24 days until Tokyo Marathon

Walking a tightrope at the moment with my training for the Tokyo Marathon. Both Achilles tendons would like very much to cause me difficulties, my knees need daily icing and the lymph gland on the right hand side of my neck is a bit swollen and sore. But two more long runs and I'm into recovery mode.

Runners on Twitter

Finding runners on Twitter has proved much harder than finding cyclists. And the runners who are on Twitter tend to Tweet less often. Someone should so a study...

Anyway, here's some runners on Twitter

twitter.com/Flotrack (Track website)
twitter.com/track_news (very good)
twitter.com/tashadanvers (British hurdler)
twitter.com/PreRaceJitters (Track website)
twitter.com/TysonGay (appears to be the real deal, but no Tweet since Beijing)
twitter.com/nyrr_pro
twitter.com/runningtimes
twitter.com/runnersworld
twitter.com/USATrack_Field
twitter.com/JeffGalloway (Olympian)
twitter.com/ShannonRowbury (Olympian)
twitter.com/treyhardee (Olympain - decathlon)
twitter.com/bryanclay (Olympic gold medallist - decathlon)
twitter.com/joshcoxrun (US 50km champ)
twitter.com/RunBlogRun

Where are all the British athletes? Australian athletes? Japanese athletes? If anyone knows please post your finds below.

Cyclists on Twitter

I've been following Twitter a lot lately, and I've been enjoying the Twitter posts by various cyclists around the world. Here's a list of the cyclists I'm following:

twitter.com/PhilLiggett - Commentator Phil Liggett
twitter.com/ghincapie - George Hincapie
twitter.com/kmoerenhout - Koos Moerenhout
twitter.com/taylorphinney - Taylor Phinney
twitter.com/axelmerckx - Axel Merckx
twitter.com/velonews - Velo News magazine
twitter.com/ChristianVDV - Christian Vande Velde
twitter.com/LizKreutz - Liz Kreutz photographer
twitter.com/tourdownunder - Tour Down Under
twitter.com/bikeworld - Bike World (very good)
https://twitter.com/dzabriskie - Dave Zabriskie
twitter.com/carlossastre - Carlos Sastre (real?)
twitter.com/christianmeier - Christian Meier
twitter.com/KankiKnight - Japanese cycling/product news
twitter.com/TeamSlipstream - Team Slipstream
twitter.com/EdwardPickering - Cycle Sport writer
twitter.com/SRichardsonCW - Cycling Weekly writer
twitter.com/lionelbirnie - Cycle Sport writer
twitter.com/neilroad - Road Magazine
twitter.com/jimochowicz - Jim Ochowicz
twitter.com/mickrogers - Michael Rogers
twitter.com/TwitEndurance (very good)
twitter.com/steephill Steephill TV

...and there are others I choose not to follow, such as Ivan Basso, Lance Armstrong and the Ouch! team of Floyd Landis.

You might notice I've included my site: twitter.com/KankiKnight
I focus on Japanese design, but I always pass on news about Japanese cycling products from Shimano, Araya, Bridgestone etc.

Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon / Marugame Half Marathon

Moroccan runner Adil Annai took a fine win in the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in a personal best time of 2.10.15, while in the arguably more competitive Marugame Half Marathon Mekubo Mugusu won in a time of 1.00.37.

Results
Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon
1. Adil Annai 2.10.15
2. Seiji Kobayahshi 2.10.43
3. Keita Akiba 2.10.53
4. Scott Westcott (Australia) 2.12.56

Marugame Half Marathon
Men
1. Mekubo Mugusu 1.00.37
2. Daniel Gitau 1.01.34
3. Atsushi Sato 1.02.24

Women
1. Mara Yamauchi 1.08.29
2. Yuri Kano 1.09.24
3. ?
4. Reiko Tosa 1.10.58

A good 5km

I turned up to Oda Field in Yoyogi Park on Wednesday dreading the idea of running 5km. My neck was hurting a lot - some kind of glandular pain - and I felt weary. But I figured I'd give it a go.

Then, after running 2km, my shoelace came undone, but I kept going.

And I was rewarded with a half-decent time - 17.33. My equal second best time. Of course, now I wish I'd run just a bit faster. Sub 17.30 would have been nice. But all things considered, I can't complain.

Did a good 2 hour run the next day.