Marathon Weekend

Manga-kissa, we meet once more. More often than not I seem to find myself in one of these while I am travelling around Japan. But, I only dropped in to catch a few winks. What I did was take a highway bus overnight from Yonezawa into Tokyo, but sleeping on the bus was a challenge. So, after catching up a couple hours uninterrupted I finally feel more energized. I am on my way to Miyazaki Prefecture, which is at the southern end of Kyushu. My marathon is at 9am Sunday moring, so I am less than 48 hours from what may be absolute physical torture.

My training has prepared me well, I hope. This week I haven't run at all because I have been dealing with some nagging injuries like shin splints, so I figured getting as healed as possible would do me better than any light running. Three weeks ago I ran 20 miles and felt very good doing so. I was able to maintain my goal pace through most of that run, but the last 6.2 miles of a marathon is the true test. I have no inkling of how my body will react when I push that extra distance because I have never run further than 20 miles. The "wall" is waiting. My hope is that my friend who is doing the half marathon will be able to take my camera and situate herself at the finish line, and record either photographs or video of my finish.

The title of the post has a double meaning, however. I use the word marathon in another sense, describing the length of the weekend itself. I took 2 days off for this, and on Monday as I make my journey back home I will be stopping once more in Tokyo to take the GRE. Mental torture following a day of physical torture. Would it be a stretch to call me the first human being in history to run a marathon and then take the GRE the following day? I don't think any other human being is that stupid. One computerized practice exam I took the other day gave me a verbal score of 590 and a quantatative score of 620. Thus I will cram vocabulary at any free moment I have this weekend. Gotta raise that verbal score.

And since I haven't posted in a while, I came to a decision regarding post-JET life. Should be clear that I am intending to enter grad school, and I am officially applying to the second language studies program at UH Manoa. Columbia University has a similar program (but under a different name) that I will also apply to. If both schools reject me, then I will make an application to the University of Illinois at Chicago, since they have a very late application deadline. But by that point I will have probably committed to another year in Japan. If UH or Columbia accept me though, the chances are very likely that I am a one-year JET. More to come on this, I promise.