anyway, in the past two days I've run two races!! and hitchhiked for the first time ever, haha (shh don't tell my host mom!). I only entered the race on Sunday because it's only ten minutes away from my house and in the park that I run by every weekend. It also happened to be a track race, and we all know how much I loved running the two mile on the track...anywho I was running REALLY late, and the stadium I thought the race was at was the wrong one, so I stopped on the side of the road to ask these two old Japanese men the right direction. After glancing at the paper with the location (and noting I was supposed to be there to check-in in two minutes), one of them gestured to their car and offered to drive me there. (I did know where it was...it was just kind of far - so if he started driving me in the wrong direction I definitely would have known). So I get to the race safe and sound, (he even strikes up a conversation about the large yellow dust clouds blowing in from China), I find Nathaniel, and then find out that (a) I'm one of 3 girls in the 3000, and (b) males and females were running together and I was seeded in the fast heat. Lovely.
Long story short, I ran much better than I expected (first mile was a 6:30, final time 12:30 flat), so that was a happy surprise. Even better, I managed to not finish last in my heat - though I do have to admit that my main rival for that position was around the age of 14. Also, the 10-year old finished about half a lap ahead of me...*sigh*
Today's race was a bit different - for one, much longer! The Japanese really love running, which I at first found really surprising. But whereas in the US the vast majority of races are either 5k's or half/full marathons, in Japan they have all kinds of races. It's actually kind of hard to find anything shorter than a 10k. Anyway, the one I signed up for was a race based on time - basically you could sign up to run for 2,3, or 4 hours, or do an entire marathon. There's a 1.8km course, and you try to finish as many laps as possible within your time frame. Considering the longest run I have been on in the past 2.5 years is probably 4 miles, I was a little worried...but the weather did turn out to be beautiful, as was the park the race was in.
Long story short, it totally pays to be a girl runner in Japan. There were only five females in the 2 hour category, so I placed third! I got a snazzy certificate and some rice seasoning as a prize. :) I was actually in first after the first hour, but the way I decided to run the race was to do four fast miles with Nathaniel and then slow down/walk if need be to save my knee. I ended up running about 75 minutes before I gave up, walked for 25, and then ran the last lap. So I did 6 laps in the first hour and only two in the last, haha. But it was a lot of fun, and we met a Japanese guy who lived in America for a long time (fluent in English), to talk to for the first four miles. Any 'Heroes' watchers out there? Because his name was totally Hiro Nakamura.
sorry, I only have pictures of the awards because I forgot to put an SD card in my camera so the pictures of me running are saved to the internal memory, and of course I didn't bring the cord with me to Japan...
Anyway, sorry if this was long and boring! I was just really excited for my first races in Japan. Hopefully I'll get to do another one over Golden Week in Tokyo, where I will FINALLY get my T-shirt, muahaha.
3 comments:
YAYYYYY You did well in your race! :D
And you overcame the giant breakfast! Lol.
Your pic is awesome and worthy of being a profile pic. :)
Congrats Laura!
lolllllllllll
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