School Marathon

School started up again in the first week of September, and since then the kids have been training for the school marathon. Yep, the kiddies hafta run a marathon, and if they don't finish in the allotted time they must rerun it. Of course, this is a Japanese marathon, which means any long run.

Last year the girls ran 3K and the boys 5K. I was looking forward to joining in for a leisurely 3K jog to break up my day, but this year the distances were increased. The girls had 5K and the boys had a whopping 9K! I joined in anyway, but it wasn't as fun and easy as I'd hoped. Still fun, though.

It was a beautiful day for it, too. We ran a loop around the school, then down a path by the river. Teachers were placed every few hundred meters to encourage/enforce running.

Overall, I came in 58th out of 170 girls, so not too bad. I think the students really liked seeing me join in their misery. And my tomato coloring definately entertained them-- "Do all white people turn so red after exercise?"