"Marathon"

Eddie Allan Poe, author of "Annabel Lee".

My town, Kimotsuki, was formed in a merger of two smaller towns, Koyama (where I live) and Uchinoura (further south, by the sounding sea).  Koyama's big annual blowout is called Yabusame (流鏑馬), a festival capstoned by a demonstration of ancient horseback archery. Uchinoura's thing is the Ginga Marathon (銀河マラソン), which is not a marathon but a series of much shorter races held in Uchinoura.  (Ginga means "Milky Way" in Japanese--literally 'silver river'--and refers to the town's role in the Japanese space program.) I (quite foolishly) signed up for the longest course, a 10k.

The town magazine.

Now, I pride myself on maintaining the absolute minimum of health standards--I bike everywhere, and I can certainly run 10 kilometers at a time.  But I don't run very fast, and I don't run at a 10 degree slope for half of it.  So, I was bested by those who were older than I but I finished in a little over 45 minutes.

Where's Waldo?

It was a great time though, and quintessentially Japanese.   Opening remarks, followed by radio taisō, and the residents of Uchinoura who weren't running were lined up along the road urging us to do our best.  Plus, my gift for participating was mackerel (halves dissevered)!

My race number, chilling on my fridge.

Radio taisō . . .

Ma ville a été formée quand deux autres villes s'est unifiée.  Une course à pied a lieu dans l'une, Uchinoura, chaque année, et je me suis inscrit pour la course de dix kilomètres.  Bien que je cours cette distance de temps en temps, je ne le fait pas d'un rythme de course, ni sur une pente de 10 degrés !  Donc j'étais surpassé par plusieurs habitants (dont plusieurs qui étaient mes aînés), mais je me suis obstiné jusqu'à la fin.  Comme si il me fallait un rappel que j'étais au Japon, le prix de participation pour tous les coureurs était du poisson !