Little bit of history here: My first memories of running involve my brother, racing in the back lane behind grandma & granda's. Then we went to running events in the north east of England at school age. I remember him always winning, so I started swimming until he beat me at swimming too! I pretty much gave up sport at 12 years of age to take up chasing boys, booze & tabs! But after a 10 year hiatus in 2001 I started training again, to race my brother in the Great North run half marathon.
Circumstance & 9/11 stopped us from competing in the GNR that year. & over the past few years entries into races like the Tokyo marathon were declined & with geographical difficulties no races were run. A few river & beach jogs on family holidays proved that brother is still faster. Meh. But. Now was my time to win the sibling rivalry running battle. This year when I have ran my 100k convincingly & feeling fit & fabulous & fast. So we entered into a 32k trail run through the mountains surrounding Kyoto.
But well, we're no longer spring chickens as our dad keeps reminding us! & then we both carried injuries into the competition, with my damn back pain back again with a vengeance after a fall & me bro's dodgy knee we hobbled around the amazing trail; me: "eee me back" brother: "ah ma knee" so we just took it easy down hills challenging his knees, & the nimble trail technical twisting trialling my joint.
However we had a reet giggle throughout, got high on power gels & nurofens, talked about life, dug deep on the steep slopes & didn't speak, laughed at each others ailments as brothers & sisters do & we analysed over the distance & deliberated the finishing time mostly from the outset.
& so we when we finally crossed the finish line together after 5 hours 56 mins the competitiveness was completely lost out there in the mountains. When we actually ran over the line the finish ribbon blew away so they were all flapping around & we had to stop & wait to run thru it, so a good job it wasn't a sprint finish between the two of us!! I'm just so happy & blessed to have shared the running adventure experience together!! Running x family time = fun times.
Shameless selfies at the startline, with ambitions for a speed off!!
Brother on a bridge break, just taking in some energy bars & beautiful valley views...
Kimonos hangin' in the sun, quirky Japanese nuances kept me entertained on the journey.
Photo moment. Me. One of the most serene & stunning sights along the course we crashed down the mountain to discover this lake, one of the nicer trail running surprises (the extra surprise 3 kilometres at the end of the race when our energy was waning was not one of those!!)
