Working Hard - Sunday the 9th of January, 2011

A 22km beast trail run.


Starting out in this village


Fading markers show the way


Awesome downhill rock hopping sections


Stream crossing and the serious uphill battle begins


Abandoned judging by the windscreen... but the licence plate is clean...


A very isolated, half-constructed house


Working hard up the hills


Things flatten out a little before dipping into this valley and eventually climbing through the notch on the left of the horizon


Stairs to nowhere


Check the GPS. Oh, no wonder I'm feeling a slight burn in my thighs. If you can't make out the axis it's almost a 500m rise in just over 1km!!


Yay, more downhill dodging and weaving


A warning message or simply "Guy and truck available for rent" ??


The trail got a little busier - some orienteering event happening. Luckily not going over this mountain!


Grub-ilicous


My trail twists and turns along the hills


And rises a bit


On the final road to my exit point

Photos on the run - Friday the 7th of January, 2011

A quick 8km road run... no time to stop and frame photos!


Notice the speed blur at the top and bottom of the frame... I'm surprised the middle is kinda sharp!


Well, not all roads, but all paved anyway


Willie tearing up the hill!

More photo-only posts to come!

~ Joe

Covering New Ground - Thursday the 6th of January, 2011

Out along the road before heading into the jungle




Awesome dirt trails




Looking towards my path


Looking at the path I came from (over that right-hand hill)


Paved


10,000 is a bit of an over-estimation!


New ground and a wall made from completely random motor parts


Reflection noitcelfeR


Around the bamboo


An abandoned shell

Japan! - Sunday the 2nd of January, 2011

I love running in new places where I travel. I ran along the shoreline in Cairns, a half-marathon in San Francisco down to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean and a short jaunt in a random city in Vietnam.

Our trip to Tokyo was no different, and I packed my running shoes and a change of running clothes.

I finally got out on a run on the second day of the new year and planned a short course from our hotel in northern Shinjuku down to, and around, Yoyogi Park.


Heading south, I cut past the Shinjuku Hospital...


... and into Shinjuku Park


Stay off the... leaves?


After exiting Shinjuku Park, I had a bit of a roadside run ahead of me, but this wasn't a problem at all as there was almost no-one around (as opposed to trying to run on footpaths in HK!) and the vehicle traffic was rather minimal as well.




A roadside marker?


When I did reach the park, I found that at the entrance there were heaps of stalls setting up, mostly selling street foods. At the time, I assumed this was kinda normal for a public holiday!



A big gate (Torii) at he entrance of the park



More stalls... this is looking more like an event than a weekly happening...


Yoyogi Park



Recycled Art


Lots of people going somewhere!


I later found out that every year, on the exact day (2nd of January or perhaps 1st Sunday in the new year) that I decided to run down to Yoyogi Park, is the sole day that Tokyo-ites can see their King (is that right?). So it's super busy!


Awesome pond.




When I arrived there was just an old guy feeding some ducks and goldfish. I snapped the photos above and in that time, another guy had shown up, wanting to take photos of the ducks. He proceeded to stand uncomfortable close to the first old guy, who eventually gave up and walked away. The photographer had the space all to himself, but the ducks weren't interested in posing anymore as their food source had vanished!




Open fields.... in the middle of Tokyo!


Standard streets





Super apologies for all the lateness... almost 3 weeks behind now!

I feel a spate of photo-only posts coming on!

See you on the trails!
~Joe

Mad Dash - Wednesday the 29th of December

Sorry about the long backlog of entries I'm missing. I'll probably just got through and do photo posts till I catch up, possibly writing a little more on some of the more interesting entries!

This was a quick 10km down to Hang Hau and back.


Drying washing on the trackside


Overpass


Willie giving the thumbs up


Panorama at the round-about halfway up the hill


I like the shape of the branches intersecting the blue sky!

HEAPS more posts coming soon!

~Joe