Arakawa Riverview

Follow up

So have been back to the ortho-chap for a follow up. The warm bath-stretch-cold patch treatment was partially successful, but still not right. So in the consultation he prodded me back and front again, I think he was convinced it was a sports hernia, but no such luck I'm afraid, so actually I think he was stumped. Then he asks "do you want an MRI scan to see what the soft tissue damage is like?"
"I don't know, do I?"
"I don't know, do you?"
"You tell me, you're the doctor!"
"Well you could have one, but you don't have to have one"
"What will it tell me?"
"Where your soft tissue is damaged"
"So, basically, it will tell me where my leg hurts?"
"Yes"
"I know where my leg hurts"
"It might tell us why your leg hurts"
"Might?"
"Well, these things are never certain..."
"Er...ok, why not"
"Where do you want to go? There are clinics all over?
Flicking through the MRI brochure...
"Ah, Shibuya, that's where I work, that'll be fine"
"OK, I'll arrange for you, oh, and it's 50 quid"
"So what other treatments are available...?"

So now I go there a couple of times a week for treatment with a sort of prehensile-microwave-leg warming thing and some hot packs. I don't know, it seems to be getting better but goodness it's all taking a bit of time. I did the groin in on 20th December and so that's over 5 weeks past and I can still feel it. Also the weird thing is that in the last couple of weeks, when I put all my weight on it like putting on a pair of trousers, I can't support myself. Probably 'core strength and stability issues' says my Aussie physio footballing friend (who was away over Christmas, otherwise I would have gone to see him straightaway).

Anyway, on we go...

In other sports related news, yesterday morning, at the ungodly hour of 7.30, I coached the junior school cricket team as the regular coach was doing something with a group of ballerinas. Yes, I know where I would have preferred to have been as well, especially as to be at the ground for 7.30 I had to be up at 5.10 in the A.M. (yes, it does exist as a time and no, it was not pleasant (but then again the Guru gets up at this time everyday to make bentos (that Japanese packed lunches) for the little 'un (and sometimes me)).

Anyway, apart from the time and the fact it was perishingly cold, it was jolly good fun. The kids were really up for it, very enthusiastic and not a little skilled. We did some fielding drills, useful as their throwing is wayward to say the least, and a bit of batting and a bit of bowling. Their batting is a touch on the 'kitchen sink' side (i.e. see the ball and throw everything at it...) but some of their bowling was pretty good, including one little Year 4 kid who is a pretty mean wrist spinner; England's Shane Warne for the 2025 Ashes...

Labels: cricket, injury

Orthopaedic chap

So went along to the ortho-chap today. We were going to go to our local hospital but then the Guru found what looked to more like a physio/sports-injury doctor so there we went. Interestingly we were the youngest patients there by about 50 years, and it was packed, so goodness knows what the hospital's ortho section would have been like...

Due to numbers of extremely decrepit old personages there we figured that we were in for a long wait, but I think that their interest was piqued by the prospect of treating someone under the age of 90, so a young doctor-ish person came out straight away and started asking questions about what, were, when etc.

First decision was to make sure it was anything to do with problem bones, so it was x-ray time. I thought it would be one, maybe another from the side, but I really must get out of this mindset and remember I'm in Japan. So, something like 15 x-rays later we were done - about half way through I did feel slightly worried that they were taking snapshots of my groin; not that I'm planning on any more kids, but 15 doses of radiation on the old meat & two veg can't be good, can it?

Then a meeting with the Doc - the good news was that there is no bone damage, so it's not like I have a stress fracture in my femur or anything like that (I was worried). And the bad news... well, wasn't really like bad news, except he said, essentially;

"Your thigh hurts and it's muscular - not much you can do except 1 rest; 2 stretch, especially after a hot bath; 3 buy some cold patch things from the chemist down stairs, here's a prescription."

Can I run again?

"Your leg hurts you idiot, no you can't, not for at least 2 weeks, then come back and see me if it still hurts".

So there we go. No real help or advice on what I did wrong or what I can do to prevent it happening again in the future. But then again he isn't a sports physiotherapist so maybe he doesn't know the why's or how not to again's, just what's wrong and how to make it better.

At least another 2 weeks of not running will mean I have been off training for the best part of 5 weeks and it will only be about 5-6 weeks until the marathon; so not enough time to get back to where I was fitness-wise and improve enough/get enough miles under my belt to make the race a realistic proposition (and avoid serious and permanent damage to myself in the process).

So the marathon is off the agenda for 2010, more's the pity. However I will be applying for 2011 and fingers crossed I'll get in for that one.

In the meantime I will recover from this setback, be wiser for it, start running again and launch the 2011 training programme from a much stronger running base. Also I'll try and get a couple of half marathons in there so I know what racing feels like.

Labels: injury, running, Weird Japan

Arse!

Or rather thigh - been two weeks now, 2 weeks of not running, eating too much, drinking too much (probably) and still the accursed thigh is no better. Well, it's a bit better but not better enough to be able to go out for a run.

This means I have missed 2 weeks (and counting) of training runs so the goal of running and completing the marathon seems to be receding into the distance. If I started again now I would have to spend a couple of weeks getting back to where I was and as there are still 8 weeks to the race I think that would be possible - but I'm nowhere near being able to run at the moment, so I have a horrible suspicion that that is it.

I'm off to see a physio on Wednesday to see what they say but I am not hopeful. Oh well...

In different news, read this lovely passage in Herodotus' Histories (book 1), which I feel should be adopted by all world leaders immediately.

He says, talking of the Persians:

"If an important decision is to be made, they discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk."

Labels: injury, running

Oh for goodness sakes pt.2

So I went out for a 10km at lunchtime and now I can't walk. Oops...

Think I might have seriously buggered up my left thigh, in quite a lot of pain, severely restricted movement, can't put a lot of weight on my left leg at all. Not sure how the left ankle/achillies is as pain receptors seem to have given up working below my knee (because of all the work they are having to do above it, probably). Did a 52m 25s, which isn't that bad, except...

Shit. Not good.

Labels: injury, running

Oh for goodness sakes...

My body is officially falling apart! Well, the lower half is anyway. You'll no doubt be as glad as I was to know that the plantar thing has cleared up, mainly as I haven't been out as much recently as I would have wanted. However the injury-du-jour is now a thigh/groin strain.

I think, as a result of my continuing left achillies issues, that the last few runs I have not run naturally and this has affected the rest of my left peg unfavourably. I noticed a few odd kind of feelings when running a while ago but it seems to have manifested itself now at the front-top of my thigh, leading me to think it might be a IlioPsoas Syndrome injury, mainly as it doesn't really sound like a 'normal' groin strain that footballers get (been there, had that in September when I started playing football again on a Friday afternoon).

I know, I know, I'm beginning to sound like an utter hypochondriac about all this, but when you start to exercise more your body does seem to rebel - well, mine does anyway. I went out for a 7km on Tuesday night and recorded something in the mid-37m range, so about average which was good, but then Wednesday morning walking with the left leg was quite hard work (especially going down steps, but that was more the ankle than the thigh). I was meant to go out again on Thursday night but it just seemed a stupid thing to do, same tonight, if it hurts when I sturry across the road between schools. So hopefully tomorrow sometime, but who knows? At this rate the marathon is looking remote.

In other news apparently stuff has been happening in Japan, but I haven't really been following it. Lots of words have been spoken about Futenma, the US Marine/Air Force base (one of?) on Okinawa, which may be moved, or may not be, etc. I think the Japanese want it moved but the Americans don't, or something, but Hatoyama was going to talk to Obama about it in Copenhagen, but then Barack got the Nobel gong so the meeting was cancelled, or maybe he just couldn't be bothered with it all, considering the other stuff he has on his mind, like his Arakawa Riverview nickname, but anyway Hatoyama didn't have the meeting with the big US cheese.

Talking of Copenhagen something was going on there - an attempt to reduce all the hot-air in the world by producing more hot air than a farm full of Fresians. Did it work? Has anybody been following it?

Anyway this has all been overshadowed by far more important matters, namely Godzilla defecting to the Angels, whilst the Samurai Blue may as well not turn up in South Africa next summer as they ain't gonna win a thing...

Just a quickie

As the footie will start soonish. Had all last week off the running because of this plantar thing with my right foot. By Saturday it was feeling pretty good so I thought I'd try it out with a short 5km and glad to say everything seemed OK, I even managed a time, 25.48, that was the fastest for the distance since about July, uncoordinated though I felt. As this felt OK I went for a slightly longer 7km run on Sunday (the first time I had run on consecutive days since the beginning of November), and put in a respectable 37.something, again happy enough with that.

Immediately after the Sunday run, without even passing go or having a shower, I put ice on the left Achilles for 5 minutes, then shower, then ice again for about 20 minutes, and today it hasn't felt too bad at all, so ice treatment is the way forward (will see how it works with the right foot as well). Anyway out again on Tuesday and Thursday nights this week, hopefully, then into double figures at the weekend with maybe a 12 or 14k.

Also tonight I realised another reason why my calf muscles, Achillies and feet might be feeling it a bit. I keep a record of distances and times so tonight totted up what I've been doing recently and discovered:
June -> total distance run 45km
July -> 25km
August ->27km
September -> 54km
October -> 61km
November -> 100km

As you can see a bit of a jump since September and November was 100km! If I keep to my current plan December will 115km!! Pity my poor ankles...

Labels: injury, running

Plantar Fasciitis

Hmm, maybe the 19km run on Sunday wasn’t such a great move. OK it was good mentally as I did it so I know I can keep going, but the right foot/ankle pain I got during the run looks like a case of plantar fasciitis. Not good as it means right now, on Thursday, 4 days after the run, walking is still on the painful side, let alone running, so my plan of a couple of 8k runs this week has gone and the half-marathon before Christmas might have to be dropped as well.

The reason for the injury? Too far too soon (a 5km jump in distance was not a good idea) and my running shoes, which are getting too old and worn out (probably still ok for shorter distances but not the longer runs).

So now it’s rest, recover and then start building up again. How frustrating but only myself to blame.

Labels: injury, running

Phew!

I did it, I went long this afternoon, actually slightly longer than I thought. The plan was 18km but due to some building work on the riverbank up towards Nerima-ku I missed the 28km marker and after going on and checking the time it was taking I decided to turn round anyway and then found the marker on the way back. The extra bit took almost exactly 4 minutes, which at normal pace is about 800m (I'm running almost clockwork 5 minute kilometres up to about 12k, then the pace starts to drop a little).

So anyway, I think I did about 18.8km in the not too shabby time of 1hr 41m 00s, although this was less about the time and more about being able to do it without stopping, which I did bar two water breaks, where I didn't have much choice as the water fountains don't move. This keeps me in line for a sub-4 hour marathon time, which as I've said before I'm not aiming for (sub-5 will be ok with me), but would make me extremely happy (or more likely extremely dead).

Pain wise I can really feel today's run in my calf, which is resting on an ice pack as I type. Actually I felt the calf almost all the way on the run, which is not great news, I was hoping my enforced lay-off due to flu would have repaired stresses and strains, but perhaps not. Then again it wasn't bad enough to make me stop so that's good. Also good is the knee, which seems, touch wood, to have found a groove that it likes and so is feeling pretty good at the moment.

On this run, as it was long, I took one of those energy jelly packs to see if it would help as I ran. I think I took it too late, at the 11km mark, as the period from then until the 14km mark I felt a bit crap and the old mental state started to disintegrate a little (the right calf also started hurting), but then, suddenly, there was a sort of epiphany and a 'bugger this slowing down for a lark' moment and suddenly the pace lifted, the right calf was fine, the left felt better and we were back up to a proper running rhythm. I think it took those 3km for the energy to start being delivered to the bits of my body that needed it, and I think the bit that needed it most was my brain.

I know 'they' say that sport is mostly mental and this week I have begun to realise why. Firstly I've needed to psych myself up for running as far as I did today (lots of 'can I do it?' and 'yes you can' but it was 4km longer than my longest to date, which made me worry), and then secondly with the whole 'pull yourself together' moment going under Kawaguchi ohashi (that'll be 'bridge' for those who don't know). Sure, the energy jelly helped, but I think the biggest help was to my state of mind rather than my legs or lungs.

So that done means next weekend will be a shorter one and we're still on course for the half-marathon before Christmas.

Labels: running

Just a quick one

As I'm writing this in my lunchtime at work. Am fully over the flu, I'm glad to say, so have been out running again. Last friday was a 5k in 26m something, Sunday was 12km in 1h 00m 54s, which is pretty good going if you ask me (2 minutes faster than the 12k I did before) and then last night, Wednesday, it was 7km in 37m something.

So reasonable running but I dropped off a bit when I had flu so need to step it up again. I'm thinking about a long one this weekend (oo-er), maybe 18k, but the weather looks like it will be a bit shitty all weekend long. If it is I might have to rein in my ambitions, but I don't want to as if I do 18 this weekend that means I could get a 1/2 marathon distance (21k) in before christmas, which would be excellent work (e.g. 18 this weekend, a shorter run the following weekend, maybe 12 or 14, then the 21k monster on the weekend of 19/20th December)

Oh, and just to let you know that the old man and I have started playing backgammon regularly online as the old timer needs something to do with his retirement and being thrashed at backgammon seems to satisfy some need. Anyway Monday night I won 6-3 with some admittedly extremely lucky dice; whilst last night I ran out 9-6 winner but this time it was far more about superior skill than lucky dice (well... some lucky dice, but everyone gets some lucky dice, eh?). This all means, of course, that I will be royally thwacked tonight, but it will give the oldster something to be happy about...

Labels: backgammon, running

Flu

Have had flu for the last couple of days, passed on to me by my wonderful, giving son - thank you Marcus (but better to get it now than at the end of February when I'm meant to be running the marathon).

Anyway I did go out for a run on Saturday afternoon, this was a long 14km stroll (that's a third of a marathon!), completed in 1h 12m 23s. It got a bit hairy, mentally speaking, about the halfway point as I realised that I had to run the whole way back again, but once I got knuckled down to it it wasn't so bad. I am also indebted to a bloke who was also out running who I fell into step with around the 9km mark as he was running at about the same pace in the same direction and when you have someone to run with, even if you don't know them, it makes life easier.

Anyway I should have been out on Monday and tonight but type-A put a stop to that. The good thing is that it should have given my ankle and knee a bit of a rest, which will only help, so maybe a gentle run on Friday night, see how we feel, then perhaps a 10 or 12k on Sunday.

Labels: flu, running

On to important matters

Got a bit bogged down last post with politics, history and consecutive posts about the Keystone Cops (and that's three mentions in a row - something must be done about this! Ed.).

So, tonight I feel it is more important to get to the bottom of a much more relevant issue - why are there so few ugly women in Japan?

Now I know what you are thinking, 'there are no ugly women in Japan!', but this is not true. It is true that there aren't very many of them and there are a minuscule number of ugly women over the age of 18, but they do exist. Anyway, I wondered about this for an awfully long time, about as long as I've lived in Japan actually.

When I first came here in the heady days of 1996 with Andy, my mate who I drove mad, we both remarked, after walking around tripping over our tongues for a few days, that the (and please bear in mind that we were young, hormonal and extremely sexually frustrated at the time so the language used was not particularly flattering) 'fit bird:munter ratio' was extremely high in favour of the 'fit birds'. We puzzled long and hard but not could work out why, and since Andy was invalided back to Blighty I have continued to ponder.

Until now, that is (well, April this year actually but I've just got around to writing about it). It is because all the ugly girls are taken away and recycled!

I know this for a fact because not only have I seen the facility where it happens, in the spirit of investigative photojournalism, at no small peril to myself, I have pictures.


Munters ugly bird recycling plant, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo

And it seems to work!

For example Norika Fujiwara is a well known model who advertises, amongst other things, automatic bog seats. Anyway it is a little known fact that she is a Munters alumni. On her 18th birthday in 1989 she was taken away for recycling, because, well, looking like this I think you'll understand why:


Our Norika at her 18th birthday party

However after a lengthy, intensive and probably extremely painful process we have bog seat promoter extraordinaire:


Standing next to the Arakawa soon after her 19th birthday

A vast improvement, I think you'll agree. And it is all done for the benefit of Japan as a whole because, let's face it, no one is going to be interested in an ugly country... Well, Japan is quite an ugly country in places, the bits covered in concrete especially, but no one will be interested in a country full of ugly people at any rate.

Anyway I've done a bit of running and things feel good. Monday night and tonight were both 7.3km-ers along the bank, a 36m 08s on Monday and a 35m 58s tonight. Good going I reckon.

Labels: munters recycling, norika fujiwara, running, ugly people

This week

Two things have been big in the news this week (not counting the Keystone's capture of suspect #1 as reported on Tuesday).

The first big thing was that on Thursday Japan had a big celebration to mark the fact that it was the 20 year anniversary of the Emperor's enthronement. Actually it was 20 years and a bit because the previous chap, the (never prosecuted but let's face it he was a) war criminal Hirohito died on January 7th 1989, I'm not really sure why Akihito's official accession date is 12th November, 10 months and a week after he actually got the job, but there you go, I'm not Japanese so I could never understand (and I forgot to ask the guru).

Anyway the way they celebrated this great event was to have a big party in the Emperor's front garden, with celebs and idols and carefully vetted flag waving proles. Here's a picture of the chap that is in no way related to what happened


Akihito with his panawave headdress slightly slipped backwards

As you can see he is a happy chap and, let's be honest, getting on a bit - not surprising as he was born in 1933 so that makes him 76 years old. The bit that gets me is that they had this big party for him in the evening, so everyone could watch on the telly. Why did people want to watch on the telly? Because it was bloody cold and may well have been pissing it down all evening (we've had a lot of rain this week). Poor bloke (and the missus as well) probably wanted to be at home, feet up with a cup of cocoa, but no, he has to watch people 'doing stuff' for him so he will be amused, sort of like watching the royal variety performance from his balcony in the middle of winter. And the entertainment was probably one thin bloke with a silly haircut hitting a fat bloke with an inflatable hammer (which, don't get me wrong, has it's place, but probably not here).

But I must admit I didn't really watch enough of it to be able to write with any great authority (not that that has ever stopped me), mainly because royal families are an unnecessary anachronism and I never like the British one so I'm sure as eggs not going to give a toss about the Japanese one. (Also he's the Emperor, right, the Emperor of which empire in particular? Maybe he's the Emperor Without Portfolio...)

The other thing about this week is that nice Mr Obama (nMO) has dropped in for a visit - not to our flat, I hasten to add, though he would be welcome to stop by for a cup of tea, but to Japan. I haven't really followed what he's done,but I think he made speeches about being nice to Japan, about Krazy Kim (remember him?) and probably some other stuff as well. I heard he might be going to Hiroshima or Nagasaki as nuclear weapon cuts seem to be high on his agenda. If he does, good on him, he ought to as should Brown, Sarkozy, Putin (or Medvedev), Ahmadinejad and any other world leader/idiot who thinks nuclear weapons are a good idea.

All this important national eventing has meant that the Keystone's fresh from their success in catching a felon (and thereby hitting their target for the 2000-2009 reporting period) have had to double shift and hang around the streets of Tokyo giving people hard stares in case they start plotting. I personally was given a particularly vicious look by a member of his majesty's finest whilst walking through Shibuya station on my way home on Wednesday night. I don't really know what the bobby was doing there as I was heading away from anyway remotely connected with either the EWP or the nMO, but then again I was (and still am for that matter) a foreigner and therefore probably a nutter so deserve a hard stare.

(BTW sorry for all the pauses in the typing tonight but my left contact lens is giving me gyp)

Last but not least I have been hitting the riverbank as usual.Thursday night was a typical 7.3km run in an untypical 35m 45s, which if memory serves is a new personal best. Then this afternoon it was a 12km run down towards the bay, completed in 1h 02m 50s - I was very happy with this as it is the longest for a long time, a good time and i can still walk now, though the knees are stiff and the achillies hurts (I will see a sports physiotherapist next week - we play football together so I will ask for a bit of professional advice).

Tuesday

For that is what it is. Not much to report from the land of the rising sun this evening - though the keystone cops have finally caught Tatsuya Ichihashi, the bloke who probably topped... sorry the main suspect in the Linsay Hawker case. The last time they nearly caught him was when 8 of the boys in blue went to his gaff to apprehend him and he did the classic 'look! is that the Goodyear blimp?' and then jumped over the wall. Cue lots of head scratching, confused looks and "he was here a minute ago, Chief Super, look you can see him on the TV news camera" type comments.

So this time they sent every single member of the police force, all 290,000 of them, including the 900 strong Imperial Guard (what a great thing to have on your business card!), to arrest the chap, and luckily they succeeded. Now, with an arrest-to-conviction rate of about 115% I wouldn't think the chap's chances are very good, but as he is a Japanese bloke in a Japanese court on a charge of murdering a foreigner you never know.

Anyway, I've been running - I went on Sunday after my 10k on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised about how good it all felt. I thought I would be shagged out but I actually put in a 35m 58s for the 7.3km route - putting that in perspective it's a personal best the day after a long run. I was quite happy. Also this evening I did another 7.3k, this time in 37m 01s, so a bit slower but still OK (it was quite humid tonight for some reason). Also good news on the pain front as I have discovered that [the J-equivalent of] Deep Heat is extremely good for my dodgy knees. Not for the knees themselves but in softening the tendon that is pulling my kneecaps out of position (which causes the pain). So tonight was as close to a knee-pain-free run as I've had in years. :)

Labels: murder, police, running

Quite a quiet week

After all the excitement of the kid's health checks and the rugby last weekend, this week has been on the quiet side. This is good as I needed a week off (whilst still being at work). It's actually a quiet time in Japan at the moment; the politicos don't seem to be doing anything wrong (or really anything for that matter), so it feels like a bit of a return to Silent Shinzo's premiership, and big business doesn't seem to want to get into scandalville - they're probably still trying to work out how much money they've lost over the last18 months (and how much they're going to have to declare to the taxman).

One bit of news from Toyota was that they are quitting F1, this is big news as they have been front runners, podium sitters and world champions several times since they joined in 2002. Oh hang on, that must have been someone else as Toyota, biggest car maker on the planet, were utterly rubbish. But the important thing was that the J-boss of Toyota F1, Tadashi Yamanashi, did the decent thing and blubbed when he announced the news:



This is important as it shows he really meant it when he said he was happy to save the company about a gazillion yen a year. Crying is an important part of corporate Japan and is certainly an expected part of any news conference where bad news is on the menu. Indeed some foreign correspondents on the Japan big business beat have taken to ranking the sincerity of the apology given by the unfortunate suit:



Obviously not a good one that - perhaps it was Shinzo's resignation speech? (Actually probably not as a '4' would be far too high for that).

Anyway I've also been running a bit, Wednesday night was a 7.3km trot down the riverbank towards Akabane - that was a 36m 21s effort so pleased with that. Then this afternoon I did a 10km quickstep up the river towards... not sure what's up there actually, Nerima? Anyway I did find out that the kilometer markers stop as 28 (25 is next to the flat) but some useful person has painted a discreet but noticeable maker on the road for 30km so I knew when to turn. Anyway that was done in 51m 45s so maybe the 52m 10k I did a while back was pretty accurate. But again the left achillies is painful, might have to do something about it.

Labels: big business, F1, running, toyota

cold and wet

Today was on the chilly side, but not too bad, and as I wasn't able to go out over the weekend I strapped on the old running shoes and plodded up to the riverbank. As I left the house I noticed it was raining a little but as I got to said riverbank I realised it was also a tad blowy. After about 2km along the top of the bank I realised that it wasn't actually 'a tad blowy', it was a fecking winter storm with wind blowing in from the Urals and throwing rain drops at me at just under the speed of light. It's been a while since the whole side of my face went numb due to the cold. But I finished the run, though I only did a 5.3km instead of the usual 7.3 as I was getting too damn wet. 26m 11s if you're recording these things. Right knee is quite painful now, though, in fact it has been all day - not a good sign

On Saturday, after organising health checks for 230 kids, I went to watch the Bledisloe cup game in Tokyo. Had I been in a position where I had to pay for the ticket I would not have gone (indeed I had not brought a ticket even though people at work had). However when the NZ embassy gives your school a bunch of freebies then what sort of person would I be to decline? (A silly one).

So I went along but, to be honest, it was a bit underwhelming. It wasn't England or Japan, for a start, so I didn't care who won. It was played at the old national stadium near Gaienmae which is big, 45,000 were there, but you feel a bit far away as it's an athletics stadium so you have the tracks around the pitch so everything is distant. Also as I had been working I couldn't meet up with people I knew so I ended up watching by myself (with 45,000 people of course), and whilst I chatted with the Japanese people next to me a bit, it wasn't quite the same.

Anyway NZ won although Aus made a decent fist of the first half. Now both teams are off to Europe. As Japan is hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup and they want to expand the game and its popularity beforehand I expect I'll be able to watch all these games on TV, or at least on Sky... but no, no coverage and the nz/aus game on Saturday was on an even smaller pay satellite channel - these people have no idea...

Labels: rain, Rugby, running, weather