Aki-Essays: Tokyo Marathon, and WBC (3-29-09)

How jubilant people were in those two days, as the felicitous air originated in their positive-minded attitudes.

About a week ago, March 22nd, Sunday, about 30,000 runners drew a trace, a crisscross of 42.195 km (or 26.2 miles) to cover eastern Tokyo. Two days later, the Japanese contingent procured the trophy in the WBC (the World Baseball Classic). Both of the events amused and energized each group of supporters.

I am a so-called “fun runner,” who is not a serious athlete but customarily enjoys running (or rather jogging as the pace is slower.) In this state, unlike professional runners, I’m free of peer pressure. Instead, festive events held in each of my more than ten marathons were energizing, which I participated in at a straight pace of once or twice a year. This was the third Tokyo Marathon whose inauguration in 2007 taught me how difficult winning the participation was: I lost the lottery for the first Tokyo Marathon, and the chance of winning the 2009 marathon ticket was about one seventh. I opted to go see the marathon for this year.

Currently Tokyo is competing with Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Chicago, for hosting the Olympics in 2016, and the Tokyo Marathon plays a role in the promotion. Part of Tokyo’s appeal is its compact size and mass transit system, as with the former it could hold 90% of stadiums and other facilities for the games within an 8-km radius.

On the day of the Tokyo Marathon, those civil runners covered eastern Tokyo and demonstrated this advantage: they began running in Shinjuku eastward and arrived in Hibiya, the center of the crisscross. There, they turned north and headed for Asakusa. After turning around there, runners went to Shinagawa past Hibiya. Again, they turned around to get back to Hibiya. Having come back to the pivot, they turned east and finally arrived at the goal place, Tokyo Big Sight.

The place I went to was about the second corner forward of the goal. Wow, the procession was runners gutting it out in drizzle and gusty winds, but spectators were cheering from the sidewalks! There also were relatively old runners having agonized faces. Seeing them not a marginal number I could not help making cheers! (On a tangent I wonder if I yelled to non-Japanese runners, “Break your legs!,” how they would feel about the phrase.) [Probably not too well, as the expression is “Break a leg!” and typically only used during performances!]

It was not until I arrived at the spot on the course that I began cheering runners every so often while walking to the goal. They would very soon cross the finish line at a time later than three hours, attesting to their highly competitive but non-professional statuses. I was just urged to call out to help each of their paces last to the end. (I didn’t shy away!)

I, myself, 34, am in the amateur class and yet feeling difficulty in maintaining my physical abilities by spending the same amount of time on exercising.

This current state of mine enabled me to sympathize with those runners about the same age as me and get a word out. They performed well and deserve respect! While recognizing the sort of mutual intelligibility between runners, I have no idea how many of those spectators had the same custom of running. But even if they were not sympathetic from a runner’s viewpoint, still their motivation for cheering might have come from their ages (or their nationalities or what kind of creature they were.) And if they were encouraged to aim to participate in and achieve a marathon, the effect seems a synergistic cycle to produce new runners with spectators (when benefits of running are proven by many experts.) I, meanwhile, yet knew how a single act of cheering could encourage runners.

(Chicago hosts a major marathon as well. The well-known official event is scheduled to take place on October 11th this year. Chicago also is keen on hosting the Olympics in 2016. I don’t know up to where the Chicago marathon is promoting the Olympics, but can just imagine it’s a spectacular scene in which such 40,000 runners challenge themselves while being beheld by spectators.)

***

Two days later on the Tokyo Marathon, Japan topped the WBC consecutively for the second time. Despite the Tuesday daytime when the showdown took place, everyone was heeding the whereabouts of the close scores, via radio, cell-phones or something else. The game’s tensions were so tight that they erupted into raptures as Yu Darvish struck out South Korea’s last batsman. And parties were held at night!

After all, through the tournament (the games were held from March 5th through 23rd), Ichiro Suzuki, 35, with the Seattle Mariners, among all the Japanese players, was perhaps the largest fodder for the media.

There were both praise and criticism around him.

He was beleaguered due to poor performance through all the games except the second: Though he produced three hits out of five chances in the game, his overall average was .211 before the final game. Some baseball specialists attributed the causes of lost games to his low productivity.

Yet Ichiro was Ichiro, proving that he was still at stardom: in the final match he subverted somewhat harsh opinions and analyses by producing four hits out of six chances, including the decisive one in the last inning. In the end, Japan could not win the WBC without him.

His usual playing field is Major Leagues where criticism always resides. In proportion with the leagues’ size and competitiveness, players are under the eyes of critics, but therefore salaries are extraordinary.

Some critics point out decreases in Ichiro’s physical abilities such as stamina and eyesight. Concerning both professional and amateur athletes, the age around 35 is considered to be a turning point to make signs of physical deterioration visible, like one in running.

My curiosity, meanwhile, turns to how the performance of Norichika Aoki, 27, appeared to Ichiro during the WBC. Aoki is an up-and-coming outfielder, the same type as Ichiro, recording a high batting average and a small number of homers and running fast. In the WBC, his batting average was .324 while that in the Japanese league has been .338 over five years. (He left .347 in 2008.) I don’t fully advocate the trend of Japanese players moving to Major Leagues, while enjoying following their performances there as much as doing domestically-held games. But it’s said that Aoki is at the attention of scouts from the US.

Now, yet, Ichiro is at the plate. Under the watchful eyes of his teammates in the dugout, the skipper began circling his bat clockwise and poised it on the end of his right arm stretched toward the pitcher. This signature movement of his has not changed ever since he became popular in Japan. Doubtless, Aoki watched this, somewhat of a ritual, many times conducted in both America and Japan. He must admire Ichiro.

In pursuance of additional achievements, Ichiro must go through harsh weather conditions like heavy rain or strong winds. But imagine, from behind the clearing dark clouds millions of stars are shining for him.