Maniac Driver

July 2, 1983, Saturday

Started running at 9:00am this morning. It was cloudy at the start, but the rain started falling in the early afternoon. It got to be very cold with the hard rain. I eventually made my way to Tottori Station, a distance of 50km today. The last few kilometers were with an 80-year-old runner from the Tottori Marathon Club. This I didn't mind--it was at a very slow pace.

I reached the train station at 2:30pm, but had to wait there until about 3:00pm. I was told that we had arrived too early and had to wait for a film crew so that they could film us finishing. The crew finally arrived and we conducted an interview in the rain. By this time, the rain was really coming down hard.

Mr. Ishimaru, of the Sakyu Running Club, then offered to give me a ride in his car to the inn in Sakyu where I will be staying overnight. Sakyu is one of the more scenic spots in Tottori Prefecture and is famous for its sand dunes (See Photo). These sand dunes are Japan's largest (about 16 kilometers long and about 2.4 kilometers from north to south). They were formed by the deposit of volcanic ash on the Sendai-gawa River blown roughly from winds coming from the Sea of Japan.

I thought I would never make it to Sakyu. Why? Let me tell you why? Mr. Ishimaru is a nice, elderly gentleman (75 years old), wears Coke bottle glasses and drives like a MANIAC!!! We were going so fast that the tires were not touching the rode--they were floating on the rainwater. Yes, hydroplaning. The driving rain made it very difficult to see and there were times when we were zooming down the road in the wrong lane! In fact, at one point, Mr. Ishimaru entered a one-way route and we were driving head on into traffic. Oh, I forgot to mention that Mr. Ishimaru's car is one of those lightweight super compact cars that can still gather up plenty of speed. There was no more "Long and Winding Road" playing in my head. It was more like "Stairway to Heaven." We were very fortunate that the other drivers were not driving as recklessly as Mr. Ishimaru was.

I finally made it to the Sakyu Inn, but my heart rate is still not back to normal.