Greetings to My Readers
I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.
Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.
This month…
In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:
Substack Stats
Monthly Training Stats
Race/Event Results
Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))
Final Thoughts and Hopes for October
Substack Stats
I ended August with 738 subscribers and I am ending September with 729. Looks like I lost a few people this month. But I am happy to see so many people still following.
Monthly Training Stats
Here are my training stats for September alongside the August stats for comparison:
September run total: 308.4 km (August : 322.3 km)
September walk total: 22.1 km (August : 3.0 km)
September run/walk total: 330.5 km (August : 325.3 km)
September elevation total: 1,201 m (August : 2,160 m)
I kept to a pretty consistent running schedule in September and ended the month at just over 300 km. I started doing a bit more walking in September, but this is due to me incorporating some very specific training using 一本歯下駄 (single toothed geta).
My geta training is mostly consisting of walking right now but I would like to eventually like to start running in these. I have fallen twice wearing these so I want to ease into everything first and literally not run before I can walk.
Race/Event results
I entered 5 parkruns (5 km races) during September:
September 6th: 21:26. 12th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
September 13th: 19:52. 13th overall (5th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
September 20th: 20:33.13th overall (5th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
September 27th: 20:35. 8th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
On the first week of September I combined my parkrun with a half marathon so my time was a little slower than usual. On the other parkruns I showed up early and did a 5 to 7.5 km warmup before things got started. It felt good to finally get a sub-20 again after the ridiculous summer. It’s great that things are cooling down again.
Beach sprinting was pretty much business as usual but on one of the events this month I realized I passed a milestone of 50 sprint sessions. This event has really helped me improve pretty much every aspect of my running. It’s a privilege to run with this group.
In other news, during one of these events I met a bit of a celebrit runner. You may have seen stories on running groups about a guy who ran the Osaka Marathon in under 3 hours 30 minutes wearing single toothed geta. He took part in one of the beach runs. Mino San is a great guy but I’m not sure if he knows how famous he is. Beyond being a geta runner he is also a very active barefoot runner. I’m looking forward to having the chance to run with him again in the future.
It was business as usual at my karate and iaidō dōjō. No special events to report.
Reading list
I finished two audiobooks in September:
Born of Flame by Nick Kyme
This book was an anthology focusing mainly on the Salamanders. It wasn’t bad but it was a bit frustrating that stories that I’d already experienced were retold word for word then extended a few times during this book. This is probably the least professional thing I’ve see in the series so far.
Slaves to Darkness by John French
This book was great. A direct follow up from Wolfsbane. Horus is injured and while some of his allies try to help snap him out of a dormant state, others try to cause more problems. There was a big focus on trying to round up Fulgrim and Angron for a lot of the book, and then Magnus just randomly shows up. I enjoyed this book.
I had one audiobook ongoing in September:
Heralds of the Siege by Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Anthony Reynolds, Rob Sanders, James Swallow, Gav Thorpe, and Chris Wraight
Yet another anthology. Looks like the series is winding down and moving towards the actual Siege of Terra.
Final Thoughts and Hopes for October
September is a season where we are still plagued with hot days, but it is gradually getting cooler. It was difficult to predict when would be hot and when would be cool.
I had a pretty productive September for training. It was great to get a sub-20 5K and it was also great to get started on my geta training. Unfortunately however, I managed to pick up a few injuries over the month. By the end of September both my knees and both my hands weren’t in good condition due to a couple of falls and one unfortunate punch where I almost broke my thumb against my opponents elbow.
Still, I left September with a year distance total of over 2,900 km, meaning I’m ahead of where I need to be for my minimum goal of 3,650 km this year.
I put an entry in for the Tokyo Marathon (March 2026) in August. The results were announced in September, and unfortunately I didn’t get a place. I’m now considering what to enter next year. Last year I entered the Shizuoka Marathon (entry opens October 2nd), but I’m still considering my 2026 schedule.
I still have two events I’m looking to enter:
Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail): 25-27 April 2026 (Entry in November)
Hida Takayama Ultramarathon (100 km): 8 June 2026 (Entry in November)
However, I recently received an email announcing the 1st Nara Ultramarathon (Entry late October) that will take place on 31 May 2026. Hida Takayama looks fantastic but Nara is also very very tempting. I don’t think I SHOULD try to run two 100 km races in such quick succession, I’ll consider my plan further.
In October I’m going to be taking part in a relay marathon in Ebina. This is going to be with my friends from my beach running sessions.
It’s a 1.15 km course that we are going to take turns running around to see how far we can get. We aren’t aiming to win, but we are aiming to just go and have fun. Which is the main thing.
I am going to be a bit busy in October. I’m going to do my best to run as much as I can and go for another 300 km (310 km considering October has 31 days), but that means I’ll probably need to put in extra effort on some days to make up for others.
Looks like it’s going to be a challenging month. I’ll keep powering onwards. Hope you do the same.
Thank you to all my readers
I hope you had a fantastic September and are ready to get after it during October.
Osu!
Anthony