Running

The school marathon (a Japanese marathon is not 26 miles - a Senior High School marathon is the equivalent of our school cross country run, I'm guessing they only run about 5km so nothing like a marathon then!) is on Friday. Last year I jumped around with Kobayashi sensei cheering the students on and promised everyone at school that in 2006 I'd take part. Now it's time for the marathon again and I'm about as prepared for it as I would be for entering space! I've told them I couldn't possibly do it because of my recent injuries (hm...) and they all thought this was a fair excuse.

I go walking a lot after school and I've always done some kind of exercise but for some reason I just can't run ('for some reason' - because I'm so damn unfit!!). My chest and throat go tight, I come over all dizzy and my head throbs. It seems to be physically impossible but this is ridiculous a record 32,899 people crossed the finishing line of the London marathon in 2002. Plenty of people manage to run great distances all the time. Why can't I be one of them? So ...

On Saturday I decided that I would go for a run! Ha ha! Jen told me that the first 10 minutes is always the worst and then once you get past that first 10 minutes it gets easier. Well, I'm not that stupid as to try and run for 10 minutes - so I decided I'd try for 5 minutes. I managed my five minutes - just. This was a great achievement as I don't usually get past 5 metres. To say I thought that I might die is of course an exaggeration but the possibility of me keeling over into a rice field was a distinct possibility! Anyway I walked for about 50 minutes afterwards . Milena tells me that I should run for 5 minutes and then walk for 5 minutes and then try running again for 5. Eventually I might be able to join the running together. So I have decided that this is what I'm going to try and do but so far it's been raining everyday. Of course. Back to the Ministry of Sound dance work-out video then ...