This is the story of a 39-year-old female runner who works in advertising and runs six times a week.

Actually I was flattered when asked to recount my story, because in Japan, no one wants to hear from an obasan (おばさん, middle-aged woman), least of all from an obasan who runs three laps around the Kōkyo (皇居, Imperial Palace) before work every morning. That's 15 km right there. Nanka hendeshō (何か変でしょう, kind of strange, isn't it)?

I'm nothing special. Of the 33,000 people who ran the Tokyo Marathon this year, close to 30 percent were women, so I'm at the tip of a very large iceberg. Still, I've run enough to say that bijogā (美ジョガー, beautiful joggers) aka female runners — who keep at it year after year, are a rarity. The whole thing is just too kitsui (きつい, hard), too demanding on women's mentaru (メンタル, mental health) and it wipes out your love life like a bulldozer on a field of flowers.