Revenger's 42.195 K

April 19, 2015 is a day I will never forget.
I ran Kasumigaura Marathon, and it was a terrible race.
Both of my legs suffered a serious pain after 28 K,
and the rest of the race was nothing but a torture.

The poor result was caused by a number of reasons.
One was lack of practice.
The previous month was very busy with seminars,
and I had no choice but give priority to the job.
Another reason was lack of motivation.
Two months before the full marathon,
I had run the Ohme 30 K Road Race,
and renewed my personal best time.
The training I had done for the race was so hard
that I was simply burned out.

After the race I was so disappointed
that I wanted to shift my mind
off long-distance running,
and spent more time cycling.

I even thought that running was not for me.
I started looking for all kinds of excuses
why all the hard work wouldn't pay off.

But eventually I overcame the negative mental attitude.
Two things helped me.
One was my friend.
I have a number of running friends.
Some of them are older than me.
Yet one of them renewed his personal best.
I thought age wasn't an issue at all.

The other is my professional pride.
As a professional English trainer,
I have seen so many students lose motivation
after a temporary failure.
Every time that happens, I always encourage them to
carry on with their training,
saying, "Training never betrays you."
I wanted to live what I say in my profession in my other passion also.

I focused my time and energy once again on long-distance running.
I ran day and night, even on freezing nights.

And the race day came.
I ran.
I finished.
And the time was the second best in the six full marathons I had run.

All the bad memories of Kasumigaura Marthon vanished,
and rays of hope shone down on me again.

Running is not 'not for me'.
I WILL continue to run, run, and run.

The next big race is the Ohme 30 K Road Race on Feb. 21.
My personal best time is 2:38:18 (Net: 2:34:29)
My goal this year is to finish under 2:30:00 (net).