Author: thehungryrunnergirl

Mt.Sac!

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Mt.Sac is the coolest meet I have ever run.

Since Puma hosts this meet, there were shops, game booth, ping-pong table, and DJs were playing music! Also, a big screen showed the runners running in real-time! It was such a fun meet!

The course was pretty hard. I can’t remember, but I think I ran up maybe 4 or 5 steep hills. My back and abs were hurting at the hills… But I loved that course in spite of its difficulty! Hearing my coach yell “What hill?” motivated me to speed up. Cheering always helps.

Overall, we all did great! Even though our girls team couldn’t compete as a team, all 4 of us ran hard finishing strong!

I’d like to thank my coach (thebrownguy) and those of you who supported us! Great job everyone!

GO OVS CROSS COUNTRY!

Do good anyway

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What is kindness? Why are you kind to others? Because you want to be treated the same way? Because you want to be recognized as a nice person? Why can’t people express their love and kindness freely without any complicated emotions?

I think true kindness is not seeking anything in return but wishing others happiness from the bottom of your heart.

“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of Selfish, Ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be Honest and Frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
”

– Mother Teresa

I felt the strength and warmth from this quote.

I feel like a lot of people seek it in return when they did something good to others. But what if you could give love to anyone without expecting them to give it back? Wouldn’t that be nice?

If you think carefully, don’t you feel happy when you’re doing something for someone regardless of the return? Well, I do. When I make someone smile, it just makes me happy.

SO DO GOOD ANYWAY!

Translation:
“Thought” is not visible to anyone.
”Thoughtfulness” is able to be seen.
“Heart” is not visible to anyone.
”Warm-heartedness” is able to be seen.

The fear of technology

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Technology can destroy you.

Technology makes life easier. Today, there are even robots that make you coffee and bring it to you. We are living the era of advanced technology. Computer, mobile phone, portable media player… We are addicted to all of them.

But… some people go through bitter experiences.

Please watch this first…

She was listening to her music loudly. People around her also hear the music and get annoyed. It’s not good for her ears. Above all, she does not recognize anything that goes on around her. Then, the worst thing happens.


I want to dedicate this video to my roommate. If you keep listening to music that loud, you are going deaf and possibly this kind of thing could happen.

Taste your tears.

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If you don’t know why you’re crying, taste your tears!

When was your last time you cried? What did it taste like?

According to a Japanese trivia website, I found an amazing fact about tears.
The taste of a tear depends on the situation. This is something to do with tear secretion. When you’re angry or feeling remorseful, you would be in a highly wrought-up state that makes the sympathetic nervous system active. This nervous system makes the tears contain more sodium and makes it more salty than usual. On the other hand, when you’re happy or just sad, the parasympathetic nervous system would be active to calm yourself, so it would contain more potassium that makes the tear watery and less salty. Moreover, when the parasympathetic nervous system is active, the tears would contain stress hormones so it releases your stress.

Such an interesting fact isn’t it!? When I cry, I mostly taste really salty tears! I thought there was only one kind of taste!

OVS Cross Country!

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The OVS cross country team ran its first meet this past Wednesday, October 5th, at the Thacher School against Thacher, Besant Hill, Dunn, Laguna Blanca, Cate and Midland. It was raining, but after 2:30 the sun came out and it was a perfect condition for running.

The girls’ race started at 3, from the track and boys’ at 3:30.

The Thacher School cross country course has a lot of little hills. However, compared to our Pi course, it should be a piece of cake. Personally, I don’t like down hill but I love up hill so their course wasn’t that bad.

The boys ran hard; it was fun cheering with my roommate 🙂 I’m proud of you guys!

For girls, we lack of one girl so we couldn’t compete as a team… But we all ran pretty well 🙂 It was such a fun meet!

BUT! Yesterday, this awesome girl came up to us and told us that she wants to join the cross country team! Which means, girls can compete as a team too! Most of the people here don’t like cross country running, I’m probably the only one who loves running to death, but I want to thank her for being brave!!! I know she will be an awesome runner!

Also, I would like to thank the faculty members, parents and two, sweet journalism
students, (even though they missed the race) who came to support us!

GO OVS CROSS COUNTRY!!! GO SPUDS!!!

Altitude training in Peru

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10000 ft high up, I ran hard.

The program offers an opportunity to high school runners all over the country for community service and altitude training every summer to Peru and Kenya. I was one of the lucky ones to go.

When I flew into Cusco (where I stayed for 3 weeks) from Lima (capital of Peru), as soon as the plane landed, I felt the thinness of the air. My lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen and the heart rate was so high. I thought to myself, I am going to stay here for 3 weeks… How am I going to survive? I’m at 10,000ft high. I didn’t have my oxygen inhaler, so all I could do was to get used to it.

On the first day of altitude training, we ran 30 minutes which supposed to be nice and slow, but somehow for the last mile, the pace went up to 6:30 minute mile. I was dying…

On the second week, I started to work out on track. I felt really fast, because the air is thin but the burden on my lungs killed me. My legs are moving really well but I felt like someone was pressing on my chest. I was dying… But the pain felt good after all. I really can’t wait for track season to start although its like… 5 months away.

Well, three weeks of high altitude training ended and I got back home. I went for a run on the next day, and… OH MY GOSH I felt nothing. I did a 6 mile race pace and I literally felt nothing, and wasn’t out of breath at all. It was just so amazing. BUT…it only lasted for 5 days… and those were the best 5 days of my life.

Next year, I’m planning to go to Kenya. A lot of my friends went there last year and met world record holders and world champions in running. Gosh, I can’t wait. But I also would love to go back to Peru and stay little bit longer than last time.

I want to write a lot more about Peru, but I have too much thing to say.

MUCHOOO LOVE PERU.

Typhoon 12

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According to Yahoo Japan, typhoon 12 hit Japan on the 2nd of September and hasn’t moved away yet. It has been a month…

The death toll from the typhoon reached seventy-four. Moreover, in the Nara-Prefecture, 20 people are missing, a landslide occurred at 17 places, and 623 people are now living in evacuation shelters.

That’s it. That huge whirlpool is covering Japan.

The government official says it would be very hard to recover from this disaster.

Japan has been dealing with misfortunes this year. Since the country is an island, disaster never ceases. Obviously, there’s nothing to do but to prepare whatever strikes next.

Marathon

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September 12th BC 450, a Greek messenger was sent from the battlefield of Marathon (name of the city) to Athens to report that Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September that year. According to the Greek messenger, he ran the entire 42.195km(26.1miles) without stopping.

He exclaimed, “We have won” before he collapsed and died.

In 19th century, the marathon became one of the Olympic events. The marathon is one of my favorite events in Olympics. The most memorable marathon I saw on TV was in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. I was in first grade. An amazing runner from Japan Naoko Takahashi won the first gold medal in marathon. She said,” It was the most enjoyable 42.195km I’ve ever ran.” She smiled and waved at the crowd. Why is she not tired? Didn’t she just run 26 miles? It was very inspirational. I wanted to start running.

Today, many marathon races are held all over the world. I see many people run and train for races.

The marathon is one of those rare events related to history. Marathon is associated with the Ancient Greeks in the name “marathon” and the distance that is run still remains the same.

2:46PM March 11th, 2011

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In Japan, earthquakes happen at least once a week. There’s a system that predicts earthquakes five seconds beforehand to help you prepare.

On March 11, I was working out in a gym. Suddenly, the power went out and the ground started to shake. I thought to myself, “Well okay, again. No big deal.” But the shake didn’t end, and I soon realized that this earthquake was huge. Personal trainers told me to evacuate. I couldn’t walk. I felt as if my legs lost control. Fortunately, the buildings in Japan were built strong for earthquakes so we were safe, but phones had no service and I couldn’t communicate with my family. It was chaos.

When I got back home after walking for an hour, I turned on the TV. I was shocked out of my wits. Tohoku was destroyed by a tsunami. I saw people on the top of a hospital waving and asking for help. It was absolutely unbelievable. Cars, houses were all gulped by the tsunami.

Why? Why did this happen? Why Japan?

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A week later, the death toll went up to 6,900 people. I was just shocked. What if I lived there? What if my families and friends were there…?

But in the midst of this heartbreak, there was a one thing that made my happy. I discovered the beauty of Japanese culture.

There was a very little looting. People waited patiently for food despite the length of the line. This summer was all about saving electricity for Tohoku. It was over 90 degrees everyday, but the air conditioners on trains and some parts of shopping malls were off. But nobody ever complained. We had only one thing on our minds: to help rebuild Tohoku, and still today, we are striving for that.

Before the earthquake, nobody was truly patriotic. I was a little bit disappointed how people didn’t appreciate the country. After the quake,  I was very moved and proud of being Japanese. I’ve never seen people working as one for people who are suffering from this disaster.

Please, pray for us.

For more information/photos, click here.

New life

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Moving from New England, this is my first week in California. Man, this place is just so awesome. Palm trees, beaches, mountains, sunny weather… I’m just really lucky to be here.

Compared to California, New England was just not for me. Sixteen-hour flights from home, feeling very far away from my family. In winter, there would be so much snow, and blizzards. I couldn’t go outside and run, and that was the worst part of being there. All I could do was to shut myself up in the room studying. The highest temperature will be 32°F and the lake right by my old school freezes and turns into a skating rink. It was very pretty…

but I prefer palmtrees and beaches.

I’m so lucky to come to Cali, and OVS. I appriciate my parents and teachers, especially (thebrownguy) for bringing me here.

I’m very stoked for this year, and can’t wait to get to know more people.