The cushion of the road surface is very good

Because my job is to make shoes, I can’t make complaints against roads; I just keep making good shoes that suit the surface and hardly tire the runner. As I make their shoes, I consider the road surfaces, air temperatures and humidity, the runners’ characteristics, and the condition of the days of races. Based on them, I imagine what might happen at various distances after the start. After that, my shoe-making depends on my senses and experiences. The process is the same for Yuko Arimori or Naoko Takahashi.

Nevertheless, there is a good or a bad road. Hard surface is basically bad; whether walking or running, hard road surface is not good. Asphalt should preferably soft. In overseas races, one encounters difficult-to-run cobble roads or asphalt gets very hard on cold days. The quality of roads in our country is high; I think quality of our roads is the highest in the world.

The course in the O’hori Park of Fukuoka is of the top level in Japan. The cushion of the surface is one of the best. You can see that if you compare the hardness of the surface on the outside bicycle lane and that of the inside jogging lane. When the surface is well cushioned, runners’ stride becomes wider. Give the rhythm to his running.

Perimeter of 2km is very good. The distance indicating signs every 100m helps decide the days objective of how many turns around or how many kilometers. Also, the path is wide and flat. One feels that time advances faster on wide rout. On narrow course, the same distance feels longer than it really is. A pond is located the center of the circle and many trees around it. It’s nice to see the flowers in the flowerbed as one runs, too. There are benches, for a little rest during a run.