Kodoku

Let me "Begin with the End in Mind" as Stephen Covey of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People would have you do things. Just some thoughts here from the day after I completed the length of Japan run, before I begin with the daily running entries from June 11, taking us back to 1983.

Kodoku is a special Japanese word for loneliness, and it was the word that kept coming to mind when I was running. It also seemed like an appropriate title for this story about my run. In fact, on the train ride back from Wakkanai after completing my run in August 1983, I had written a few words on the back of gift-wrapping paper from the Trappistine Monastary in Hokkaido where I had bought some monk-made cookies. I still have the paper with all my chicken scratch writing on it. It reads,

...This is the story of my personal experience with this type of Kodoku, which lasted for 59 days from June 11 to August 9, 1983. The 2000 miles covered by my footsteps between the cities of Kagoshima and Wakkanai have brought forth many interesting experiences of pain and joy. It was also a very lonely journey. However, this loneliness was not caused by the lack of regular companionship (there were many friends made along the way), but more of a lack of psychological companionship. How many people can relate to someone who is extremely fatigued from pounding the pavement, day after day, covering up to 55 miles a day for almost 2 months? This feeling of being alone from this fact was almost unbearable.

Mental preparation for this run was just as important, or maybe even more important, than the physical. As I high school student, I had read the book about Bruce Tulloh's transcontinental run across the United States called "Four Million Footsteps" (1970). In that book, he describes how he just stopped running one day, sat on a sidewalk and just started to cry because he was so tired. Reading about his run helped to to prepare for the relatively unknown field (at that time) of mult-day ultrarunning.

More about the run preparation will be added in the coming days. Stay tuned...