本当に難しい!That’s what I said to myself a few times today while running a half marathon here in Lubbock, Texas. The race was the Willie McCool memorial half marathon. The first 8 or so miles went wonderfully but then I turned on to this straight, un-shaded road with absolutely no wind. So hot or あついですね!I really had to drop my pace in order to keep my heart rate in a tolerable range. I was in the 170s for the last part and wasn’t too keen on that tempo. I reduced my pace to below 12:00 minute mile and that didn’t help too much due to the heat. Getting of that super hot road helped me recover and get back to running a bit faster. I wanted to get a new personal best and I believe I achieved that today. Around 4 minutes faster. I’d like to make that 30 minutes faster one day!

When I passed the finish line and saw one of my friends waiting I had a real strong urge to say お疲れ様でした!I’m certain I would have received quite a strange stare haha. It’s funny when these Japanese phrases just pop into your head. As I continue to slowly learn, that will probably get more frequent and I’ll just want to say more things in Japanese. Probably need to just speak to myself though or make sure the other person knows the language too. Another half marathon in the books! (funny saying)

またね