The day of the 10km race!

This morning was the Daito-City local 10km race event. I had heard about it a few months ago and since then have been running 5-6 mornings a week in hope of being able to run in it from start to finish. The last time I did a 10km race was back in Australia where I walked and ran it in about 1hr15mins.

A beautiful day for a local funrun. Right in the middle of Autumn, the wind was fresh and crisp with a cool breeze, yet the sun beat down bright and warm!

Ran into Mr Ushijima who I run with in the mornings if we happen to bump into eachother (He lapped me and must've placed fairly well in the men's division.) So many of the morning run regulars were there to chat with while warming up and shout "ganbatte anna!!" as they overlapped me haha. It made me think how great it was that I had made some friends completely seperate to host family and school life. Like I really was apart of this local community.

Me waving at hostfamily and some of Mama's students who also came to watch!

The final stretch

An awkard wave. I was secretly thinking "wonder if I can pass this guy past the finish line"

and...I did haha..different divisions but it made me push that little bit extra:p

 Could not get this image to flip over for me! But it says i ran 10000m in 57min14sec, placing 9th in the women's open division.

I ran at about 5min36secs which is on the fast end of my morning jogs. Trying to keep up with people up ahead and being cheered on by all the spectators and volunteers around me made it easier to keep up this pace

 The whole family came to watch me run. Knowing they were up ahead waiting made me keep running when it started getting tough. They would jump up and down and wave and chase me with a camera each time I came past. Was the greatest energy boost!

9th- the only name not written in kanji haha

Was great to see Baba on the side lines too:) The family often joke that my legs are almost up to her shoulders haha

Home again home again jiggity-jog.

 Pizza base being kneaded in the bread machine, and the family has just ducked out now to grab some topping ingrediants. I've had a nice hot shower and am back in the trackydacks for an afternoon of Japanese study!

Now that I've tackled the Daito-City 10km funrun, I'm thinking it's time to aim for the Goldcoast Half Marathon (Aug 2013)...maybe:p