Well, I did it. I ran my first 10K road race. Actually, this was my first race ever. I'm happy to say it was a lot of fun. Several of the English teachers participated (Jared, Denise, Adam) and several more came to cheer us on (Patti, Hannah, Jeni, Trish, and Randy). I never would have done it except for an English teacher (Japanese) who I work with was willing to run it as well (also a newbie to running). Both of us have been doing some light running, and we thought it was a good goal. He (F. sensei) said it best when he said, "We already accomplished 50% of this when we decided to actually do it and registered...now we just have to run." Still, we were nervous...and cold. It was nice for a run, but not ideal conditions. Pretty cold (12 deg. C) and windy. We were pretty nervous, too, as many of the runners were rather obviously at a different level (like professional marathon level). We were really nervous. But this is only part of the story.Students from my school (Funechu) and many other neighboring schools, adults from the community, parents...sports teams...it seemed like everybody did something for this event (1K walk, 3K, 5K, 10K). It was really fun to watch my students and yell, "Gambatte!" (Go for it!/Try hard!). So we took lots of pictures. Also, the whole thing kicked off with a really cool Taiko drum performance.
So, how did I do? I placed 25 out of 44 in my age group (21 - 40 year old). My time was 47:25. Not bad for a first try. The 10K's oldest runner was 71, and youngest was 15. Lot's of fun. Check out the pics and videos in the WebAlbum.
