World Adventure

Osaka Marathon 🇯🇵

Published December 1, 2019

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.

: my first in Asia

: 30 THOUSAND

: Team RED

: Corral C START

: whole lotta runners 🏃‍♀️

: make a MEMORY 🙂

: 7 Continent FINISHER

: Official Certificate

Osaka Marathon

Posted in Asia, Marathons/Ultras | 1 Comment

Foreign Runner Check-in

Published November 30, 2019

Osaka EXPO 2019

Like all my big-city races, day’s Expo far away. Guessing city-tourism likes to share the wealth. 7-Eleven yen withdrawal, metro day-pass purchase. Phone fully-charged, I got this. Chuo Line to Cosmosquare. Osaka Convention Center, all the way to the end.

Volunteers awaiting, pointing the way. THOUSANDS of runners. Crowd line-queued, inching forward slowly. 2^nd largest marathon-only event in my life [behind NYC].

Rainbow-variety of charities. Participants choose a cause & pledge a donation. Funds withdrawn after July’s lottery pull. Team Red. Cancer not unique to Americans.

Hour+ bib pick-up. Foreign Runner Check-in. WOW – signage says it all. Even amongst the Foreign, I felt foreign. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan… and me.

Tomorrow, my last continent. Road pavement (or Antarctica trail). Marathon on all Earth’s landmasses. 26.2 miles. Honored. Blessed. And super emotional.

Osaka, Japan. Right time, right place. Sooo many people I’ve met on this journey.

Inspiration overload ❤️

: Osaka Metro

: Chuo Line to Cosmosquare

: Convention Center EXPO

: THOUSANDS queued

: marathon-only event

: RED Team bib

: Castle Park START

: ANYTHING is POSSIBLE

Osaka EXPO 2019

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Happy Morning Run

Published November 30, 2019

Fastest 5k ever in my life? Wasn’t even sweating.

After a series of 2-hour cat naps, up for the day. Tight cruise-ship type of room. Managed the shower. Unpacked my run clothes. Marathon not ‘til tomorrow. Today, Osaka’s Happy Morning Run. Start near Osaka Castle, same run beginning as Sunday’s marathon.

Sunshiny skies, light jacket. Good to acclimate, get in a short run (after flying all-day yesterday). Just a 5k – not the distance that had me freaked. Japanese characters. Super foreign. Squiggle, 2 long lines. Box shape, arrow to the right. Crazy foreign.

Navigation: Google Maps to my destination, British app ‘What3Words’ would get me home. No tunes, no streaming. Phone fully-charged ALWAYS. Solo travel navigation tool.

Immediately outta the hotel, wrong direction. LOL> Ok, reset. Turnaround. Much faster my second try. Empty city streets. Saturday morning early. Two undergrounds, one long street – then, green park ahead AND other runners. [GREAT hotel location 😊]

Once in Castle Park, English signage & super friendly volunteers. Nicest folks. Upbeat, smiles, ‘good morning’. No blending. Giant white Gulliver far, far from home.

Brought my registration card. Bib pick-up easy peasy (just kept showing my piece of paper). ‘United States’ – VERY cool. An hour early. I’m where I need to be. Just follow the crowd – & soak in the experience. Sea of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Japan.

Announcements. Something repetitive. More Japanese.

WELCOME 🇬🇧 & an opening ceremony… DRUMS. Traditional & AWESOME! …& then we ran. 14 minutes. Garmin read 1.5 miles. Definitely notta 5k. Short & sweet. But… I got out. No longer hotel sequestered. Quick shower, change of clothes.

Focus: FOOD. Handful of cherry tomatoes not gonna fill the Buddha.

Happy Morning, friendly sunshiny Japan!