IrishOboe

I ran again in preparation for running with the boy’s tennis club, but what started as a push-yourself-a-little 40 minute run turned into a two hour adventure simply because you can’t get there from here. I crossed the bridge that I take to school but turned north instead of south with the plan of crossing the next bridge back and down. Well, the bridge turned out to be a highway with no pedestrian access so I had to go further to the next bridge (What? Turn back? Never!) and as I tried to make my way down the river bank the path stopped. I could go on factory property or climb the cliff or turn back. I almost did the first two, but chickened out and redoubled and went way out of the way before I could find a road back south. I couldn’t run the whole way and was very grateful to be back when I finally got home. It didn’t leave me with much time before church, though. It’s cases like these that make you appreciate the treadmill. Though on second thought, if I had a treadmill I wouldn’t have gone for a run in the first place . . .

Anyway, I rested on Monday and ran a good distance (about 50min 4 miles with a stop in a sporting goods store) on Tuesday in a new path but on parallel to a major road so as to reduce the chances of getting lost again.

I’m happy to say that the little bit of preparation helped me in my run with the boys on Thursday. It’s amazing how my 40 minutes of biking a day has kept me in shape even while I wasn’t doing any other form of exercise. My commute doesn’t feel like a workout, but I was able to jump into running much better than I’ve ever done before.

However, the run with the boys was certainly a test of will. I thought I’d have no trouble because I usually see them walking, not running, but I failed to take into account the fact that a girl wasn’t with them then . . .

I was told to meet at the vending machines at 4pm, which I did, but to my shock they were all in their uniforms still and proceeded to change right there! I don’t understand why girls and boys don’t mix, but they’ll change in front of each other no problem! Maybe they’re good at changing, but I’ve never looked hard enough to know how much skin they show.

Anyway, we started off at a good pace, but the hills got me out of breath. They showed no sign of wimping out into a walk so I gave up the hope of making conversation and used all my mind to keep myself going. I like to run slower but longer, so I have leg muscles and they were fine, but my lungs were getting a test. The boys were anxious to be finished, too, so they decided to pick up the pace at the end. I managed make it to the end with them (2.5 miles about 20 minutes) to the shock of the baseball coached who had asked if I was going to go “walking” when he saw me in my sports wear. In fact, everyone seemed surprised I was able to keep up. I’ve finally come to realize that they see me as a fat American, though that doesn’t seem to make me unattractive in their eyes. I’m certainly bigger then almost all of them, though. Anyway, I made it, and the boys were pretty wiped out, too. This confirmed to me that they had pushed themselves more because I was there. I hope the kick in the pants was appreciated! I managed to have a few minute-long conversation with the tennis coach (in Japanese!) about it and he said something about them being happy I came. I’ll have to take his word for it, but I can’t read students at all sometimes!

I took a few days off and went for a five mile run on Sunday (Jan. 29), which I did in 50 minutes. Previously, the fastest I’d run was three miles in 30 minutes and it was killer. Now I can do that pace for 5 miles and feel great! That tells me I went quite a bit faster with the tennis team on Thursday . . .