Tokashiki Marathon (as a warm-up for Sunday)

Yesterday's Tokashiki half-marathon was my first and only test this year before Tokyo. Tokashiki is a neighboring island in the Kerama chain, so Zamami sent a boat across for the ~20 participants from our side of the islands.

My training plan called for 16k (10 miles) at marathon pace, so I took the first 5k sorta slowish (25 minutes, 2.5 minutes off marathon pace), then stepped it up for the last 16k. I passed somewhere around 40 people to finish in 27th place (of 380, I think). My time was 1:34.57, which is almost exactly marathon pace, which means I ran the last 16k 2.5 minutes too fast.

[my friend Cliff set his half-marathon PR with a 2:15, beating his goal by 15 minutes!]

With the exception of the usual stomach roiling and adjustments in the first 5k, I felt super. I cruised through the finish line with no aches and my heart rate dropped back below 100 within minutes. It was a promising tune-up for Tokyo.

[my certificate]

[the elevation chart for the hilliest run in Okinawa]

Here were my numbers:
Distance: 21.1k/13.1 miles
Time: 1:34.57
Heart Rate Average: 165
Heart Rate Range: 74 - upper 180's
Ascent/Descent: 1500 feet (~480m)
High Point: 682 feet (~310m)
(Just for comparison, the ascent/descent of the FULL Tokyo Marathon from last year was 320'.)

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Then today I still had my long run of the week at 32k (20 miles). I woke up to and began running in rain and heavy winds. I didn't run hard, just got the miles in. I put my head down and focused on this being the last big run of the year. It rained for the first 2:20 before clearing up for the final 20 minutes. It felt pretty darn good to finish this run and complete 53k (33 miles) within the last 24 hours).

Numbers:
Distance: 32k/20miles
Time: 2:39.48
HR avg: 144
HR range: 88-166
Ascent/Descent: 1390'
High Point: 259'


Now, the taper: the best three weeks of running this year.

Freeing A Deer

I may have solidified my hunter/wild animal handler reputation today. I was at school on Geruma when I heard about a deer. Some teachers were going to see him so I joined along. When we got there, though, it was not a pretty scene.

It was a buck that got his antlers caught in some netting meant to serve as a crude fence against the deer. He'd managed to wrap the netting around his antlers and neck enough that escape wasn't going to happen and death by suffocation was approaching. The buck was in panic mode and was freaking out.

I was surprised that nobody else saw the situation the same as me - I thought "rescue", they thought "let's get out of here." I plead my case to the vice-principal, citing my work on a cattle ranch in Montana as the experience necessary to work with this deer. The VP said "cowboy?" to which I responded "yes!" because it seemed like the right answer. So he gave me some rope and we went back together. I made crude lariats and we attempted, from opposite sides of the deer, to get him to step in our slipknot circles. I succeeded first in catching a leg, at which point I pulled hard and knocked the deer off his feet. I quickly tied his rear legs together to try to control the kicking, then tied a front leg to the rear to immobilize him. But this meant that he'd lost the elevation which had previously kept him from strangling. Luckily the VP had a knife so I set out going at the thrashing deer's neck with a knife trying not to kill him. Eventually I freed up his wind pipe then went back to tying him up. (The vice-principal insisted on not letting the deer free at this point because he wanted the whole school to see the situation. I wasn't really a fan of this but I kept it to myself.)


After getting the deer securely bound I wrapped my jacket around his head to cover his eyes and hopefully get him to relax. Then we went back to school for lunch and cleaning. After 1.5 hours I finally got the okay to go back and release him (four students went to see the deer, but left before the release).

The VP trimmed all the net from his antlers while I worked on freeing his legs. I expected this to be dangerous, but I was able to contain his legs with relative ease.

The release was actually a bit anticlimactic. He jumped up and tried to sprint, but his bearings were all whacked out and he only went a couple meters before collapsing again. He didn't get far before realizing he was best-served resting first. I knew this was an important stage of what must be a very stressful ordeal for this deer, so I hurried the teachers along to give him alone time.


After my fifth period class the VP reported that the deer was not doing well and he expected him to die. I was pretty disappointed, but not sure if I was surprised. I took one last trip over before I had to catch my boat. The deer was still laying down and obviously alive, so I approached to see what was up. Turns out he had thrashed around some and got his rear legs intertwined in even more loose netting - to the point that he couldn't stand up! So I untangled him and got him standing again. He still acted drunk so I backed off enough that he could just stand there without also trying to get away from me. When I left he had sat back down, but he had his head up and looked alert to me. I expect that if he didn't get much more disruption that he'll survive.

Tokyo Banana

It was a sign - the meaning yet to be deciphered - that today at lunch we were given bananas with Tokyo Marathon stickers:


The message says that the power of the bananas will be used to support the runners.

The Third Kingpin

The description of this week's Monday run from my training plan:

Five miles easy. The last of your three kingpin workout weeks. This is the peak week of your training: roughly 50 miles for the week with a 20-miler on Sunday. Rather than fear it, you should greet this week with near the same enthusiasm you will greet the marathon one month from now. But, for the time being, take it easy. Visualize yourself running the first 5 miles of the marathon course when discretion is the better part of valor. If you want to rest on Mondays, that is also not a bad strategy for the remainder of this training program.

When I woke up at 5:30am Monday morning, enthusiasm wasn't the sensation I was feeling. But after going to bed at 9:30pm last night, I awoke today in high spirits for the 16k (10 miles). Mentally, it was the best run I've had in awhile, which is good because I've been struggling. Physically as well. I rolled my right ankle last week and ended up simultaneously hurting my left knee when that leg took all the weight. And the running mileage has been long. I just completed my fifth month of training which is taking a toll on all parts of me. My knees feel fragile and my mental strength is wavering. I am counting on getting through this week (which includes a marathon pace half-marathon on Saturday, then 20 miles/32k on Sunday) and recovering well during the next three weeks' taper. I've never looked so forward to a taper.

The Garden, January

I looked at pictures of my garden from last year and I'd say this year is a good month behind. No idea why. Anyway, it took a big step this month. Now my lettuce is producing at just the rate to sustain my daily needs. I have something like 20 tomato plants which seem to be spacing their blossoms so that I'll get a nice, long supply of tomatoes once they start getting red.

[16 planters this year, some of which have defied 3-4 seedings and are still barren]

[I artificially pollinated all my tomato blossoms with a cotton swab]

[There's 2-3 tomato plants mixed in with that lettuce - my brilliant idea to make use of all that wasted vertical space above those low-hanging lettuce leaves]

[front-to-back: fancy lettuce, cilantro, basil, and cabbage, next green peppers, then lots of tomatoes and broccoli]

Our Little World

Today at lunch on Aka the principal asked me about Zamami's cows. I was surprised at how surprised the rest of the teachers were to learn that Zamami has cows. I had to explain how many there are (~25), that they are black, meat cows (not dairy), and that the calves are usually sold off to the mainland.

This anecdote got me thinking about how isolated these little communities are even though they are really close to each other. A waterway with no bridge may as well be 1000 kilometers.

I am one of the few people who regularly visit all three communities, so I know the layout of the villages and I recognize/know many of the residents. (In fact I could be the most connected person living here with all the kids I know!?) But the people of Zamami might as well be foreigners to those on Aka and Geruma (which are connected by a bridge). And just like the Aka residents don't know about our cows, Aka and Geruma's deer could go extinct and Zamami people still might say "they had deer?" That's a slight exaggeration, but Geruma is fiercely proud of their deer while I have heard first-hand accounts of Zamami residents eating them.

It's fun to sometimes find an Aka/Geruma residents on a field trip to Zamami because they are giddy at how large our store is. This is the same store that, when seen by some of my Okinawan mainland friends, gets the reaction: "I don't know how you can live here."

Relevant Vocab.

The first 10-15 minutes of all my junior high classes are mine. From there the Japanese English teacher plans the regular class to incorporate me. Back in the day I used to do the day, date, weather, and time (now I have added temperature and season) before asking each student "How are you?" But that quickly became boring so I would follow the "How are you?" with a "Why?" to make them think. But they learned stock answers. So then I moved on to "How was your weekend?", "What did you eat for dinner/breakfast?", etc. But that was starting to challenge me too much to come up with interesting questions.

So I began making flashcards in response to feelings of "that's a word my students should know" that I would occasionally get. Now at the beginning of each junior high class I run through 10-15 of these cards that have words I've pulled from their books or, more likely, from my mind. Some are relevant words to life here, some are just good phrases to know. But it's fun because the kids recognize that these words are hand-picked for them.

[a sample of the 100+ cards I've made. It also gives me good practice writing the kanji/Japanese on the back (the back of "You can do it!" says "Yes we can!")]

Do you have any word suggestions?