Tradition

Sunday- Today is the traditional day for long runs. The plan was to run for about 2 hours from my house to Shintanabe and then take the bus home. I ran the first 30 minutes with L and then continued on. The first hour of this run is on trails and the last hour is on the road into Shintanabe. After leaving L I picked up the pace a bit but not much. I was quite tired today because I ran speed on Thursday so my legs were quite dead.

I am so lucky to be living in this area. There are so many trails within running distance. Every time I go out I find new trails to explore.

Anyway on the last section of trails before I hit the road I made a wrong turn and ended up getting a bit lost in the bamboo forest. There are many trail markers in the woods, red, yellow and blue posts so I thought I was doing ok as I followed them. Unfortunately they led me to a dead end at the bottom of a ravine. I backtracked up following the posts again and tried another little trail. The same thing happened. The posts lead me to the edge of a ravine above a stream. I could have tried to reverse course and go all the way back the way I came but it was uphill and would have been a long way so I decided to go forward. I slid down the side of the ravine, holding on to trees and rocks, and made it down to the stream. I followed the woodsmans rule that says when you are lost, follow water to lead you out of trouble. So I followed the stream and thankfully it led me out of the woods to the edge of a giant rice field. I crossed the field to get to the nearest road and then headed downhill again since I knew that was the direction I needed to go. I confirmed my directions by asking a farmer the way to town. He was quite friendly, he told me the way and then said Kiotsukete ne (Be careful) I was impressed by his kindness. So I headed off down the road until I came to a road that I recognized and then jogged the rest of the way into Shintanabe. The total run was 2:42. I will call it 14 because of a lot of slow "running" when I was lost. After arriving in Shintanbe, I had some time to blow so I stopped at Mr. Donuts for 3 donuts and a coke. Ah the breakfast of champions!!