The 17th Iejima Marathon 2009

(The island with the volcano in the middle)
Well, race day has come and gone and we had a phenomenal time. “Ie Jima” is Japanese for “Ie Island” (pronounced E-A), an island significantly smaller than Okinawa that was a 30-minute ferry ride from a port that was about an hour from our house.

The race on Saturday afternoon so we left early Friday morning, caught the ferry and spent the day exploring the island and our beach resort. We arrived at our resort before check-in time but that didn’t stop us from unloading and diving in the pool (which was actually freezing cold) and then walking down to the beach (which was gorgeous!) After a few hours of that we headed off to explore the island where we found lots of sweet potato farms, some caves, beach cliffs, lilly fields and drink machines dropped in the middle of fields (here in Okinawa you can find drink machines on every corner, I don’t even know how they had power cords running out to the machines on the edges of the fields! Imagine seeing a Coke machine on a rural farm and you get the idea. We joked that we would take yen in our running shorts in case we needed more water on the run)




There were no other hotels or restaurants but luckily we found a fabulous dinner at the country club. We were the only people there so it didn’t matter that we had a ton of kids. They were so nice to cook for us. I do wish we knew more Japanese but we squeaked by and the food was great. Hayden had real Japanese food for the first time and actually liked it despite the tantrum he threw when he realized there was no Burger King on the island. Then we went back to the resort, struggled threw putting the kids to bed and then played cards on the balcony. The resort was great, but in true Japanese fashion everything was really small and it’s hard to really say it was a “resort” other than the high price but we had a great time.
(The view from the hotel room)
The next morning we spent more time swimming (well I say “we” but the adults didn’t get in the pool because it was too cold!) While the kids swam the adults ate breakfast at the resort restaurant. Fortunately they had a few American choices like fruit, pancakes and scrambled eggs because I don’t think I would have been ready for the race based on the Japanese choices of salad, tofu, fish, pickles, spring rolls, and tons of stuff I didn’t recognize. We have very different ideas of breakfast! After breakfast we checked out and drove to the starting line of the race to get checked in. Then we drove to the volcano in the middle of the island and “hiked” up to the top. It probably wasn’t the best idea prerace but Danica actually went up all the stairs by herself so how hard could it have been? She was sooo proud of herself and kept declaring “I did it! My legs are so strong!” The view from the top was phenomenal!


From there we went down to some cliffs and explored the tide pools. We saw tons of crabs, brittle stars and fish. Toward the end an octopus was spotted and we had fun watching it swim around. By this point I was starting to get nervous for the race. It was HOT and late in the day when we went into the little bathroom at the cliffs and changed into our race gear. We made up PB&J for lunch and headed over to the start line. I ate a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal Squares on the way over because that is what I eat every morning right before I head out running so I figured I would try to keep things as routine as possible. The kids played on the playground while we lathered in sunscreen and energy bars. Our group was Tom and I, Rick and Randy. Melanie and Wendy, the wives of the other two runners were so awesome and watched all of the kids while we ran. They even had to go and park the cars down at the port and then walk back to the race since the roads would be closed during the race and we had to catch the last ferry right after the race so we could be home on Saturday night. Okay, back to the point: we got ready, lined up and waited for the guy to fire the gun. It was easy to spot Tom and Rick at the starting line because they were so much taller than the Japanese runners! We didn’t see very many Americans but there were a few.


The shot was fired and we started down the road. The race went around the entire island and was beautiful! They called it a marathon but it was only a half marathon, about 13 miles. There were lots of people sitting outside their farms cheering us on and pounding Japanese drums, lots of water stations with ice cold water and cold wet sponges that felt great. They also offered salt and brown sugar cubes for energy. It was a fabulous race and I felt great. My foot was sore at the beginning and I over compensated and got a side ached but both pains were gone by mile 3. Tom felt sluggish and tired and his iPod died so he had no music (he used mine for a few miles but it didn’t work very well) but he manage to power through it. There were a few more hills than we had anticipated but I think that’s always the case!! The late hour and the heat took it’s toll on us but we did really well and had a fabulous time.

(The finish line was lined with flowers!)
After the race the offered big bowls of hot Soba (noodle soup!) I opted for some water and sno-cone! We didn’t have much to linger since we had to hurry to catch the ferry but it all went really smoothly. The kids fell asleep on the drive home and our great adventure came to an end!

(The runners after the race, on the ferry again!)

I just decided I am running the Deseret News Marathon in Utah on July 24th, anyone want to join me?