Japan and Marathon

Hi everyone! I'm happy to be writing on my regular blog site today as I am still in Japan and outside the Great Firewall of China. Yesterday I ran the Lake Kawaguchi marathon in Japan right beneath Mt. Fuji. First off, I am very sad to say that I do not have a photo of the mountain. Our first morning there the sky was clear and sunny and we did get a look at the beautiful snow-covered peak for a few hours. But silly me, I was waiting for some better lighting later in the day to take a picture and by the time I got my camera out, the clouds rolled in and never lifted during the rest of our stay.

But actually, that's ok because overcast skies on race day is every runner's dream. Well, at least it's my dream because I don't like running with sunglasses and I do like cooler temperatures (it was about 40 degrees fahrenheit). Lake Kawaguchi is a very quaint little lakeside town and I was very surprised at the huge turnout for this race. As it turns out, it is the only marathon in Japan that does not require a qualifying time. There were 3 distance runs: the full marathon, a 27km run, and an 11km fun run. For all three races they had about 14,000 people, 800 non-Japanese coming from 18 different countries.

Russ and the boys came along and made an excellent support team. The marathon course did a little out-and-back jaunt through the town and then twice around the lake, so the guys hung out in a spot where I got to pass them two times during the run and then again at the finish. They were real troopers to hang out such a long time on a cold morning and cheer me on. The day before we had bought a few bags of mini candy bars for the boys to hand out to the runners, so that kept them busy and made it a little more fun for them.

My run went really well. That distance is always hard and my legs were completely exhausted by the end, but I feel I finished stronger than in my first two marathons. I only stopped once and that was to go to the bathroom in the eighth mile. I'm still kicking myself for wasting the time standing in line for the toilet instead of squatting in the bushes somewhere - I don't know what came over me. That wasted about 5 minutes so I tried to make up the time by picking up the pace for a while and I didn't stop (not even to walk) for the entire rest of the race. They haven't posted the official race results yet, but I finished somewhere around 3 hours, 45 minutes - a personal best! Very happy.

Despite the fact that Mt. Fuji was completely obliterated by the clouds, the scenery was beautiful. We were running on small country roads and lakeside paths lined with trees that were still holding onto their late autumn colors. It's been five years since I've seen any fall foliage and I found it very inspiring. And it's a good thing, because the spectators were not very inspiring, I'm sorry to say. I think the Japanese are just too polite and restrained to get you really pumped up, but they did try. Many of the locals set out their own little stations offering candy and snacks and shouts of "ganbatte!" ("Keep going! Do your best!"). My favorite cheering section was a big group of traditional Japanese drummers.

So with all the race logistics and travel (Kawaguchiko is a three hour train ride from the airport on three different trains), we haven't had much chance to be tourists. But I can tell that Japan is very different than China. The Japanese are so polite and smile so much more than the Chinese. They are also much more chatty. In China, once they realize you don't speak the language (in fact, they usually just assume that from the get-go), they just go into a point and grunt mode. Why bother trying to speak at all? But the Japanese, from cab drivers to cashiers, keep up a constant chatter, seeming undeterred by the fact that we can't understand a single word. So we just smile and bow and go on our way.

We are in Tokyo tonight and heading back to Shanghai tomorrow, so check in Wednesday for new pictures on my website.