This story is a tad dated, but I’m tyring to catch up on some things that I wanted to write…

I spent two weeks in the Tokyo area before Christmas.  My running has been hit-n-miss since summertime.  I thought this would be a good time to get back at it.  I am usually an every-other-day runner at best…sometimes doubling up on a Friday/Saturday.  I didn’t really have any particular goal in mind when I started.  I just wanted to be more deliberate about going out.  It took me a few days to get settled into a routine, but once I did, I ran every day for 8 days straight.  Some of the guys there were training for the Honolulu Marathon.  At some point after about 5 runs, I thought with a few more days of diligence, I can complete a marathon while here.  So, that became the goal. OK, it was NOT all at once, but after 8 days of running, I had amassed 27.76 miles - enought to complete the “progressive” marathon with an average of 3.47 miles per run.  Incidentally, I’ve been tracking my runs w/my Nike+ iPod attachment and am closing in on my first 100 miles since getting the iPod this summer.

I will say it was tough to get up in the morning and go out.  Temperatures hovered right around the freezing mark every morning - a far cry from the low 70s I’m used to experiencing.  One particular morning, I came in from the run to the lobby of the place we were staying.  One of the “real” marathon trainees was standing there looking out the window debating whether or not he should go out.  When I came in, he said, “Man it looks cold out there.”  I said, “It IS cold out there.  I saw some patches of frost on the ground.”  He pointed at my back and said, “Dude!  There’s frost on YOU!”  I had been wearing a long sleeve dry-wick shirt over my T-shirt to keep warm.  Well, it wicked sweat out to my shoulders and subsequently appeared to freeze there.  I’m not sure it was actually frozen, but it certainly looked that way.  For the rest of the trip, my new nickname was “Frosty (the Joe Man).”

J