Post by: TheYoungerPlumber on December 07, 2008, 05:47:51 PM
Sunday was the 24th annual Naha Marathon. Originally inspired by the marathon held by its sister city, Honolulu, the Naha Marathon is now a proud Okinawan tradition that takes place in early December each year. Joggers hail from Okinawa Prefecture's grab-bag of disparate islands, the Japanese mainland, and a plethora of foreign countries. People train all year for its 42.195km tour of southern Okinawa-honto (which, by the way, is the exact same length as the New York and Honolulu marathons).
That's all well and good. But why is it on a Nintendo-centric website? The answer is simple, really. The Naha Marathon is well-known for its costumed participants. These costumes range from silly hats to complete getups from Halloween.
I saw a guy running in little more than a loincloth. Another was in a Spiderman suit. Heck, I even saw a one-eyed monster (no, not THAT kind) made out of foam. But what really caught my eye was this happy fellow:
Sadly, I did not spot him until after he had finished, so I couldn't watch Mario in action. However, I did spot his less impressive doppelganger.
But what a brilliant costume choice! After all, when you think about it, Mario is essentially running a marathon in his flagship games! Look, the guy even has a REAL moustache! (I'll overlook the happy face buttons.)
Mario wasn't the only video game icon itching for a run.
That's right! It seems that elusive Pikachu has reprised its role from Pokémon Dash. The rodent must have snuck to the finish while I had my back turned—sorry, I didn't play Pokémon Snap—but fortune smiled upon me during my stroll back home.
As far as I can tell, this athlete not only completed the marathon in this costume, but wore it home! Dang!
Sadly, Sonic was nowhere in sight.
Post by: NWR_Neal on December 07, 2008, 06:54:52 PM
My sister ran in a half marathon in Virginia Beach that is the "Rock and Roll Half Marathon" and features bands playing at different points during the marathon and bands all throughout the weekend. They usually get some good bands too, or at least interesting ones.
Post by: ShyGuy on December 08, 2008, 12:39:03 AM
Post by: Djunknown on December 08, 2008, 12:58:50 AM
That Pikachu had to be warm. Heat Stroke for the loss.
No doubt.The costumed runners had sweaty balls to run 26.2 miles in that.
Post by: TheYoungerPlumber on December 08, 2008, 01:29:21 AM
Post by: Pale on December 08, 2008, 11:30:09 AM
Post by: Ian Sane on December 08, 2008, 03:05:02 PM
Post by: mac<censored> on December 15, 2008, 08:54:28 AM
So doing this sort of thing in a marathon is nuts.
Welcome to Japan!
