Marathons are a national obsession in Japan and almost every weekend of the year (at least from September to May when it isn't too boiling hot) one is being held. We have participated in them before and they are always a fun event where people get together and run, but more importantly, have fun.

Yesterday was one such event. The race was called the Pearl Line Marathon. The name is a reference to the course where the race took place. We live on some islands to the west of Kyushu and there are five famous bridges connecting our islands to the mainland. Thirty years ago there were no bridges and everyone took boats. (We have to remember this everytime we drive the two hours to the mainland. It used to be worse!!) The stretch of road that connects the islands is a called the Pearl Line maybe for the pearls that supposedly can be harvested but maybe more so for the beautiful views the road provides. This is no normal marathon however. The contestants are encouraged to dress up in costumes and it is quite a sight seeing gorillas, samurai warriors, and cross dressers all lining up for the start in a huge group. Some of our friends got in on the action. Sarah on the other hand decided that here gold locks were costume enough and concentrated more on the running than the dressing.

Only Sarah participated (Dan has a bum knee for the time being) and she had a good run. She finished 10 km (about 6 miles for the metrically illiterate) in about 47 minutes. She was quite please and got a gold medal for her efforts. Unfortunately the gold medal didn't signify she was first (in fact she was 104) but it did represent that fact that she (along with 8 other foreign participants) had contributed to the Internationalization of the race. An accomplishment indeed!!