October 8, 1989
Redemption
The sky is pink, the grass is blue, and rabbits on my tummy too, will keep me cozy in my bed while icecream dreams swirl in my head>>>

***Miss Paul has requested that her face not be shown here to protect her identity***

I had been humiliated at Matsuyama with my friend Keith watching. Now there was this little 10 mile run at his home base, Camp Zama. I ran it because I needed to be ready for the upcoming Yokohama 20K marathon.
Eight-hundred runners showed up at Camp Zama, including a nationally ranked Irish runner. We had 800 runners ready to go and they started the race by firing a cannon at the start line. Miimii, having none of it, fell asleep on a warm metal heat vent, with shoes neatly sitting by as the mess swarmed around her. I woke her before the start because she would have shot about ten feet off the ground when the cannon went off.

Fueled on tuna/rice balls, I managed to stay with the leaders for the first 3 kilometers of the run and fell back. At 5-miles I finished the first lap and saw Miimii amongst the throngs of little yellow spectators, ran over to her and gave her a high-five. The Japanese loved it.

There were four very prominent, steep climbs on the course, the same course we'd raced on bicycles just 364 days earlier.

I used all the tactics I'd learned from a runner's video I'd watched in Korea the previous month, and they worked like a charm. I attacked on all the downhills instead of the uphills and on the very last downhill Keith, who'd been riding the course on his bicycle, caught me, not knowing I was even racing. He did a double-take on me because I was burning up the road. He was clearly surprised. In the final 2 kilometers I gained 200 meters and two positions when everyone was going crazy for the final push to the line. I finished 19th, a few feet behind the 18th place finisher, with a time of 58m 19s for ten miles (5m 49s/mile pace), beating all military runners, and the other 781 knuckle-heads. I had nothing left. Keith stood next to me at the finish as I tried to breathe, looking confused and saying,"Are you okay?". He was clearly impressed and I h'd been redeemed. I also beat his Army on their own turf!. I got a pretty decent trophy this time too (paperweight).

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