Photo finish?

Not only did my neighbours show up in force to cheer me on through the Teganuma Eco-Marathon yesterday, but one of them, Ishihara-san, captured a few key moments in the race: 

The "athletes" clear the 15km point, marked by the family restaurant Coco's and a whopping great bridge over the lake. 

One of the highly professional runners spots his family in the crowd...

... and proceeds to lose his place in the race posing for his wife, who somehow pressed the wrong button and videoed her thumb.

I made it!

Just a quick note to say I finished the Teganuma Eco-Marathon in one piece. My somewhat ambitious target time for the 21km was 2 hours and I finished only 22 seconds over. I owe a lot of thanks for that time to the British-like overcast weather, Nick and the folks at the NEC running club who took me under their wing and showed me how to warm up properly for the race, Taiko who waved a homemade Union Jack at me, my neighbours who ran alongside me for at least 10m, Sabri and family who cheered me on in far distant Kohoku, and my own family who hung around to cheer me and later let me nap through the afternoon. A final word of thanks goes to all the people who have donated some cash in these hard times for books for poor folk in sub-Saharan Africa. So far, you all have helped me raise 170 pounds - about ¥30,000 - but there is still time to donate if you haven't done so already. The target is 250 pounds - about ¥50,000 - which would buy 200 books. Right, cheers all. Where did I put my Suntory?  

Got to run

While you are waiting for the results to come in to see if my strenuous training routine has paid off for the Teganuma Eco-Marathon -- results due around 2:00pm Sunday Japan time (6:00am Blighty Standard Time) -- why not sponsor me here. All the money raised will go to buy books for folk in sub-Saharan Africa. Why should you make a donation? Let's review:

• Reason #7: What with the global financial meltdown, money's not worth anything anyway.
• Reason #6: Donate even a little, and then I'll stop going on about it, and get back to funny videos of cats on treadmills and mildly subversive swipes at Republican presidential hopefuls.
  
• Reason #5: Using your credit cards to make a charitable donation is like giving twice - not only will you help the poorest kids in Africa, but you will also alleviate the credit crunch thus oiling the wheels of capitalism (which oppressed the continent in the first place). Er, on second thoughts...
  
• Reason #4: Every five pounds (¥1,000) raised means four new books for the poorest people in the world. If they read all of them, they are more than qualified to be Vice President of the USA.
  
• Reason #3: Consider a donation a small repayment on the hours of fun you can get from reading Tower Tales.
  
• Reason #2: Sub-Saharan Africa is pro-Obama.
  
• Reason#1: If you don't help these folk, who the hell will?

New chapter for Tower English

Did I mention I like books? Did you know I teach, that I have two children and I'm running round Teganuma, the half-marathon-sized lake near my house? Enough questions already. Well, after reading about the late Paul Newman's achievements for charity, I thought I would emulate him in a small way and do something worthwhile that combines my passions. So, I've decided to seek sponsorship for my epic trek round Teganuma to raise some money for Book Aid, a charity that distributes books to the poorest communities in the world. For those new to giving online, here's how it works:

1. Click on my sponsorship page, or on the "widget" on the right.
2. Enter how much money you would like to donate (in pounds - there are about ¥200 to one pound), and write a message, or donate anonymously.
3. Fill out the online credit card details.
4. The money will then be sent directly to the charity.
5. I then huff and puff round Teganuma.

Book Aid reckons that for every five pounds (¥1,000) donated, they can distribute four books to people in the poorest area of the world, sub-Saharan Africa. Why books and not food and medicine? There are other charities that do that, but I believe that knowledge is power and what you can learn from reading might save a life, teach new skills vital to escape poverty, or at the very least, give children a window on the world. If we could raise 250 pounds (¥50,000) that would mean 200 books for those in need. What do you say? I've donated 20 pounds (¥4,000) from Tower English's coffers to get started, can you add to that?

Who needs a little help?

While managing to kill the best part of Saturday evening checking e-mail, radically redesigning this blog and then returning it as best I could to the way it was before, I managed to do at least one worthwhile thing. I remembered to donate a little money  to sponsor my brother-in-law who spent Saturday night and Sunday morning cycling 75 miles (125km) cross-country in the dark. Why would he do a thing like that? I'm not sure, but every penny he raised is going to a charity seeking a cure for cystic fibrosis, a life-shortening disease that my niece and nephew were born with. Donating was easy, all I had to do was click on his web page and enter a few numbers, and I felt great, a lot better than my brother-in-law did on Sunday morning, I'd wager. But it got me thinking. I'm running the Teganuma Half-Marathon on October 26th. It's a good opportunity for me to raise some money for charity, but which one should I support? Any suggestions?

Oh, by the way, rest in peace Paul Newman, a rare gent in the Hollywood world who raised more than his fair share for charities. 

The show had to go on

I finished my last lesson of the day at 5pm yesterday and donned my old Glasgow Rangers top and paint-splattered shorts to stagger round the banks of lake Teganuma. I covered just over 10km in one hour and seven minutes, for all you running folk out there (who will know that is quite a slow time) but I needed to get some training in before the half marathon around the whole lake in eight weeks. As I crossed over the main bridge, along the path where I snapped the Abiko Imperial Navy, I could see menacing black storm clouds ahead of me with occasional forked lightning. Time to turn back and sign up at a gym with cable TV? Heck no! I thought I would just increase my pace and make it round the lake before I was too much of a sitting duck for the rain and lightning. Well, I didn't make it. Ten minutes later the heavens opened up and I was drenched in one of those downpours that reminds you you're not in England anymore. And then, in the midst of the tempest, I found myself squelching through a small park, but I could hear music. I looked up and saw a stage with 20 hula dancers in grass skirts shimmying along to a Hawaiian ditty. The audience (if there had been one) had long gone, but the show had to go on. As I did, thoroughly drenched, back home. 

Training tips

My little sister has asked me to share some of my training tips for running a half-marathon, so I am glad to oblige and hope that I may inspire others. So here are my top 10 tips:

1. It's hot out there, so drink plenty of liquids. I find that a couple of half-litre cans of Suntory Malts 5.5% beer are a great thirst quencher.
2. A can of Salsa Pizza Pringles is a perfect accompaniment to the cans of Suntory.
3. Have another can of Suntory to wash down all those salty e-numbers.
4. You are now in a perfect state of mind to consider how important running will be to fight the mysterious weight gain that is creeping up on you.
5. Check your blog for additional tips.
6. The latest medical opinion is that eating plenty of peanuts will give you energy.
7. While reading the suggested training schedule that my little sister had photocopied out of Runner's World, notice a copy of Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries and read a few entries.
8. Start thinking that if he were alive today he would have been just one of millions of bloggers. 
9. Have a quick nap to consider all of the above information.
10. Time for bed!

Sole survivor

Ah, the camaraderie born of shared effort toward a common goal. Yes, I'm talking about the "Eco-Marathon" - the half marathon round the lake five minutes from my house - that I've entered which I have been busy thinking about training for very soon. Readers with a cut-and-paste memory will recall that I signed up to struggle round the lake partly as an act of local solidarity with two neighbours who vowed (nice newspaper headline word - a lot shorter than 'promised') to join the 8,000 runners in October. Well, turns out one neighbour left it too late to apply and the other forgot about it, so the upshot is I will be the sole representative to uphold the honour of my street. Now, where did I put my trainers?  

A foregone conclusion

Mark it in your diaries folks, October 26th. A day that will live in infamy. Yes, I'm talking about the 2008 Teganuma Lake half-marathon, or as they call it here the Eco Marathon (no idea why). I know I mentioned before that I was in training for it, but, ahem, after two outings I came down with a bad cough and, er, haven't done any running for a month at least.  I have applied for clearance to take part in the race and, this being the world's most organised country, had to fill out the time I expect to complete the race in, before I have actually done any training to speak of. Still, what could go wrong between now and race day?

In the running

Guess what I was doing at 8am this rainy Sunday morning? Sleeping off a well-earned hangover? Eating pancakes with the kids? No, I was huffing and puffing round Teganuma Lake in a worn-out T-shirt, paint-splattered shorts and trainers. After a few beers with my neighbour back at Christmas we agreed it would be a great idea to run the Teganuma half-marathon in long-distant October. Well, it's not so distant now and training started today. We ran with his 58-year-old colleague. I thought it was just a 3km trial run, but we got to the little bridge 20-odd minutes into the run and his colleague said, "Well, that's three kilometres, let's turn back now." Yikes, 6km in total. Still, we made it back to base only a little out of breath, although my neighbour's friend had barely broken a sweat.