Shizuoka Marathon – 10th March 2024

Time 3:39:21

Last year I was disappointed when I did not get into 2024 Tokyo Marathon and I was looking around for a replacement race. My friend Keren recommended Shizuoka Marathon as he has run it before and it turned out to be a great choice. Unfortunately, because of the 8:20 start I needed to go down the day before which just happened to be my birthday. I didn’t mind missing the balloons, special dinner and cake but as I was sitting in Dennys eating my soy meat burger and drinking the 389 yen house wine, I did admit to myself that this was a bit sad. Fortunately, I was really tired and was able to turn in shortly after 8 PM.

I slept well and was up at 5 AM to start the preparations. The hotel breakfast was at 6 AM, and luckily they started early and I was done by 6:15 and in a taxi to the local station by 6:30. Everything was going so well. Or so I thought. I had checked the Overview Times on the website which clearly stated that the gathering was from 7:20 to 8:00.

Unfortunately, this did not state that the baggage drop off ended at 7:45 so when I rocked up at 7:47 with my burst bad, they kindly mended it with the tape that they had already prepared, but would not accept my bag even though the truck was still open. They directed me to a spill over truck which was still accepting bags. It all worked out in the end, but it was a hassle I could have done without.

I headed for C Block from which I was to start and quickly ran into Rie from my club Namban Rengo. Rie was bemoaning the fact that she had given in all her gels when she handed in her bag. Now I could have been kind and split my gels with Rie, but I thought that this was finally a chance to beat her in a marathon. And Keren had told me that there was lots of food on the course.

I started well and managed to maintain my pace. The course seems to loop around Shizuoka town before going out on the highway and heading for Shimizu, where I had stayed the previous night. There was no wind and I was feeling good. At a turn around at 13.5km I noticed that I had gained 2 minutes 20 seconds on Rie and was feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Just before the 23 km mark there was a sharp right turn and we were on the highway. And we were looking straight at Mt. Fuji. It rose majestically in front of us, capped with snow, stayed there for the best part of an hour. It was inspiring just running in its presence.

I was still going well. Running between 5:05 and 5:15 per km. Then the strawberries came out, just like Keren had promised. I enjoyed them and kept going. I didn’t feel too bad and my main goal was to keep running and not stop or walk. Then at 32km Rie came flying past. It wasn’t even a slow catch up, chat for a while and then move ahead. She went past with power and determination with just enough time to say hello. I asked if she was enjoying the food. Her reply was lost in her forward momentum.

I kept going. On and on and the craic was good, as Van Morrison would say. I realised that I might keep going onto the end. At 36 km we turned off the highway and headed for the finish. I knew that I did not need to stop. At 40km I saw Keizo with whom I used to work and he took this photo. He was the only person I knew who was out supporting. It was funny as I had seen him at Shonan Marathon in December.

I kept going. All the time calculating how fast I needed to run to get in under 3:40. We took a right turn, saw the 42 km marker and there was the finish in front of us. I finished in 3:39:21. 3 minutes after Rie.

Screenshot

I had a great day and a great run. I don’t feel too bad turning a year older if I can still do this.

Shinjuku City Half Marathon – 28th January 2024

Time 1:36:19

After the hard times that I had at the races in November and December, I knew that I would need to up my game and do something different. So on 29th December I decided that I would go for a run everyday over the year end holidays. I did not know if I could do it, but as I was going back to work at the start of January I realised that I had run for 6 consecutive days. I decided to keep it going and make an effort as I headed into my marathon training for the Shizuoka Marathon on the 10th March. Thus, I had run for 30 consecutive days as I stood on the start line of the Shinjuku City Half Marathon.

I met Ben and Hemant at Gaienmae station at 7:15 AM and we walked up to the Tokyo Olympic Stadium together. There were not many people around and we quickly got in and found a row of seats where we would wait for the next 30 minutes. Ben had not run many half marathons and wanted to get to the start early on and left Hemant and myself around 7:45 AM. We both headed off just after 8:00 AM and we ran into Hayakawa san in the tunnel before we entered the stadium. As I waited in my block, I met Yoji from Park Run. It really felt like a local race.

Right from the start I felt so much better than I had felt in Setagaya in March. Again the GPS was all over the place but I was not being passed and I felt that I could manage my effort. After a few km, I heard my name being called from the other side of the street. Ashley was just finishing up his own training run and had hung around to cheer me on.

Everything went well and I managed to maintain my pace and didn’t feel too bad. I took my first drink at 15km which is a good sign for me as I was not going to get any stitches drinking so late in the race. As I was going back along the side of the Olympic Stadium, I heard my name again from the other side of the road. This time it was Satohi san. She planned to run the 10km race which was scheduled for later and was watching the half marathon and taking photos.

I was very plaesed to finish 2 minutes faster than I had run the Shinjuku City Half Marathon in 2023 and 17 minutes faster than I had run the Setagaya Half Marathon in November. As I was changing after the race I ran into Hil who had also ran the Half Marathon. It really was a local race in a big city.

Shonan Marathon – 3rd December 2023

Time 4:20:18

After the disaster of November’s Setagaya Half Marathon, I knew that this was going to be a challenge. I had managed one long run on the 23rd November and a 20km run three days later with Tony, but I did not have the consistency or the strength to run a good race. But what I did have was a race bib and a ticket for the 6 AM bus from Mizonokuchi to the start line.

I left my house in plenty of time to catch the 6 AM bus but soon discovered that there were loads of buses and I was able to get one at 5:40 AM which but me down at the start one hour later where I met up with Andrew. We had a couple of hours to wait until the start but it wasn’t too cold and we enjoyed the sunrise with the other 20,000 participants.

Fortunately, we started near the top of the pack and began our race at 9:01 AM. It was a glorious day and even though I was not feeling great, I was happy at the start. I had also ran Park Run the day before with the target of trying to reach 100 PRs by January 6th, which eventually I managed to do with my friends Stan and Mika. Even though I ran it slowly, it still impacted me and I was soon in trouble.

Andrew ran with me for the first 19km at a fairly steady pace of 5:30 ~ 5:45, but then we turned around and started running back up the coast and I was in more trouble. Andrew went ahead and I put my head down and tried to get through the race. Ben passed me. And then 20 minutes later he passed me again. That was quite disheartening but I kept going as the headwind got stronger. Shonan Marathon does not provide paper cups so the organizers require runners to bring their own cups and they have lots of drums of water and sports drinks a long the course. Initially, I was a bit weary but there were so many drums that I was never in want of a drink. There was plenty of food as well.

Eventually, I got around the course, after walking a lot after 28km, in my worst time since the Dublin Marathon in 2009. Again I was happy to finish and to meet Hinson with whom I used to work at the finish line.

Andrew and myself made it onto a bus and then onto a train where amazingly we got a seat and finally I got home. I was happy to have completed the marathon but knew that I would have to try harder for the next one.

Setagaya Half Marathon – 12th November 2023

Time 1:53:39

The Setagaya Half Marathon was my first running race since April 2023. I had done 3 triathlons and a lot of Park Runs in the 7 months in between but had not really gotten back into running. The plan was to start running in October after the Kujukuri Triathlon but I booked a cycling trip to Kyoto that month and then promptly got the flu. That knocked me out for a week but continued to impact me for much more. I did my first Park Run in a month the day before this half marathon which was probably not a very smart move.

On the morning of the race, I met up with Dominic who was over from Germany in local train station and we headed over to the stadium where a few more Namban people were milling about. I was not feeling great but trying to put a brave face on things as we lined up at the start. The first kilometre went to plan with a 5 minute pace, but after that everything went to pot as my GPS went haywire. I had no idea if I was running to pace and I was finding the going tough. Gradually, I saw more and more people pass me, including Peter from Park Run who was kind enough to take a photo of the moment.

I was trying hard but going nowhere. I just put my head down in the rain and tried to get through it. Things were a lot worse as I knew all the streets really well as this was my backyard where I do Park Run and most of my training. Eventually, as I was getting close to the finish I saw Richard from Park Run charging from behind me. I couldn’t stay with him. I had nothing left and my pace was in gutter. Somehow I managed to finish in my worse time since 2006. Still, I was happy that I completed and ran into Eddi and Satohi as I was leaving. I will come back next year for my revenge.

Tokyo Marathon 2023

Time 3:56:32

This year on the 5th March I completed my 6th Tokyo Marathon, and 23rd marathon in total. Not my slowest Tokyo Marathon, as that honour still goes to my first one back in 2009, but my second slowest. Last year I was in much better shape, regularly running Park Run in under 20 minutes. But I failed to complete two marathons, DNFing in February and March.

I started my training block in October 2022 and things seemed to be going well. Then my wife and daughter got COVID in the first and second weeks of November and I had to quarantine at home. I was OK and managed a few rides on the trainer but nothing outside. By mid November I was free to rejoin society and started my haphazard training plan. I just getting back into training again when my other daughter caught the virus in the second week of December. Then I got it on the day before Christmas Eve. That wiped out my training for 2 weeks. I had intended to go to Nagano and run everyday but ended up spending 8 days in bed watching Netflix and eating. I wasn’t that sick.

So that is my excuse. I am sure that it is one shared by many. I restarted training on 3rd January 8 weeks before the start on the race with the goal of completing the Tokyo Marathon, regardless of the time. I ran 230km in January and 256km in February and managed five 30+km long runs. I also completed Shinjuku City Half Marathon in a time of 1:38 on the last Sunday in January. However, I did find the training tiring and never really managed more than 3 or 4 training runs a week where I would usually run 5 or 6.

I got to Shinjuku for the start of the race too early. There was lots of restrictions due to security and COVID and I spent a lot of time taking my temperature, updating an App, taking antigen tests and updating an App. At the end of the day I was a bit worried that there would be a delay entering the starting area and I got there about two hours before the start of the race. Of course there was no issues, despite the large number of people already there. I found myself a place on a low wall and listened to music for an hour and tried to stay warm. At 8:10, a full hour before the start of the race, I dropped off my bag and headed for Coral D, which was already quite full.

The weather was a little cold waiting for the race to start but because you had to bring your iPhone with you, I had music for the first time and the time passed quickly. Once we started I felt good. The first part of the race is all down hill but I tried to keep my pace to around 5:15 ~ 5:30 per km. I enjoyed running through Shinjuku and the crowds were out in force. At the 6km point there was a big crowd from my club Namban Rengo and their cheering gave me a great lift.

Spotting the Namban Rengo crew at the 6km point.

I was still trying to run within myself and not get carried away. It was a little difficult with all the runners who were flooding the streets. One thing that became immediately obvious was that there were a lot more foreign runners than in previous years and a lot of people running for their 6th Abbot Star. I saw lots of Irish flags among the spectators and afterwards noticed that 178 Irish had run the race.

More great support from Namban Rengo.

Throughout the race, Namban Rengo supporters were popping up all over the place and I got lots of photos to show for it. I was delighted to see them all and their shouts really kept me going. I was still on pace as I got through half way but after the 25km mark things started to go downhill. Fortunately, I knew that I was well into the second half of the race and that I could finish if I just held on. More and more people were passing me but I only needed to walk a couple of times in the last 10km.

Struggling in the final 10km.

Once we got into Marunouchi the crowds were deep and my friend Mike shouted to me. I was thrilled to see him. Suddenly I was in behind the 4 hour pacer and he was shouting to his crew that we were near the 4 hour barrier and we could make it if we could run the final few hundred metres in 2 minutes. I gritted my teeth and got in behind him and gave it my best shout and finished with a gross time of 3:59:57 and a net time of 3:56:32. It wasn’t a great time, but it was a great relief to finally finish my first marathon since November 2019. I felt that I had been through something and came out the other side intact. March 5th is also my late mother’s birthday so I was feeling rather emotional all round.

Pushing it in the final 1km in Marunouchi.

That afternoon Namban Rengo organized its annual post Tokyo Marathon party. It was wonderful to meet up with all the people who had run and those who had come out to support. We laughed, we cried, we drank beer …

With all the members of Namban Rengo at the post Tokyo Marathon party.

20th Shinjuku City Half Marathon – 29th Jan 2023

National Stadium at 7:45 AM on the last Sunday in January

Net time 1:38:07

After many years of not completing a major running event I managed to run the Shinjuku City Half Marathon this morning. This event has many happy memories for me as it was the first major event that I ever participated in back in 2006 (2:00:58). I was so sore after that run that I could barely walk to the station and although I made it into work the next day, Monday, I went home sick at lunchtime and took the Tuesday off as well. I ran it two more times, in 2008 (1:50:59) and in 2011 (1:36:47). After that the race’s popularity shot up and it became too difficult to get an entry spot and I switched my attention to the Chiba Marine Half Marathon from 2012 onwards.

So it was with no expectations that I applied for the race again last September when Satohi san from my club sent out a notification that it was open for entry. But I was delighted to get in. I just looked at it as part of my Tokyo Marathon training which started at the start of December and is due to conclude in Marunouchi on the 5th March. However, Covid set me back a bit and I missed 2 weeks of high quality training over Christmas. I did manage to get back on the horse at the start of January and I was able to run a couple of long runs in January and 3 track sessions.

Not enough training but I had sufficient confidence to start today’s race and know that I would give it my best shot. The race started in the National Stadium which was built for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Unnecessary Covid measures were put in place including downloading an app, pretending to take your temperature everyday and getting a PCR or Antigen test. These added to the anxiety of an early start but at the end of the day did not really have much of an impact and the pre-race routine was very smooth.

The race started on time and we were quickly running out of the stadium and through the streets of Shinjuku. Because I optimistically put my target time as 1:29:59 I was in group C and running with people who were at least as fast as me and there was not much congestion during the first 3km. There was a lot of twists and turns and inclines and at around 4km we headed into the Shinjuku underpass for the first time. That is always a lot of fun and I came out the other end at 5km with renewed purpose. I had hoped to be running at 4:30/km pace with a goal to finish around 1:35:00 but the GPS was all over the place due to the tunnel and high rise buildings. Sometimes my pace was 4:45 and sometimes it was 4:25. And once it went to 4:10 before rebounding to 5:03. Overall I felt that I ran at a fairly stable pace and although I had to push hard during the final 3km, I think that managed to do well and my overall final pace ended up at 4:38.

Finishing at the National Stadium

After the Half Marathon and the 10km we headed to a local Italian restaurant which had been reserved by Satohi san and had a lovely lunch while we looked at the results of our club mates that started to come in from Marathons and Half Marathons around Kanto. It really was great to back socialising normally after three years and I am looking forward to many more events like this.

Post race lunch at the Italian restaurant EMILIA

4th Watarase Reservoir Marathon Week 16/16

Friday Morning

I am not have a lot to report as I prepare to run the Watarase Reservoir Marathon on Wednesday. I took things easy this week. Partly to relax and recover before the race but also partly because I had to travel a little for work.

14th ~ 20th February 20 km of running.

Monday Rest Day

Tuesday Rest Day

Wednesday Rest Day

Thursday Rest Day

Friday 12.5 km Easy

Saturday Park Run Volunteer

Sunday 8 km Easy

I won’t bore you with what I did on my Rest Days, but on Friday I did manage to get up early and run down to Marukobashi and back before I started work. It was a glorious morning but my heavy legs felt tired. On Saturday I volunteered at Park Run in Futakotamagawa. My job is standing at a T-Junction and making sure that people go the right way while I am taking a few photos. I try to volunteer right before I have a race as it is a good opportunity to help out and it does not impact my training. Unfortunately, February is not a great month to be standing around for an hour as it is freezing.

Waiting for the action to begin

Park Run Start

Although it was cold, it was a good event and I enjoyed participating in it. The plan had been to get home and warm up and then go for a short run. However, after being back in bed for 2 hours I was no warmer and I decided that I would knock the run on the head and just relax for the rest of the day watching the Winter Olympics.

On Sunday I did get out for a run, but not particularly early. I got up before 8 AM and have my breakfast. However, I then messed around for a couple of hours and the final of the Olympic Curling competition began at 10 AM. As Japan was in the final against Team GB, I felt honour-bound to stay and support. Things did not go our way but I did get out for a run at 12:30 and completed 3 laps of the neighbourhood. After lunch I headed into Futakotamagawa to find gels for the race. I had tried to buy some in Mizonokuchi on Saturday night but none were to be had. Fortunately, Mont Bell carries a selection and I was able to find these which I had used before. I limited myself to just one caffeine infused gel which I plan to take in the last 10 km.

The gels

Finally, I took a look at the weather forecast for Watarase for Wednesday. Frankly, it is not great. I can take the temperature of 5 ~ 7 degrees temperature, but I am not thrilled about the wind. The race will take in 7 laps of the course so the wind will be with me as well as against me but I generally prefer no wind and not get tired out. There is a chance that it will die down in the next 60 hours. I will let you know.

4th Watarase Reservoir Marathon Week 15/16

Wednesday Morning

Week 15 of 16 completed means that I am just 10 days out from my marathon at Watarase Reservoir on Wednesday 23rd February. It sounds like a long journey but in reality it has flown by and I wonder if I could do better with a 20 week lead into a marathon to make sure that I have enough of a base. We will never know but the cancelling of Kochi and the last minute entry into Watarase has rather put me out and the training plan is coming to an end a little faster than I had anticipated. I did have a good week and I put in a few nice sessions so I think that I have a lot to look forward to.

7th ~ 13th February 68 km of running and 3,000 m of swimming.

Monday Rest Day

Tuesday 6 x 1,000 m intervals 14 km

Wednesday Easy Run 12.5 km

Thursday Rest Day

Friday Medium Run 16.3 km and 1,500 m swim

Saturday Park Run 20:08 and 1,500 m swim

Sunday Fast Finish Long Run 20 km

Monday was a rest day and I could not get out of bed on time on Tuesday to run in the morning, so it had to be after work. Fellow runner Peter Clarke recommended the book “Easy Interval Method” by a former elite Dutch runner Klaas Lok as he rightly sensed that I was in a bit of a rut. I tried to buy it on Kindle but it is only available in paperback at the moment. I am going to get it but I am waiting until I have read all the other paperbacks that are stacked beside my bed and not getting opened. However, the idea did encourage me to run some intervals. It wasn’t pretty. I struggled badly. My original plan was to run at around a 4:10 /km pace thinking that if I could run a sub 20 minute 5 km it would be no problem. As you can see below, I ran between 4:16 and 4:30 and never looked like getting close to 4:10. I am thinking that I may be a bit fatigued and will need to rest a bit more before the marathon.

6 x 1,000 m w/ 2 minute jog

Although I ran Tuesday evening, I was able to get up and run again on Wednesday morning. It was a glorious day and I felt rejuvenated although I ran nice and slow up and down the Tamagawa. Thursday was supposed to be a snow day. And by snow day, I mean that it was due to snow all day and all night. It didn’t. But the stupid weather forecast messed up my training plans. I decided not to get up in the morning, take an easy day and then run early on Friday. When I woke up on Thursday it was barely raining, never mind snowing. It was too late to get out for a run. We were still promised snow all day. As Friday was a National Holiday in Japan, I had planned to go for a Guinness with Chad on Thursday night. As the forecast was so bad, I thought I would have to cancel, but it had not started to snow by 6 PM so we said damn the torpedos and headed to Jiyugaoka.

Clann in Jiyugaoka – Waiting For Chad

As Friday was a holiday, I had no real incentive to get up early and finally headed out for my run around 11:15 AM. It was another beautiful day and I went further than I expected. I had Park Run on Saturday morning so my expectation was just to run the bare minimum of 12.4 km to keep me in contention for the Kitamikata to Marukobshi Strava segment, but I ended up running 16.3 km as I really could not stop. Once I got home and had a nap I was out again for an easy 1,500 m swim. I am getting back into swimming and hoping to increase the frequency after the Watarase marathon.

Friday lunchtime

I am really getting into Saturday morning Park Run. Park Run started in Japan in April 2019 but really suffered under COVID. It seems to be back full time now and I am trying to go as much as possible. I have completed 36 Park Runs at present and if I can get to 50, I can buy a T Shirt with that number on the back. That is one of my goals for the first half of this year. I had been doing well and completed my previous 7 Park Runs under 20 minutes. However, the record was about to be broken. I don’t know if it was the cold, the ice on the ground or general fatigue but I just could not keep the sub 4 minute pace after the third km. I made a bit of comeback for the final km but not enough to bring my time under 20 minutes. Next Saturday is very close to the marathon so I will not run Park Run but I will volunteer as a marshal and take photos instead. Hopefully I will get some good ones that will create some nice memories for someone like this photo I got on Saturday.

Park Run Finish – Saturday

Again I managed to go for a swim in the afternoon making this week my first double of the New Year.

Sunday is Long Run day and it was raining again. Raining so much that I did not want to stop and take photos of the Tamagawa in the rain. However, as I am just 10 days out from my race I still needed to run but reduce the distance and keep the intensity. The plan today was to run 20km with the last 10km at marathon pace. I went out at a fairly comfortable pace and ran the first 10 km in 52:27. After the turn around, I had hoped to increase the pace to somewhere between 4:40 and 4:50 to see if I was up for that in the actual race. As you can see below, it did not work out as planned. My left knee was sore, not sore enough to stop me running, and I was fairly fatigued. I gave it my best shot and managed to run the second 10 km in 49:08, or 4:54 pace. I might be tired from yesterday’s Park Run or from 4 months of training, but I think I need to take more of a rest over the next 10 days so I can give my best on race day.

4th Watarase Reservoir Marathon Week 14/16

Tuesday Morning

First of all, congratulations to everybody who spotted the new name of this mini-blog series. Second, thank you to my Namban Rengo running mate Nick Coyle for getting me registered for a replacement marathon at Watarase Reservoir on 23rd February. I was a bit weary about entering a race on a Wednesday but then I realized that it was a National Holiday to celebrate the emperor’s birthday so I was all in. Week 13 of my training was a bit of a wash out once I heard that my race was cancelled. I had some vague notions of doing a marathon by myself along the Tamagawa River, but it is hard to underestimate the true value of motivation. Once Nick had signed me up for Watarase I began to feel like I could run again and started making plans.

31st January ~ 6th February 68.6 km of running and 1,500 m of swimming.

Monday Rest Day

Tuesday 12.5 km Easy

Wednesday 12.6 km Easy

Thursday 16.0 km Easy

Friday Rest Day

Saturday 5 km Park Run in 19:48 and 1,500 m swim

Sunday 22.5 km Long Run

I couldn’t run on Sunday, January 30th. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I had gone out hard for the Park Run on the previous Saturday and ran the first 1 km in 3:43 before blowing up and taking it easy for the final 2 km. I did have a few Guinness on Saturday night but nothing that would stop me from running. Even still, I felt awful on the Sunday and didn’t get out of bed until around 11 AM. I decided to take a Rest Day and try to get back into it later in the week. Just after 3 PM, Nick messaged me to say that I was in a race in 3 weeks. Monday I was not working from home and I had to visit a couple of sites and a data centre before getting back for some late calls so I did not run. Tuesday I managed to get up and do a very easy 12.5 km down to Marukobashi and back to ease myself back into training with the hope that I might actually run a marathon as planned.

Wednesday Morning

Wednesday morning I was back out and running to Marukobashi and back. I was slightly faster than Tuesday but not a lot.

Thursday Morning

On Thursday I got up a little earlier and decided to increase the distance. I headed down to the Tamagawa and ran at a little faster pace than Tuesday and Wednesday put nothing approaching Tempo. I was still getting back into things and I was very happy to be out along the river by myself.

Friday night

Friday was another Rest Day and my daughter’s birthday. We had a lovely dinner and lots of cake with perhaps a little too much wine. However, I was still able to get up for Park Run on Saturday morning, even if I was a little worse for wear.

Park Run – Saturday Morning

I had been checking the weather forecast in advance and was expecting a balmy 5 degrees. Unfortunately, once I arrived just before 8 AM, it was just 2.5 degrees and I felt cold. I tried not to make the same mistake as I had made the previous weekend where I ran the first 1 km in 3:43 and then ran the 4th and 5th km in 4:03. I went out at a conservative 3:57, improved to 3:54 and then 3:52 before finishing up with 3:58 and 3:57. It was a lot more consistent than last week, and while I did not set a PB, I was much more pleased with my effort. After getting home and cleaning up I headed to the sports club for a 1,500 m swim and keeping a promise to myself that I would swim once a week.

Saturday Night

On Saturday night we went out to dinner to further celebrate my daughter’s birthday before coming home to watch Ireland beat Wales in a cracking opening game of the 6 Nations. As the game started at 11:15 PM and finished after 01:15 AM I was very late getting to bed and did not manage to get up too early.

Sunday is Long Run Day. I have said it before and I will say it again. I wasn’t great in the morning after being up late but I had already decided to reduce the mileage as I was just 17 days out from my race. 22 km seemed appropriate and I was wondering if I could run part of it at marathon goal pace. I couldn’t. I plodded down to Tamagawa Ohashi bridge and then plodded back up listening to the Irishman Abroad and Second Captains podcasts. I felt that I was just going through the motions but happy to get the run done. Hopefully, things will improve again next week.

Kochi Marathon 2022 Cancelled

Full explanation is here