Running Prep

Well, it's that time of year of again.

Last month, I started getting ready for this year's running season by buying new attire, selecting what races I want to run, and scheduling my runs for the next 4 months accordingly.

Attire shopping started with running shoes. I always have trouble finding shoes in Japan, so this year I e-mailed Asics, which is a Japanese company, and asked them if they had size 14 (31cm) in stock somewhere, anywhere, in Japan. Their answer was no. It would be easy if I could just order a pair from some store in America and have them ship it to me, but for some reason, all the running shoe sites I could find would not ship out of the country. I thought I would have to mail them to my mom and have her ship them to me again...until I had an idea. Instead of searching online for a store in America, I decided to find an online store based in the UK.

This led me to wiggle, which not only had my size in running shoes, but also offered free shipping to Japan!

(too hot for me)

Next I started looking for a new pair of shorts. I have one pair, but since my running schedule has me running 5 times a week this year, I figured I could do with two. The  problem with running attire in Japan, however, is that most runners are afraid of showing some leg. The majority of people I see always seem to be wearing some sort of long or short spandex.

The sports companies must have caught on, because I have yet to find a simple pair of running shorts with an inner lining. One has to either buys shorts without lining ($40) plus tights ($40), or buy shorts with mini tights sewn in, like this:

(no thanks)

In protest, I am now shopping for the shortest pair of shorts I can find. It is worth noting that all the fast runners (excluding me) wear real running shorts.

Finally, I wanted a pair of awesome sunglasses. Check.

With my shopping out of the way, I decided on what races I wanted to run. To date, I have applied for the following:

Iheya Moonlight Marathon (21.1k) - Oct 15

Kawaguchiko Marathon (42.2 k) - Nov 27

and...

(looks cold)

The Kawaguchiko Marathon is in view of Mt. Fuji, so I'm really looking forward to that run. The Tokyo Marathon is a lottery, so I won't find out if I can actually apply for it until mid-October.

Next up, running logs.