goal SET, goal MET 🌏

1:30am.  Sleep cycle off.  World weather, London knifing.  BBC only channel not Japanese.

3am.  Partial pack of Doritos & a mustard packet.  Mighty slim pickin’s.  Still dark.  Luggage pack’d, repacked.  Showered.  Phone fully-charged.  Run ready.  7 Continent Day.

9:20 Start.  Layered up; peeled clothes early.  First day of December.  Beautiful sunshiny Japan.

15-minute walk to Castle Park.  Corral C.   30,000 runners; whole lotta buzz.  Osaka Japan.  Pinch me.  ‘One & done’ marathon 6 years ago.  Today #172, first in Asia.  Whose life am I living?  Crazy.

Loud-speaker Japanese.  Doesn’t really matter.  I move when the sea around me moves.

Phone on airline.  Calf stretch.  iPod queued.  Go, go, GO!

Easy flat course.  Lotta out-n-backs, whole lotta runners.  City race, reminiscent of NYC 2015.  Marathoners elbow-to-elbow.  Mile 1, Mile 26.  Big buzz excitement.  Sheer amount of people super overwhelming.  Playlist blaring, eyes forward.  Stop, walk, breathe.  Soak it in.  Make a memory.

Out fast, faded fast.  Warm second half.  Course a half-mile long.  But… finish I did.

Last kilometer.  Osaka Castle.  Path lined with late-autumn arbor.  It’s really gonna happen.

SUPER HERO day – 7 Continent FINISH.

Osaka Marathon