No Fancy Dress

Forty-six days to go until the Kyoto Marathon! There isn't a lot of information available online about this race. I know that it's March 10th and there will be about 15,000 runners. I know that the course takes the runners past many shrines and temples, ending at the Heian Shrine which was built in 1894 and was expanded in 1940. I know I will receive a t-shirt, a towel and a medal. And I also know that the race does not allow fancy dress:  

"Running in fancy dress is fun and somewhat livens up the event. However, it may limit your move and make other runners and the audience on the road uncomfortable."

I guess I'll leave my fancy dress at home (fancy dress like this?), which will mean more room in my luggage. I have learned that "fancy dress" is British for "costume". Okay, this does make more sense now.

Me in running drag.

Speaking of fancy dress, I recently got some new winter running gear, and I made very good use of it yesterday. I ran 10 miles after work in freezing temperatures. Brrrrrrrr. Everything remained warm for the most part except for my hands and my face, which began to sting something fierce at about mile 7. I got a thermal top made by Sugoi and thermal pants made by Brooks at Jack Rabbit in Park Slope. The top and pants are both pretty amazing. These thermal pants are not the tights, so I can wear them and do other activities like eat large amounts of food and drink Sake.

I think these could count as fancy dress.

I was wearing new gloves that I picked up at a Tibetan store in Park Slope after seeing a pair on Shamala. They have a warm felty lining and a mitten to cover the fingerless glove holes, so they are very warm, but during my run my fingers still got so cold I had to ball up my fists inside of the gloves, a trick that sometimes works but makes for doing anything with your hands difficult.

Bigfoot approves of these.

I got new Mizuno running shoes, which is appropriate since I am heading to Japan to run in a marathon. I hear these are very popular there. I wore them on my 10 mile run yesterday and I really liked them. This pair is considered a stability shoe, but I didn't think they felt as heavy as some other stability shoes I've tried. My impact on the ground felt light. While I have high arches, I like the stability shoes more than the neutral shoes for long distance. I get my running shoes in a size bigger than my civilian shoes (I wear a size 11 running shoe!) and these didn't feel too bulky even with the bigger size. I will need to go for some more runs to really get a feel for them, but my first impression of them is great.

I'm finally not feeling plague-y and I've been able to amp up my training. On Saturday I ran 7 miles and stopped at a friend's house to feed her cats. Afterwards I ran 3 1/2 miles to meet some friends for brunch and then I ran 3 1/2 miles home for a total of 14 miles for the day. On Sunday I got in some cross-training with 4 hours of snowshoeing, hiking and running up in New Paltz. I'd really like to see if I can get 40 miles in this week even though the temperatures are extremely cold. Here's to hoping my winter fancy dress can help.