Northern Country

July 27, 1983, Wednesday

After meeting with the mayor at City Hall and talking with reporters, I started running at 9:45am. I couldn't believe it--they had the streetlights turned off and cops at the intersections so that I could run through! This was the first time it's happened, and I did not expect it at all. Of course, I would not expect any other place to do it, either. It was a bit too much with the police escort.

Members of the Hakodate Running Club were there to see me off after a very formal ceremony with many people watching. It was a bit embarrassing for me, but I must admit, it felt good to be treated like this after coming all the way to the northern island of Hokkaido.

A couple of Hakodate runners joined me for the first 20km of my 41km run today. I had lunch at the Onuma Country Club. The club is a very impressive one. I was told that they use it for cross-country skiing in the wintertime. I would love to come back here to do some cross-country skiing, something that I had done a bit of when going to school in Gunnison, Colorado.

It was fairly comfortable running in the cloudy and foggy conditions that lasted all day. I reached the town of Mori at 3:00pm and went to Mr. Sasaki's house to spend the night. I had a delicious steak dinner and drank lots of beer--Sapporo beer, of course.