Running Clubs

One of the things that I enjoy most about running is running with other people. Ten years ago, I moved to the North East of England to start my first graduate job. I didn’t know anybody in Morpeth, the town that I’d moved to. I joined Morpeth Harriers AC a few weeks after starting the new job. It was one of the best things I have ever done. I met a lot of very interesting people, spent many hours running in a beautiful part of the world, and made life-long friends. So it was that, when the decision was taken to move to Japan a few months ago, I hoped that I could find another group of runners to train with.

Sonobe, the small town in Japan that I now live, doesn’t have a running club. However, twice a week, I work at Shuchi Senior High School, which is about 10 miles from Sonobe. One of the teachers is a former professional runner. Let’s call her Mrs N. As far as I can understand it, promising young runners in Japan get hired by big companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi and put on the company payroll. They train together as a team and are entered into individual and team competitions, representing their company. So she did that for several years before retiring from professional running and turning her hand to PE teaching. Mrs N has a track and field club at Shuchi SHS. She has established a national reputation in Japan for producing superb junior runners. When she asked me to join in with her club sessions twice a week after work, I jumped at the chance.

I tentatively tried my first session this week. Due to a major school event held that day, only one student, Mr Y, was going to be running. Before we set off, Mrs N mentioned that he has represented Kyoto Prefecture at national running meets, and at 15 years old, has a 3000M track PB of 9:20. So I knew it was going to be a tough session, and it didn’t disappoint! Shuchi SHS is the oldest agricultural school in Japan. It also has the largest school site in Kyoto Prefecture. The session consisted of doing 11 intervals around a 1.1KM course around the school. Now, my Japanese language skills are still at a very basic level, and Mr Y’s English is at a similar basic level. I did understand Mr Y perfectly though when at the start of the last lap he turned to me, raised one finger and said “ichi-lap”, meaning 1 lap was remaining. I had to dig deep to hang on to him right from the start of the session. After it was over, I was elated with that feeling that you only get after a hard session during which you’d had to dig deep within yourself to keep going.

Mr Y enjoyed it too. It was the first time he’d ever run with a Gaijin (non-Japanese person). With his level of talent, he has every prospect of getting more opportunities to do so with an international call-up at some point in the future.