Ron running out of shoes in Japan

Good thing Ronald Villafria raised a little bit of dough from his Run For Ron event a few months back because at the rate he is wearing out running shoes practicing for the Mt. Fuji Marathon, he needs every single cent from it.

In a recent email to the Saipan Tribune, the employee of Coco Restaurant said he has already went through four pairs of running shoes during his practice ascents and descents to the 12,388-foot Mt. Fuji.

The longtime nonresident worker said in one of his practice runs, he was able to scale and go down from the usually snow-capped summit in about five hours, while the normal time for newcomers to negotiate the grueling 36-kilometer trek up and down Mt. Fuji was eight to nine hours.

While the distance of the marathon does not seem to daunt the 33-year-old Villafria, the cold has become one his biggest worries coming into the race.

He said he didn’t expect Japan, more specifically the area around Mt. Fuji, to be that cold. In fact, he made a boo-boo of sorts when he ran his first practice round up to the top sans winter clothing.

Good thing for the intrepid runner, a Japanese lady, who was also making the ascent, was kind enough to lend him a pair of pants as Villafria was visibly shaking from the cold and his ears were probably in the first stages of frostbite.

The kind gesture made Villafria’s descent a little more comfortable—if not warmer—and to reciprocate the act of kindness, the Filipino runner assisted the Good Samaritan on the rocky road down.

Villafria was supposed to be joined by another CNMI veteran long distance runner in the Mt. Fuji Marathon, or Fuji Tozan Race, but lawyer Steve Pixley backed off at the last minute.

The Mt. Fuji Marathon is composed of two legs—a 15-km race to the fifth station of the mountain and a 21-km race all the way to the top. The final six kilometers of the race is also a trail run.

Villafria is one of the islands’ most accomplished runners. Most recently, he helped an all-Filipino team composed of biker Rene Calage and swimmer Rezne Wong to sweep their own Pacific Islands Club Double this year as their relay team topped the 6th XTERRA Saipan Championship and 19th Tagaman Triathlon.

He also placed third in this year’s 10K Fun Run in the 3rd Annual Saipan Marathon and 26th Half Marathon last January.

In December last year, Villafria single-handedly took on the almost 20-kilometer Christmas Island Relay run from Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio to the Last Command Post in Marpi, finishing second to Team We Are Legend.

The Mt. Fuji Marathon was held yesterday but results were still not available as of press time.