Radio Silence Explained

There have been few postings lately because of a hectic running schedule as well as the OIST Junior Researcher Retreat.

The weekend before last we ran the 10k at Kumejima, which has to be one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Okinawa.

This weekend (Sunday) we ran the shou ha shi half marathon (尚巴志ハフマラソン) in Nanjo, and I cannot recommend that run enough!

The course is gorgeous and just difficult enough. The first 5 kilometers are pretty flat, but then there is about a kilometer that is simply straight up into the air! Seriously, it's gotta be a 40 degree incline - just nuts! But, when you get up there it's gorgeous: amazing tropical ocean and sugarcane and the hills of Okinawa, breathtaking, really. There was a monstrous rain storm that unleashed on us once we got up to the top of the hill and thank goodness it did, otherwise I might have been too overheated to finish the race (which was how I felt in Kumejima where the race began at 30 degrees celsius (about 86 F) and got hotter with no clouds and bright sun).

After running through the top of that monstrous hill the next couple of kilometers are gorgeous and downhill in Chinen 知念(where I want to retire). My finishing time was nothing to write home about, but I am very proud that Karen and I finished a run that both of us were thinking we couldn't.