Tokashiki Marathon

Last Saturday, I took a 35 min boat ride from Naha to Tokashiki to run my second half-marathon (ever). It wasn't until after the race that I reflected on how I may be taking my Okinawan-life for granted. I mean, how many people get to run races on little islands like this:


I ran my first half-marathon in November with a goal of 2:30, but ran it in 2:46:57. This time, I gave myself the same goal even though I had a bigger obstacle in front of me: hills. My friend Dave told me, "Tokashiki is kinda hilly, make sure you train for it." After running the race, I realized that was like saying, "Siberia is kinda chilly, make sure you bring a jacket it."

Here is the elevation chart [stolen from Dave's blog]:


At the 3km mark, you start your climb all the way up to the top of a mountain, which ends around the 6 or 7km mark. Then you spend the next 10km running around the island at a high elevation which is constantly up and down. The race didn't flatten out until the last 2km.

But because my legs are like train pistons, I ran the race (21km/13.1mi) in 2:14:47, beating my Iheya race time by 30 minutes, and my goal by 15! At this rate, my next race should be 1:45:00, and the one after that, 1:15:00.

For comparison, Dave ran it in 1:34.57 and the world-record is 58:33, so I still have some room for improvement.


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A couple of random updates:

-I failed JLPT Level 2, again.
-I took the Kanken Level 5 yesterday and we shall see if I pass. (I already failed it once.)
-I re-contracted for a 4th year!