Sukiyaki Again is Fine with Me

July 9, 1983, Saturday

There was a sprinkling of rain when I started running at 8:00am today. It's still cold, just like it was yesterday. The distance for today was 55km to the town of Komatsu.

I had a group of runners with me for about 30km of the run today, so I was able to run on my own for about half of the planned route. The runners took it easy on me, knowing that I am experiencing some fatigue after close to a month of high-volume running. (Yes, I did have to remind them.) By the way, I am now in Ishikawa Prefecture. Being on the big island of Honshu, it really is a morale-booster when you find that you’ve traveled from one prefecture to another. It really makes you feel like some progress is being made. So far, Honshu has felt like a never-ending piece of landmass. I will be so happy when I get to the northern end of Honshu and take the ferry to Hokkaido.

Tonight I'm staying at Mr. Ogawa's house. He has a couple of young daughters who swim for the Komatsu Swimming Club. They have some sort of an exchange program with Guam swimmers and had a number of swim meets here and on Guam. I was introduced to the swim team coach who will be on Guam in January for the next meet.

I had Sukiyaki again tonight, but I'm not complaining. It was very tasty. So was the beer.

Note: The photo shows me in a small town with a train station at a dead-end street. Many of my daily runs started and ended at train stations like this one which, in many places, are far removed from my main route.