about a week before the JAL chitose marathon

so, only nine days to go before the JAL chitose marathon which starts at 10.10am on june 7th and i fully expect anyone who reads this to be thinking of rie and me then!

we have dropped down our training a lot recently and i am hoping that the increased rest will enable our tired muscles to get some well-deserved rest before next weekend. there will be about 3000 men and 500 women running the full marathon so there should be plenty of people to sympathise with us along the way! there are also plenty of water stations (and first aid posts), which is good news as it could easily be pretty warm.

it's been quite windy recently too, so i am praying for a nice cool, calm morning on sunday 7th!

loving running in sapporo

so my wife and i have moved to sapporo for a few months and running up here is like running on a different planet compared to nagoya. of course it is cooler, although nagoya has not yet reached the disguisting weather of summer, but more than that it is beautiful and so clean. don't get me wrong, japan is clean everywhere in terms of rubbish and dog poo and so on, but sapporo is beautiful and the air is so clean. in japanese they say "the air is delicious" and it really is. so crisp and not full of smog or pollution.

plus rie and i found a cycling road that runs from the centre of town for about 20km out into the countryside. this is not a cycling road that runs next to a road with cars on, but simply a path that winds it's way through trees, fields and countryside with very few traffic lights (i think there are 3 on the whole track) and, more importantly, no cars! there are a few bikers and runners and people walking, but it is not crowded.

also, everyone up here is so friendly. everyone says hello to each when they run passed. in nagoya i had one running friend (as in we greeted each other as we passed) and everyone else kind of looked the other way. here it is amazing.

so we are running a lot. rie and i run together three times a week and i add on two or three more runs myself. we are preparing for a half-marathon next week and a full marathon in june. but i feel like i have totally rediscovered the joy of running again. lovely. so peaceful, so quiet, no need to always be looking out for cars or lights... it is a runner's heaven.

the asics running shop

so as you know i bought some asics tarther running shoes a while ago. the gave the inspiration for the name of this blog. well, today i went to the asics running shop that recently opened in sapporo and had my feet scanned and checked and then did some running on the treadmill, which was filmed and played back to me.

amazing stuff. turns out that for some reason (probably because of a broken knee, ankle and foot on my left leg!) i lean more heavily on my right foot. i also have really narrow feet and the guy recommended that i buy slim model shoes from now on. it also turned out that my shoes that i have are about half a size too big. no problem for regular training, as i wear normal socks, but when i where my skinny socks in races it could explain why my feet get blisters.

anyway, it was a great experience and rie and naomi loved laughing at how excited i became. i decided i want to own a running shop in the future!!!