Well its been a steady if not spectacular few weeks since I last wrote. 10k runs midweek with a long run at the weekend seems to have been the order of the day. Yesterday I was woken by a very large earthquake.. probably the strongest Ive felt in my time in Tokyo. I took it as an omen that my lie in was over and I needed to get out for a 20mile+. It was pretty wet outside and a little chilly so thought it would be a good chance to wear my skins and wind cheater since all my training to date has been in shorts and t-shirt. The drizzle was actually very welcome and soon got into a reasonable rhythm though this stopped when running through Iidabashi where I came upon some sort of Buddhist festival. There were hundreds of people proceeding along the main road carrying some kind of shrine and singing. It all looked great fun and I was rather enthralled by it all so stopped and watched for a good 15 mins before I decided I needed to get on. After about an hour I suddenly felt a bit of a low and needed some sugar. One of the great things about Tokyo is the number of conveniently placed vending machines so a quick can of Dr Pepper and I was on my way again. I saw the same kind of festival going on that I'd seen previously in Shinjuku and Shibuya  too. Around the 15 mile mark the heavens really opened and I was totally drenched. I tried to look on the bright side and tell myself it was all good practie should conditions be like that in NY! Finally I ended up at my local supermarket where I bought myself some muh needed sustenance. Total distance was 35k and time of exactly 3h30. A little bit of a slower time than 4h marathon but Im still confident of going sub 4 on race day given the lack of traffic lights!