Tuesday, December 12, 2006
 
A week in Japan w/pix
This was a fun trip. After packing up the USA gear late Saturday night and about 4 hours of sleep, Me and Cabada had to roll out of Bristol around 6am on Sunday morning to cathc our 7am flight over at the Tri Cities airport.  We met most of the team in Detroit before heading out to Tokyo which is 14 hours ahead of Eastern US time.  It was already Monday night by the time we arrived at the Nihon Aerobics Center in the countryside outside of Chiba city.  It was this resort for people to get away from the city and be a part of nature.  I did a short workout on the outdoor track there Tuesday Morning to shake the flight out of my legs.  They gave us a good amount of per diem, and we all our meal for free in the cafeteria there.  I still have 4,000 yen of oversized bills sticking out of my wallet.  It's only about $40 US though.  I roomed with Josh Moen in a cabin there which had a nice view from the back balcony. We would be running in the Chiba Ekiden on Thursday morning.  It is a 6 person relay over the marathon distance with each runner running between 5 and 10 kilometers. Instead of a baton, the runners exchange a sash that is worn over the head and one shoulder. In our team meeting Tuesday morning, I found out that I would be running the 3rd leg which is a 5k.  I knew that Ian Dobson had run 13:46 last year and was the fastest on this flat 5k leg.  I was excited and ready to go.  I would be receiving the sash from Andrew Carlson and handing off to Josh Moen.  Each of them were running 10k legs.  Wednesday afternooon we headed over to a hotel in Downtown Chiba which was on the course.  We all had our own rooms which were a bit cramped but nice nonethelsss.  There was painting which I liked enough to take a picture with.  I was a little dissapointed when I went in Des's room and she had the exact same painting on her wall.  The real surprise was in the restroom on the side of the toilet.  There was a bidet and a splash feature which squirt water on your butt after you take a shit.  I tried it.....a few times.  There was a sweet view of the Tokyo Bay from my window too.  The race time wasn't until 1:10 pm, so I woke up Thxgiving morning and went for a nice slow 20 minute shakeout.  I followed that up with with yet another free meal, a light breakfast in the hotel.  I got dressed up and felt like captain america, so I took a few pictures of myself.  I just started wearing thes breathright strips over my nose for races.  I think they work pretty well, but who knows.  After checking in at the hotel, I got on a bus with all the men's and women's third legs and headed over the the second exchange point.  When we got off of the bus we were each assigned a Japanese junior high student to follow us everywhere we went (I mean everywhere), carry our bags, and hand us water.  My guy was cool, but he didn't speak any english.  He was chasing me all over the place.  There were a couple of TV's in the building that we were stretching in and I got a chance to see most of Ed Moran's 5k leg.  He ran tough and finished in a big group of 4 all tied second place in about 13:34 on a downhill leg.  The Kenyan on that leg ran 13:12 which is smoking, even if it was downhill.  When it was time, we were directed over to the exchange point where I would wait for Andrew to give me the USA sash.  The Kenyans came in, then about 2 minutes later Japan, 20 seconds later the Japanese University team, 10 seconds later Australia, then I saw Andrew struggling home.  It wasn't a bad situation because I had a couple of guys not to far ahead which I could run down.  I started off pretty hard but it didn't feel like I was making up any ground for the first mile and a half.  I had no idea how fast I was running, because there were no markers on the course. The Aussie who was just ahead of me was a 3:42 1500 meter guy so I'm guessing he went out pretty hard too.  Around two miles I felt him starting to come back to me.  I passed him straight away soon thereafter and had my sights set on the Japanese University Runner.  I caught up to him right before the exchange point and handed off to Josh just behind the Japanese University team.  I ran 13:50 on my leg,  Aussie was 14:08 and the Japanese University runner was 14:15.  The Japanese runner ran 14:05, but was too far ahead for me to catch up.  The Kenyan runner, Josphat Muchiri ran 13:29 all by himself.  I looked him up online and saw that he had run a 27:04 10k on the track like a month earlier so I didn't feel too bad about it.  I cooled down with the Aussie, Michael Shelley, and got back on the bus to take us over to the stadium for the finish.  There was a TV on the Bus which was cool because I was able to follow my teammates in real time.  Josh opened up about 13 seconds on his leg and Pat Tarpy and Ryan Sheehan maintained that to bring the US home team home in third for the second year in a row.  We all made a little bit of Money and got on the podium which was cool. I was the last person to make it back to the stadium after Ryan had already finished.  I was checking out the results and splits while we waited for the awards ceremony to start.  We were all pretty excited.  I took a picture with the Japanese guy who ran on my leg. My coach, Scott Simmons was there as well.  He will be staying in Japan with Fernando for the Fukuoka Marathon on Dec. 3rd.  The women's team got tenth, and everyone was ready to get to the reception and  check out  the open bar. I got back to the hotel to find my homeboy Jumpei Tani who I used to live with in Tempe.  He lives in Fukuoka with his family and flew up to hang out for the night. We got dressed and were ready for some fun.  Before dinner started, they had a Mexican mariachi band which was kind of random,  I asked one of the dudes, "Donde esta la panocha?"  He was shocked at my dirty spanish, but I guess he didn't know where it was either.  After the dinner we headed over to an Outback Steakhouse where a bunch of other teams were and just relaxed.  The bartenders loved us because we were tipping which I guess isn't customary in Japan.  I had to shut Pez down in some arm wrestling.  Our Japanese translators/ guides, Atshushi and Misako, who were helping us all week were there as well.  I headed out for an easy hour run with Sam and Renee on Friday Morning.  Me and Jumpei chilled and watched some CNN (the only english channel).  I then got on a bus to Tokyo, and got ready to go back in time.  We left Tokyo around 3:00pm on Friday and arrived in Detroit at 12:00 noon on Friday.  There was also the 14 hour time difference.  I slept well and before I knew it I was back in Bristol.  I just ran 18 miles this morning in an 1:40 (5:33 pace) and now I'm packing up for my drive to Flagstaff, AZ to train at the Center for High Altitude Training.  I'll be there for a couple of months before heading up to Boulder to make the World Cross Country Team on February 10th.  So I'll be out of Bristol till late February.  Not that Bristol is a bad place, but I could use a break from it.

Here are some extra pix from the trip.

Thx for stopping by,
Fasil
 previousF0BB3483-B667-41AF-AE58-BD07A6F4BC5C.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
next EE9E5DF7-1711-4520-953B-80F7EA949FF1.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
 
Chiba
FasilBlog
“I started off pretty hard but it didn't feel like I was making up any ground for the first mile and a half.  I had no idea how fast I was running, because there were no markers on the course.”