The Race

I decided I would do the race since I've been feeling good here running without any injury. The Omori family was so excited to hear I would do it and made a poster saying, "Go! Iain".

There were about 5000 marathoners and 5000 half marathoners. I did the half marathon and planned on just starting with the front group. If they went to hard, I would just drop back and enjoy the run. The course was very challenging with a lot of uphill on the way out, then downhill. The pace felt good and I ran with two Japanese runners on the way up. Near the turn around, the started running harder and I dropped back from them, but stayed in third place to the finish. My legs are tired, but I think I'm fine in terms of injury. Pepi, the master's winner from St. George finished 6th which he was very happy with. The awards ceremony was fun. They had the top 6 on the awards stand. We all spoke our thank yous to the audience and received our awards. They do not give cash awards in Japan, but they had great trophies and medals. This is a picture of first place receiving his 60kg of rice. I got 10kg of rice, a medal, two plaques, two certificates, some pototoes, pumpkin, and onions. The Omoris are excited to share the food with some friends.

After the race, we went shopping at the 100Yen store. For dinner, some friends came over. We had a fun party with Tsumugi and her friends putting on a show for us. They were very entertaining. Adrienne and I even had to sing a song, so we chose "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree".

We also picked up Tsumugi from school. There is a picture of her in her uniform here.