Hello, everyone! I am back pounding the pavement after taking about 6 days off from running. Man, it felt really good to get back out there. The first day, I was doing kind of a limp-jog for about 2 miles around the track. I must have looked like Fred G. Sanford. I kept adding about a mile a day and today, I was able to put in a total of 8 miles, which included a hard 10 X 400M.
I am starting to run like a normal, uninjured human being, but I will never be as smooth as Pat Porter as show in the photo above. Pat, an Adams State College runner who was my contemporary when I was running for Western State College, dominated cross-country running in the U.S. for a number of years. Pat's running was poetry in motion. He did not just fly like a bird--he soared like an eagle. Some of us just dream of moving like that.
Anyway, I spent most of my down-time reading and want to make a few book recommendations here for those of you who are interested in modern Japanese society:
First, The Enigma of Japanese Power by Karel van Wolferen is a must-read, especially if you live in Japan. The book was written in 1989, but much of what the author presents still ring true today.
Embracing Defeat by John Dower is another excellent read about the Occupation Period in Japan immediately following the war. Did you know that the Japanese constitution was written in just over 7 days by an American team selected by SCAP? One of the architects of the constitution was a sharp, young 22-year old female who made sure that women's rights were not overlooked.
Finally, Japan's Quiet Transformation takes a look at what has happened in Japan following the bursting of the Bubble Economy. The 1990's is commonly known as the "Lost Decade" but the author, Jeff Kingston of Temple University Japan, argues that the economic realities of the period helped cause Japan to transform into a state giving more power to the citizens. He goes on to give a number of interesting examples of this quiet transformation.
OK, enough of the academic stuff. June 11 is coming up. I will be traveling to Guam very soon to gather my resources to post entries about the run across Japan. Why June 11? Because that is the day I started the run in Kagoshima in 1983. Why start in Kagoshima and not in Wakkanai? It just seemed like the logical thing to do, although I have been told I should have started in the North so the run would be all downhill!
1 comment:
Sorry to hear about the broken leg experience, scmike. I guess coming back from that depends on what kind of running you were doing before the incident. It helps if you had a solid base. I am still not back to where I was before I took the 6 days off, but I should be OK after about 2 weeks. Another thing, sometimes we may think too much of the former injury and favor it is some way. Hope you make a strong comeback!
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