An Idiot in a Pink T-shirt
I adopted the identity of an idiot in a pink t-shirt back in 2021. I had run the Millstone 100, a hundred-mile race through the Peak District, where I was lucky enough to finish third. I ran the race in a bright pink t-shirt and had gone into it determined to enjoy myself as much as possible and make some friends along the way. Throughout the race, some of the marshals and other runners started to recognise me as the guy in the pink t-shirt, and so I ran with it. A pink t-shirt has featured in many of my races ever since.
I was asked to write a little about my experience in the race the following year, which you can read on the Peak Running website. In it, I discuss my approach to running, which mostly includes doing strength training and other sports and not running too much. This is more or less the opposite of what I’ve been doing with the increased mileage recently.
Other aspects have remained the same; I still appear to be woefully unprepared and I still don’t consider myself a proper runner. For those of you wondering how I plan to run over 2000 miles across Japan without being either of these things, sometimes I wonder that myself.
Proper runners race on a track or mix up their training with intervals, strides, warm-ups and all of that stuff. I’ve never been fast and I’ve never stuck to a training plan. I go out each day, jump up and down a bit, and run as far as feels right for the day. Some days, I do that twice.
Prepared people would have planned a route through Japan by now. They would be pretty sure whether they had a support crew. They would have budgeted to know they had the money to get to the end. The more organised people I know would even have booked hotels, or at least flights, I have not.
A race across Japan is something to enjoy and take as it comes. I’ll be planning a rough route over the next week or two, but that’s to give me a better estimate of how far I’ll run and because other people find it interesting. I’m not stressing about what happens on the ground until I am on the ground.
I’ve often seen the phrase “Plan B is for people who don’t believe in Plan A.” As if sticking to a rigid plan A and powering through will provide the desired result, but if you create a fallback option, you’re already setting yourself up to fail with Plan A. I am bypassing either of these issues by not having any plan other than to put one foot in front of the other and repeat as necessary.
As for my current training, I’m doing a bit shorter mileage this week. I’m off into the countryside next week, where I hope to ramp up the mileage and have a few good days in the mountains. That’s as far as I’ve planned. I probably won’t do any speedwork or intervals. The only reason I do what Garmin counts as “recovery runs” is because I’m very slow and that’s what Garmin decides the run should be categorised as.
Will I be ready to run so far in Japan? I have no idea. But I’ll give it a go, and there’s a good chance I’ll still be wearing a pink T-shirt.
