Better. Faster. Beautiful.

I did not even make it past Tilly and the Wall on my mix.
Like all good things in Shikoku the race in Kamiyama was simple in that it was free, full of enthusiastic jr. high school students, and fit elderly people.
Emma's abode in the mountain town of Kamiyama is a beautiful place to wake up in in the morning. We walked down the hill to register for the race and spent about an hour and a half jumping around in cold mud to keep our toes from freezing.
As we turned the first corner in the race and people began to break into their personal strides Christine exclaimed "I am so happy!" Which was an appropriately special comment.

With only a few meters ahead, myself and an older woman sped to the finish along side one another. When we crossed the line she shook my hand and said "thank you."

I ran the last 10K in one hour. I just wanted to beat my time. And I did so, coming in with 58 minutes.
After the race, we ate delicious Korean food and watched a marathon on T.V. I thought about how excited I am to run a marathon and how wrong my sixth grade gym teacher was about me.