Your marathon in Okinawa is coming very soon. I heard you are running with Nakai kun. Are you confident to complete the marathon? Please don't loose "the fight against myself". When you come back from Okinawa, please tell us about the marathon. (from Yoshie 23 years old)
Under the blue cloudless sky, there was an emerald green ocean. The morning in the southern island was surprisingly cool which was different from what I have imagined. Obviously, I didn't feel like jumping into the clear ocean. I wonder how the giant coral reefs under the ocean, which no one knows how many million years old, looking this person just keep running. The people in this island live in a very quiet life. Iheya Island in Okinawa has about 1,500 population. This is a very mall remote island locating the most northern part of the main island of Okinawa.
15 km has passed from the start. All kinds of brain chemicals are running in my head and my body feels very light. I even don't feel the existence of my running legs. The great nature of the island in my sight lifts my sprit. I feel the joy of living as a part of the living creatures in this island. I guess I am in the state of "Runner's High".
The quiet night on the island is long and the sounds of waves with regular intervals don't calm my mind but make it more tense. I have to run 42.195-km marathon tomorrow but I can't sleep at all. I lost the S1 Grand Prix game in SMAPXSMAP, which was aired on January 3. The penalty is this marathon. To tell you the truth, on contrary to the regretting face in the show, I made a smiling face in my mind. For some reasons, my admiration to runners has been increasing in last few years. Running is a stoic, narcissistic and masochistic sports, which you don't think about other people but run into the own world a step by step. There aren't any other sports which will fit this well to Goro Inagaki. However, I usually don't run more than 5 km and it is beyond my imagination to run the distance of 42.195 km. It is more like jumping into the unknown world. As I look up the dimly beaming moon, I thought that Armstrong might have felt the same way a night before his landing on the moon. (laughing) The sun in the southern island began to show its real power in the afternoon. As I pass the 30-km mark, the running became the nightmare. The light footsteps got lost and my body became very heavy. It was like doing a three-leg race with a big man. Going forward became very difficult even I kept swinging my arms. My lower body became something like a heavy lead. It will be the fight against myself and I am stepping into the unknown world. But, it is only 10 km left. I am running while dreaming the moment of reaching the goal. Well, I just have to run.
The sky in the dawn. The sun is raising without any regard to me who just saw both the Heaven and the Hell. I remembered the words of the trainer who was waiting for me at the goal last night, "The most of the people will say ' I will never do the marathon again' right after completing the full marathon. But some of them feels, 'I want to do it again' the next day. The person, who feel in that way, has a talent to be a runner." I came out to the beach in the dawn dragging my legs with muscle pain. I remember the great feeling of running. I even find myself wanting to challenge the marathon again some day.
