings, once you're a runner, you're always a runner. it's in my blood, just like traveling. the feeling of being out there on your own, in the zone, and listening to your music is close to unbeatable. if you run for long enough, your second wind kicks in, creating a natural high - yet clean and extremely good. your body feels so strong when you run for distance, during, and in particular, after.
soon it will be too cold to run outside, like it almost is now, and then it will be impossible, due to the snow, until next april or may next year. i'm going to miss it i know.
it just so happens that, in japan, every elementary, middle, and high school has an annual 'marathon'. it starts with 800 meters or so for the youngest kids, and by the time the kids hit high schools, that 800 meters has stretched into several kilometers.
out of all the schools in the joetusu city region, my schools runs the longest distance. and i rather like that! the boys were originally supposed to run 17 kilometers (story to ensue), and the girls, 13 kilometers. and according to my trusty ole' favorite converter site, 17 kilometers is 10.563 miles, and 13 kilometers is 8.078 miles. and i was ready! i was excited. i'd been running since june of this summer. last year i didn`t run at either of my schools because i was at the opposite school each time they decided to have the marathon.
as soon as i found out the marathon was coming in the fall, i started doing one long run a week. now, i'm not talking about running super long runs, like actual marathon lengths, but i was running nonstop for about an hour and anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes. it felt so good.
and then the runner's nightmare happened. i got shin splints. shin splints affect you heavily, with shooting pains exploding in your shins (hence the name) every time your foot comes into contact with the ground. this go round - i'm a pro when it comes to having shin splints - it was very painful from my ankles to my knees.
thus, i had to quit running for a while so as to heal my strained ligaments. with a small break, i recovered enough to run a little before the marathon - pain free - enough times to be prepared for the school marathon. i was pumped!
the marathon was postponed due to torential rains, and we finally had it on a friday instead of wednesday. the courses, however, were changed because there wasn't enough teachers to cover all the checkpoints (those teachers had business trips that day). it turns out the boys would run the girl's course, and it was shortened to 12 kilometers; the girls would only run 10 kilometers. i decided i would run with the boys - 7.456 miles - because i was prepared for that.
and the results - drum roll please . . . . i came in 150th out of 220 boys total in an hour and 15 minutes. and i beat several girls running a much shorter distance (parts of the course were converged, including the ending kilometers). yes! it felt great.
i hadn't seen the course beforehand, but if i had, i feel like i could have done it faster. i held off too much in the beginning, pacing myself, trying not to burn out. if i knew the course, i would have known where to pace and where to speed up. oh well. there's always next year. . . .
the finish line at the school
I had to take pictures down from this post.
posted by Unknown at 5:14 PM
5 Comments:
That's a fully pictured blog a? I wish I had the patience to make 1 of these... Some cool insights on the japanese culture, too. Enjoy yourself and keep blogging!
fuck liz, im impressed. Well done you!
thanks guys! paulo, where are you writing from?
Sorry, Liz, was thoroughly searching on Harry Potter's sessions at the theaters in Niigata when your blog came out... Had to spy it a bit. Talking from Niigata City, but'd rather be at Joetsu - closer to the mountains and snowboard fields - solid snowfallings already?
what are you doing in niigata city? snow fell a little yesterday, but not today. it's coming. . . so we can snowboard soon - yes!!
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