My Next Fitness Challenge/白井梨マラソン10キロの部

With the 39th Kyoho no Oka 18.3 K Road Race rather painstakingly but nonetheless successfully completed, I am already looking forward to my next fitness goal, which is the 38th Shiroi Pear 10 K Road Race. I'm running it for the first time.

When I signed up for the race, I mainly did so because the race venue's proximity to my home and also because of free pear to be served at the event.

But I have a fresh outlook on it now. Today I went to the venue on my motorcycle and rode through the course twice for research. It is a pretty good course for a barefoot runner. I mean, it's reasonably barefoot-runnable.

The race starts off the Shiroi City Athletic Ground. It goes down for several hundred meters and then gets flat. After running around 1 K it takes a first left turn into a busy commercial road, and then take another left into a narrow farm road and keeps straight for a little less than one kilometer. It takes another left into another busy commercial road toward an industrial area where many factories stand. After about one and a half on the commercial road, the course takes its first right turn into the industrial area and zig-zags through it for about one kilometer. 

Once out of the industrial area, you are back on a commercial road again. But very briefly. You go into a smaller industrial area for a while and then come back on a commercial road again. But you stay on the commercial road only briefly, and turns left into a quiet farmers' district and eventually into a small forest where the sun is blocked by the trees. This last for a few hundred meters. 

Once out of the forest, the finish line is near. You are back on a sunny road which connects to the halfway point of the first straight road coming from the start. Once you reach the connecting point, you take a left and the finish line is within 500 meters.

Overall, the road surface is smooth and looks friendly to barefoot runners. My only concern is the area circled in red on the man above. The road is not maintained well. There are cracks all over the place. Plus, because it is in the forest, you see a whole bunch of mystery nuts and bits of twigs and so on. They are not comfortable on the sole.  But it only lasts for a few hundred meters. I can grit my teeth and bear it.

There are many farm stands along the course that sell Japanese pears. I stopped by one of them today and bought a bag of 'hohsui' pears for 1,000 yen. I exchanged a few words with a fine-looking young employee there, saying that I was going to run the forthcoming Pear Road Race, and that I was running in a Tarzan costume and in bare feet. She reacted wildly with wows and smiles. 

The race is on Oct. 1. There are only 12 left until the race. At this stage there is nothing spectacular that you can do to improve your outcome. I will continue my regular training. I will run 10 K three times a week. In the last one week leading to the race day, I will what I did for the Kyono no Oka Road Race. It conditioned my mind-body perfectly. I'm sure it will work for this one as well. I cannot wait to run again.  

 

 

 

"Children of a Lesser God" (1986)

I was browsing TV this afternoon when an old movie caught my eye. It turned out to be a movie called "Children of a Lesser God." I could not leave the TV set and watched it till the end.  It was a good movie. I had no idea how it hadn't been brought to my attention until now.

Long story short, it's a story of an idealistic teacher named James who teaches deaf students how to speak. One day, he sees a young woman storming out of the kitchen of his school cafeteria. When he asks the school principal who she is, he learns she's a former student named Sarah who now works as a school janitor. 

Sarah is beautiful. And she is also one of the brightest, according to the principal. James is curious why she settles for a seemingly unexciting job of janitor. James tries to communicate with Sarah, and also out of his professional idealism tries to get her interested in speaking when he learns that Sarah can talk in sign language, but that she would not try to speak.

As time goes by, James comes to a point where he must admit to himself and to Sarah also that he is in love with her. Sarah quits the job of janitor and starts to live with James in his place. But things do not go as well as they want them to. While knowing deep down that he must love her just the way she is, his professional idealism raises its head every now and then, he acts as if he wanted Sarah to learn to speak. Sarah senses it, and decides to leave his place without telling him where she is going.  James is left alone.

Months after they are parted, James goes to meet Sarah's mom to find out she works downtown as a manicurist. James goes to the salon where she works and sees her through the shop window receiving a tip from a satisfied customer. James leaves the salon without contacting Sarah.

Time passes. There is a school festival. James looks happy with his students dancing and smiling. But in the back of his mind, there is always Sarah. How is she doing? Doesn't she miss me? Could she ever come back to me... He turns his eyes off his happy students and sees a crowd of formally-dressed guests. Among a number of tall guests, near their shoulders, that familiar long curly hair is glimpsed, and as those guests walk off, a full figure of the owner of that hair becomes visible. It was Sarah dressed in a white one-piece dress and white heels. The upper chest of the dress is slightly lacy to make her look charmingly feminine. James cannot believe his eyes. He slowly looks away from his charmingly-dressed former girlfriend and leaves the party room and gets out into the starry night. A while later, Sarah joins him outside. They tell each other by sign language what went through their minds while they were apart. They realize they need each other. 

The actress who plays Sarah is Marlee Matlin. She is very charming in the movie, able to express so many complicated emotions. In real life, she lost almost all of her hearing ability as a child, but that didn't stop her from pursuing acting career. At age 58, she is still incredibly vivacious and charming. She is also very active in promoting support for people with hearing impairment. 

Her co-star, William Hur who played James passed away last year after leaving a colorful filmography behind...