GEOFF MATHEWS

Miyazaki Marathon, Japan 2001

Konbanwa Texas Marathon team!

I thought I'd write in to let everyone know that marathoning doesn't have to end with graduation... and also that things can be quite different elsewhere! Enjoy the largesse of American marathon organizers, and the little, familiar things...

Training-------------------------------- 

First off, I'll tell a bit about the training that led up to the Miyazaki marathon. In rural Japan, sidewalks don't exist. There's a small stretch near the schools in my town, and that's pretty much it. So I found myself doing most of my long distance training either at odd hours (when few cars were out, and they had on their brights that would well-illuminate my running clothes) or at a nice 2.5 km track about 15 km away (which had the added benefit of 30k's of biking in addition to the running) I would also do speed workouts with the high school's track time from time to time (all two members of it... actually the coach would just run with me and leave the kids to fend for themselves. I felt bad about this, so I stopped going.)

Yes, I missed Austin's trail system. And lighted sidewalks. I also missed having the abundant company of the marathon team - on days when I felt like going a little slower, I had people to run with. If I wanted to go faster, I had people to run with. If I wanted to be especially crazy, I'd concoct a "six mile" ten-miler and wait at turns for everyone to make the turn, and then sprint to the front to direct the group through the next crazy turn. As it was, I had one friend with whom I regularly met to train (who's leaving in July. I'll have to corrupt some more people!) and three others I occasionally ran with. In addition to having to be more internally motivated (difficult at times, especially when my peak training run of 30k came up - and my friend was out of town...) I found myself having to plan my weekends more than I would have preferred - I often juggled my long run back and forth between Saturday and Sunday to try to match schedules.

I found social situations more awkward. I have only a handful of people to hang out with who don't constantly say to me "Come on, why can't you get toasted with us just this one time..." on the Friday night before my Saturday long run (yes, I willingly add to the reputation of JETS as a bunch of lushes. Fortunately, while alcohol plays a very large role in Japanese socializing, my Japanese friends have made no efforts to change my habits - maybe it helps that my Japanese really is more understandable when I'm sober!)

But this is not to say it's been all bad - it certainly hasn't. Just different! I've developed greater self control, by necessity. As I said above about the biking, I've picked up a new and very fun hobby (and expensive! I could have bought a small used car for what I payed for my bike!) I've also ended up meeting cool people at the track, other regulars who have noticed this same white boy showing up multiple times a week...

The Days Before--------------------

Anywho, enough about training. Now I'll tell you about the days leading up to the Miyazaki marathon.

First off, the bad news. A week before the marathon, I was hit by a car while riding my bike back from the track. The good news is that I was almost completely unharmed. The fellow pulled out of a side street and I couldn't get out of the way in time. Fortunately, I learned something from Master Jung's Judo class (which I highly recommend - the gi costs a bit but his little one hour PE class rocks) and escaped with nothing worse than some sore joints and a scraped up elbow. My bike, on the other hand... well, I should have it back from the shop in another week or two. Which is fine, since I'm a bit too sore at the moment to feel like doing much!

My friends and I loaded up in a van and drove to Miyazaki yesterday. We went to the prerace party, where we saw some people training for the Taiwan 2004 Olympic team (younguns! The oldest was 18, I think). This was also where I learned something I hadn't known before - the half marathon at Miyazaki is only open to women. I don't know if this is the case throughout Japan, but I'm not quite sure what to make of that...

The meal was also quite different from what I've ever had before. Plenty of carbohydrates, I'll admit - but very little from spaghetti. I had udon (a noodle soup) and I got to wrestle a bit in the mad dash for the sushi. I also found that my little group of foreigners attracted a great amount of attention from all the cameras! It made me a bit uncomfortable to realize that a TV station was getting footage of me using ohashi (chopsticks). My friends and I were the only non-Japanese non-competitively running the race.

I was also a bit worried about sleeping on a futon the night before the race. I've been here for four months now, but I still don't sleep as comfortably on futon as on a bed. Fortunately, the ryokan we stayed at had beds! So for the first time since the Tokyo orientation, I slept on a real honest to goodness soft mattress. In a warm room, too boot (which hasn't happened since winter settled in about a month ago). It's no wonder I felt so good this morning!

Until breakfast, that is. You see, the marathon started at 9 a.m., which would leave me running until one... So I had breakfast at 6 a.m., to avoid gnawing my arm off due to starvation. Breakfast consisted of: rice, scrambled eggs (shaped like an omelet), pickles, fish (I love the fish here!) and green tea. Traditional Japanese meals are pretty much the same morning, noon, and night. As it was, I found myself wishing for orange juice and a bagel - but while orange juice is readily available (I drink about 4 liters a week) bagels are virtually unheard of. Which left me worrying about the race finish...

The Marathon---------------------------

But I'm not to that yet. There was all the fun of reaching the starting line, standing around in the cold (convincing my friends that yes we will be warm in our skimpy outfits once we start running - a lesson I thought they had learned by now...) and shouting "Woohoo" many times over.

I also found that the race participants were very different from what I experienced in America. There were about 4000 men running the marathon, and about 200 women. They also dispersed themselves at the start quite differently from what I was used to. I estimate that over half of the participants started in the 3:30 corral or faster. I found myself thinking "Gee, nobody here does anything by halves! They either don't marathon at all or they do em really fast!" My 4 to 5 hour corral felt like a ghost town! I could easily do stretches up to the gun...

Of course, it still took two minutes to actually reach the start.

The marathon itself also felt very different from past experience. For one thing, talking to random people took too much effort for me to do much of that. Beyond the occasional "Gambette!" and "Daijobu ni?" ("Keep going" and "Are you ok?", respectively) I couldn't spare enough power to maintain a conversation. Once I lost my pal Jeannie (her knee was hurting), I was in my own world. Fortunately, I've had plenty of practice running alone! I also had a camera with me, so I spent much of my time scanning for cool pictures. I hope the shot I took of the gal at the head of the half marathon comes out, and the pace leader for the full marathon (the course looped on itself). I also passed some gorgeous scenery - Miyazaki reminded me greatly of San Diego (June 2000) but with less hills (Miyazaki is on a coastal plain). Palm trees, beaches... I'll admit to feeling tempted to hop off onto the beach and splash into the beautiful... cold... jellyfish infested... Nevermind.

The composition of the spectators was also quite different from past experiences. Roughly half the spectators were junior high and high schoolers out in their uniforms. It seems that kids here universally love their ALTS, so I got lots of cheering and broken English from them (it was great seeing a couple of kids consult each other as I approached, and one would yell out how much farther I had to go. It was most amusing the first time, at the 3 km mark.) While they were quite genki (energetic) everyone else... well, let's say that I like Austin crowds better...

I ran the entire way, except water stops (which were too crowded to run through) After the last stop, I had difficulty getting started again, but a group of boys put their hands out for high fives, and I couldn't disappoint them!

At the finish, I felt a bit annoyed at how unresponsive and generally unenthused the crowd seemed. In the past I've sprinted my finishes and people cheered their heads off. But here... silence. I shouted a bit ("Woohoo!") but I found that I couldn't quite express my thought that these people coming in with me deserved some clapping at least. Please don't say anything about "different cultures blah blah blah" to me - I realize that, but at the time...

Then, of course, there was the TV interview. After standing in line to receive my printed record (what?! No medal?!) and turn in my chip (what?! Nobody to remove it for me? Nobody to hand me the great big sheet of metallized mylar to keep me from freezing?! Nobody to hand me a bottle of water and an orange?!) I was cornered by a news crew asking me questions in Japanese. Considering that I wasn't coherent enough to ask them to wait a minute for me to down some Aquarius (powerade) I don't think they got much out of me. They wanted to know what I thought of the race ("Fun! Difficult! Hot!" being the limit of my expressive ability there) and what I thought of the course ("Beautiful!" "Fun!") I really hope that they do some serious editing (up to and including dubbing in lines from Sean Connery in "Rising Sun") before using any of that... especially the multiple times I asked her to express words in simpler speech or repeated her statements to be sure I had heard correctly.

The final bit worth noting was the food. Yep, you guessed correctly - no bagels, no juice. Just rice and fish. I'm glad I packed a jelly sandwich and some oranges in the van (oh, and no gear drop). I wish I had remembered to pack a large bottle of water.

The Aftermath--------------------------

So that was the Miyazaki marathon for me. I had a good time on the run, and I found that the many small things added up to make the experience vastly different from what I've had before. I've also learned an important lesson about what NOT to do immediately after a marathon.

Which is to say, do NOT just go hop on a plane, then a train, and then a bus to go home. I regret not sticking around longer, going to an onsen (one of my favorite things about Japan is the bath houses) and visiting a masseuse. I now find that since I couldn't continually stretch through the rest of the day (being cooped up in vehicles), I'm now quite stiff. This next week won't be too pleasant... especially with my fifteen minute walk to school, and then going up and down two flights of stairs to teach...

Anywho, I'm still running and loving it! I'm looking forward to hearing how the Motorola goes for everyone, especially the first timers (don't ask how many times "Like a Virgin" was played on the van ride down. Oh, and before you ask, my friends were smart and took tomorrow as a day off, so they'll be driving back after having visited the aforementioned onsen and masseuse and stretched...)

Woohoo! Geoff Mathews

Miyazaki 4:13