We didn’t really intend to raise any money for charity. I always feel it’s a bit strange, asking strangers to give money to people who are doing something that they’d be doing anyway. There’s also the whole virtue signalling thing that I worry about. But here we are, potentially raising money for a couple of charities.

We’ve chosen two so that Joy and I both had a choice. We’ve picked an animal charity and a children’s charity in Japan. We wanted to do something that gives back to the country we’re traveling through, and even if we only raise a little, those charities will be able to use it for something. We’re waiting for confirmation from both on how we raise money for them, so hopefully we’ll have an announcement on that next week.

Separately, we’re planning to launch a small membership subscription as a way of allowing people to directly support our journey with a contribution. We’re still working out the details but we’re looking at something where members who sign up will get access to our private Discord community, live group calls to chat to me during the run, behind-the-scenes snippets (raw clips, quick notes, video diaries) and your name printed in the book we’re hoping to write after Japan, as a permanent thank-you.

If you sign up for the whole year in advance, we’ll also send out a handwritten postcard mailed from Japan and a free digital copy of the book.

Again, we’re not quite there yet with this one, so more details should be available sometime next week.

🚂 Training Summary

Not a bad week of running. I couldn’t run on Monday due to a rather nasty niggle on the top of my right foot. I did wonder if it might be the start of tendinitis, but as it was raining anyway, I rested on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday evening, all was good; I ran a half-marathon with no ill-effects.

Thursday was acupuncture day, so no running then, and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on my feet (my running in Hanoi tends to be on road and pavement), so another day’s rest. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday saw me do three back-to-back half-marathons. leaving me with a weekly distance of 86.6 km and still injury-free. I’m happy with that, given how the week started.

☀️ Photo from the Road

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: The Sea - Morcheeba
📚 Reading: An awful lot of API documentation, both with my IT consultant hat on, and for ultramarathon.life. Nothing exciting, sorry.
🎥 Watching: I’m currently watching Liverpool vs Arsenal while writing this. YNWA.

📺 In Case You Missed It…

We’ve made a couple of updates to the site, adding more information about Japan, and a blog post about my thoughts on running.

🚀 Next Up

Next week we’re hoping to get a little video where I talk about why I’m running Japan, show off our support vehicle for the journey, announce a couple of charities we’ll be supporting through the run, and finishing setting up a membership system for people who would like to help support us personally, and have a sneak peek behind the scenes through our adventure.

🏁 Finish Line

That’s all for this week, we’re now only three weeks until the start of the journey, there’s no taking it easy for us, but for the rest of you…

Take it easy,

Phill