SO my junior high held a 10K marathon today and I decided to join in as it beat sitting at my desk in an empty staff room for eight hours. To give you an idea of just how physically fit the Japanese are compared to Americans you have to understand that ALL of the students had to run the marathon and while I was running I noticed that very few students walked at all during the entire race. Once again this just highlights for me just how out of shape Americans are as I have grave doubts about the abilities of American junior high students if they were placed in the same situation. Not that all Americans are massive monsters chomping down on their Big Macs and super sized sodas, but I feel that when I do eventually return home I am going to have massive reverse culture shock at the physical state Americans are in. However that is something to worry about another day. On to my own personal glory.

OF the 400 boys I ran with I came in 60th place, but unfortunately they didn't give out times. Thus while I am not entirely sure of my time I would guess that it was around 50 minutes based on when I got home after the race. Again I am not sure and wish I would have timed myself, but I figured that the whole point of a race was knowing how fast you ran it. Damn these Japanese and their avoidance of individual greatness! However I was happy that I could pound out a 10K with no training whatsoever beyond my usual workouts that never involve distance running.

IN closing I also must point out that junior high girls are scarily fast as while the boys started 10 minutes before the girls I still had a good 10-15 girls pass me by the time I finished the run! It was especially impressive considering how much longer my stride is than that the average Japanese junior high girl.

THIS picture was just too funny to leave out.