Brooks Trance and Karl Meltzer

I went to Sportsword in Kobe yesterday with full intentions of buying another pair of ASICS GT 2160s. They are a decent stablity shoe that served me fairly well. I used to wear the ASICS Gel Kayanos, but after a few years needed a change. The 2160s were good and offered me the stability I needed (I have low arches), but I had a lot of blister issues with them.

While at SportsWorld, I saw something I've never seen in Japan. I saw Brooks running shoes for sale. They had all the latest and some of last year's models for sale. I did a quick search on Google (on my phone) and read that the Brooks Trance were a highly rated stability shoe.


I picked up the Brooks Trance 9's for 7,000Yen. the sticker price was 13,000. A nice bargain. I was excited to try them this morning for my 12k run. After one run, they felt quite nice. They were relatively light, felt supportive and after the run, no sign of rubbing that might lead to blisters. So far so good!

WEATHER UPDATE....looks like the June 25th Running to Help Japan 60k will be done in the rain. It is supposed to rain everyday for the next week or more. Rainy season is alive and well in Japan. I suppose I have to look at the bright side. Running in the rain is far better than running in the blistering heat!


Recently I have ben hearing more and more about a pretty inspiring athlete. Karl Meltzer is an incredible ultra runner from the United States. I have been watching a lot of videos about him recently. He is an inspiratation for sure!

Last year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express, he ran the entire length of it. he ran 2,064 miles (3,302 kilometers) in 42 days! Amazing!






A video blog I made today:



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Amazing Giveaway

The kind folks at Runmeter have gifted me a few of their apps to give to you great people out there. I want to thank you for your support so far on the Running to Help Japan project. If you have an iPhone and are interested in getting the most amazing GPS running app out there, leave a comment below!


I will be having a raffle for the winner in a few days!

Check out my First Giving donation page. This is where you can donate to Save the Children Japan and help those who need it the most in northern Japan.

Great Week and Runmeter iPhone Running app contest to come

This week was great for so many reasons. I was off work for most of it due to the Golden Week holiday here in Japan. I did have to work on Friday and Saturday, but pretty much had an entire week off. I took the opportunity to run and walk almost 100km!


I went hiking on Tuesday. It was the first time I had in about a month and only the second time in 2011. I forgot how absolutely brutal hiking can be on you legs in so many different ways than running. I took it as a great cross-training exercise! i also had the chance to try geocaching for the first time with You Tube viewer "EsperRanger." It was fun for sure.

I logged another 30+km long run today and plan a longer one next weekend.


In way cool news, the fine people at Runmeter (the most advanced iPhone app for runners) have offered to throw a few free apps my way to use as giveaways. I am still thinking about how I will do this. I am probably going to make a video about it later this week on my BusanKevin You Tube channel. If you can do something to promote Running to Help Japan (on Twitter, facebook, You Tube, a blog, newsaper, etc.) and are interested in getting the Runmeter app for free (retails for $4.99 U.S.), you can contact me and I may have a raffle! Just so you all know, Runmeter is the app I will be using throughout my Running to Help Japan project to collect all the data and create the maps of my running. I've ben using it for for about 2 weeks now and am loving it!


Here are a few picture from my hike earlier this week on Mt. Rokko right here in Kobe, Japan.






You can donate to Running to Help Japan here:

Running to Help Japan and Runmeter

A few days ago, my friend Steve tweeted to the company that makes the iPhone running app "Runmeter." He told them about what I am doing and that they should gift me the app as a way of supporting me and Running to Help Japan. The kind folks at Runmeter did just that Last night I installed the runnnig app on my phone and I used it fir this mornings run! I still have a lot to learn about the functionality of the app, but so far, so good! I really like it. It has a lot of options my previous running app didn't have. I like the fact that it will tweet my location and maps to people as I run. i also like the fact that if people send me tweets on Twitter or messages on Facebook while I run, a voice reads them to me! Great motivation.


here is the Runmeter display showing the stats on my run today. Actually, I would have run this about 5 minutes faster, but I stopped to fumble with the app and figure things out. There is a function that stops it from recording when I am not in motion (great if you are stopped at a traffic light), but I didn't know how to turn it on until half way through the run!


Thanks to the fine folks at Runmeter for supporting me in my run. I appreciate you sending me this very cool app and will use it during my June ultra run for Save the Children. i will also use it during the Osaka Marathon and some other runnning events this year!


Here is the map data from the run I did this morning in Kobe.



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