Ekiden

While still not as extreme as 2014 or 2018, today has been one of the warmest days of the summer so far. Sadly, I could not join my colleagues for a swim in Nydala as I really need all the child daycare time that I can get to finish recording my lectures on political philosophy for the autumn semester.

On Strava, I just signed up for a Hoka “Ekiden” challenge consisting of a 5K run per week for the coming four weeks. Hopefully, I will be able to use one of these runs to beat my current (outdoor) PR of 21:05.

As for Japan and running longer distances, I now have my eyes firmly set on the 100k Lake Saroma Ultramarathon which takes place every year in June up on Hokkaido along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk (names and geographies that on their own should be more than enough to persuade any escapist). And, I mean, if I have friends who have enough “pannben” to swim 10 km in a 25 meters pool, running 100 km should really be the next logical step for me.