Sunday almost-long-run

Just managed to get out the door in time and ride off into an icy overcast morning to join the throng at Yoyogi Park for an alleged long run. I was keen to get up near 20 km as a segway into some more solid mileage over the coming week (end-of-year parties and packing for moving notwithstanding).  I ended up running a very leisurely and comfortable 17.5 km in good company. And I opted to run at that pace and keep the company rather than push the pace. Priorities, priorities. I think it was about 5:30/km overall, so not too bad, really.

After the run I had to bolt home and make lunch for Chiaki, then dashed off on the bike up to Komazawa park to watch Tatsuya in some kind of road race. He had done an ekiden in the morning with some mates from school. Apparently they went alright, perhaps in the middle of the field. For his road race he was wearing a full tracksuit and wouldn't accept my counsel that he should have at least been in shorts and T-shirt. He ended up running the 2.7 km in almost 15 minutes. Not very awe-inspiring. He said that he got a strong pain in his chest and had to alternately walk and run, and that his morning run in the ekiden had been closer to 9 minutes...much more respectable. I don't think he has quite caught the running bug just yet.