Running: physical, mental and...social

I ran the Yodogawa Night Half-Marathon last night. Having failed the sub-2 hour goal in Karuizawa in May, even though I felt like I had a shot, I decided to try out another. The night run in Osaka proved to be the perfect place.

My friend Mike, who is veteran runner, had agreed to help pace me across the line. He has a certain running strength, that just allows him to power through. So if I could just keep pace with him, it should be fine. The weekend before the race, we did a 10k by another river, the Mukogawa, and it turned out to be my fastest run yet. So I felt set.

In the mean time, I had also met a Norwegian exchange student at the pool where I swim once a week or so in Kobe. He is a crazy talented triathlete, and in super good shape. He had asked for some local recommendations, and I mentioned the race. He was excited to join a Japanese event, that he otherwise wouldn't have known on his own.

Come race day, the three of us meet up and get to the race area. It's sunny out in the afternoon, with a high temperature of 29 degrees. Still not crazy humidity, though, so it just felt like I comfortable Summer day.

We start out the three of us, but after 8 or so kilometers (out of the 21), Mike picks up the pace. Afterwards he said he had to, because it hurt so much he just wanted to finish fast 😅 What an absolute warrior.

Out Norwegian friend stayed alongside me the whole way though, and kept a very good pace right around the 2 hour mark. We set out a bit fast, but settled into a good pace.

It was a revelation to me, that my average heart rate was 171, while his was 135! Damn. That is what being in good running shape means.

Thanks to the guys, I made it in 1:58.

And that was the third big realization in all this endurance sports journey.

When I first started running, it was clear to me that I needed to work on the physical aspect of it. Train more and such.

Then with running my first full marathon, I really felt the mental aspect of just pushing through, even though I really didn't want to.

And now, by reaching out to friends and saying "hey, I could really use some help with pushing through this barrier" I really felt the social aspect of running. Although running to me (who's never been much of a sports guy) always felt like a solo endeavour.

Add to these three major factors the minor ones of physiotherapy, gear and diet, and little by little, I can look towards my ultimate goal of running 21km without knee pain and with more confidence.

I don't feel that I need to invest in trying to go faster, chasing a new time, without really investing in the fundamentals first.

My back started to hurt, by right quad (front of thigh) started to tighten up, and those things tell me I'm doing something wrong, or simply doesn't have the necessary strength in the right places.

Reflecting like this is part of the fun of doing this.

And another big part is the sense of accomplishment and gratitude. Appreciation of the factors that enable me to try these things.

A final point would also be how it is a small exercise in connecting your mind and your body. How listening to someone's words and really trying to let them shape what you do. When you're a child this is more or less the default, but as we become older, we tend to listen less to advice. We may listen, but we don't really have to take it in or change or let it reflect in our actions.

What happened this time was that my wife wrote that my daughter had passed a small test in piano class, and I remembered that halfway through, and thinking, I'll give it just a little more. I feel too far away in my head still, to all out sacrifice myself for words like that, but that moment really was an exercise in moving between my head and body, if that makes sense.

I don't really look forward to the next one, but I think I'll sign up soon 😄✌️