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.