Tokyo Marathon 2011 - Enjoyed it nice and slow!

Last year I was pushing for a personal record, but this year I couldn't do the needed training, so I decided to take it easy.

I think my time was 4:53:31., which is my second slowest of my five marathons so far, my best being 4:17 last year on the same course in a cold sleet.

Today the weather was beautiful, but I didn't think I was going to get a personal best. My legs felt heavy from before the start, possibly because I did a 7km jog (the weather was too beautiful!) on Friday and also was running around most of Saturday for helping Michael's soccer practice etc.

Anyway, when I hit 20km, it already felt like 30km, and I barely kept joggin through to 29km where Megumi, Michael and Mei were cheering for me.

Thanks for coming all the way to Asakusa to cheer me on!

I decided to not push it in the last parts, and walked most of the distance between the 30km point and 40km point, just getting back into a jog at 40km to get under 5 hours.

My legs were stiff and cramping, but I was able to enjoy the whole distance. As Haruki Marakami writes in his book on running (and it may not be his original):

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Nice costumes, Tokyoites! I especially liked a fully suited Barutan-Seijin and a bunch of GeGeGet no Kitaro ghosts.

Two Running Books I Got

Haruki Murakami, a frequent marathon and triathlon participant as well as Nobel Prize for Literature contender, shares his philosophy and experience related to running.

I'm going to run my 4th Tokyo marathon in 10 more days and decided to get this from Amazon to psyche myself up.

It is actually a very fun read. MH started running at about the same age I did (30), and he has run in more than 23 full marathons with times as fast as around 3hrs 30. He quit smoking at 30 and started to run to stop himself from getting fat, but his habit grew into longer and longer distances and eventually races.

We also agree that the main point of long distance running is the peacefulness. Get on the shoes, turn on the music, find a scenic path, and just jog away...thinking about nothing in particular.

The other book I got and have just started reading is:

Very entertaining so far. This Tarahumara "running tribe" in Mexico McDougall visits is fascinating. Will I be persuaded to discard my high tech jogging shoes and start running barefoot (or with only a protective foot cover) as McGougall recommends? Hmm...

Japan Times: What became of the Meiji spirit of Japanese young people?

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20110217hc.html

Hugh Cortazzi, former British ambassador to Japan writes:

Japan's future lies crucially in the willingness of young people in Japan to develop individual personalities, to be ready to speak out and debate with others, but above all to think in international terms.

He feels that Japanese young people recently do not have enough ambition or English communication skill to go abroad, learn new ideas, and come back with the intention to change their country.

At ICU, at least in the English Language Program (which is more like a liberal arts core curriculum than a language program) we are doing quite a bit of training for our students to think critically, ask key questions politely, and not be afraid to speak up when they think something is wrong. I believe our students are developing the needed skills to work with persons from around the world to face difficult domestic and global issues.

However, in many high schools and universities around Japan, education to stimulate initiative to learn, critical (constructive) thinking, and communication skills in speaking and writing (in Japanese) is lacking.

High school and college students in Japan need to be undertaking research and writing projects, even if on a small scale, both in Japanese and in English.

My 20x20 on Strengthening the Ban on Human Reproductive Cloning

Cloning20x20sample

More PowerPoint presentations from MarkChristianson