Busy Day

Today was great. I’m tired and about to fall asleep, but I had a blast.

At Arume this week, my middle-sized school, the students participated in what is known as an ekiden or relay race. Combining with Takae school (because both are so small), the students formed four teams with seven runners each. The course was a 2km run through the back streets of the neighborhood surrounding Arume school, a nice run that I’ve stored for another day.

Four teams running, but some of the teachers from Takae school wanted to join in, so they asked me to join as well (several short of the seven person team, we were just doing it for fun and for the support of the kids). We dubbed ourselves “Team Metabolic,” though I have to argue that this is hardly the case for any of us, unless being metabolic is simply a result of passing the age of say, 26.

Anyway, I ran the third segment (we had two younger guys join for the fourth and fifth, and we all split the six and seven) and ran faster than I’ve ever run in a race. I clocked the 2km at 9:17, around a 7:25 mile, too fast. I also relayed the last 500m, a good sprint.

During lunchtime, I messed around in the gymnasium playing a H.O.R.S.E.-like game with a couple of 3^rd graders. It was a ton of fun; especially just getting to see them in a little bit of action and getting excited (me too!) about sinking a shot.

And as always, Tuesday means karate. Having spent myself in the morning run, I was worried about making it through tonight’s practice. I briefly tweaked my left knee and twisted my right thumb who-knows how, but I got through, sweating well like usual. But tonight’s practice was truly special. We received our certificates and blue belts for passing the examination a few weeks ago. It’s only been about four to five months since starting karate and I look forward to each session maybe more than anything else each week. It’s a hard workout and it reminds me of how I need to start running again, but I love it. Taira先生 also had some nice words for me.

Busy day, tiring day, awesome day. I could do this for a living.