MY ALARM GOES off at 4:15am. By 4:50am I’m running repeats up Heartbreak Hill, the one from City2Surf. It’s still dark. An hour and 15 minutes later I’m done. Then it’s home for a shower and off to work.
In November I’m running from Osaka to Tokyo. That’s 560km over six straight days. More than 90km and 12 to 13 hours on my feet each day, on a route I picked for the small towns, the scenery and the convenience stores. It finishes at Shibuya Crossing.
There’s no race, no start list and no medal at the end. I made it up.
How it started
I’ve run two 100-milers in my life: Kosci100 in the Snow Mountains in November 2025 and Keys100 in Florida in May 2026. They were hard, don’t get me wrong, but I know I have more in me.
I was struggling to find a race for late 2026. Ultras have become so popular that most had sold out or weren’t open for entries. So I emailed my coach, Matty Abel, to ask if he knew of any. He couldn’t find one that worked either. A few days later I messaged him again. I was going to run from Osaka to Tokyo.
Japan is one of my favourite places. The convenience store snacks have to be the best in the world. When I started thinking about where I could run for days in a row, it was the first place that came to mind.
I’ve never done anything like this before. In a way, it’s about finding my limits, especially mentally. Not in a bad way. I just want to see how far I can push it.
The other reason is the bigger one. A lot of people talk themselves out of something big before they start, or give up as soon as it gets hard. Usually it’s their mind holding them back. I want to show people they can do more than they think. This run is my version of that.
Life before running
I played rugby semi-professionally for multiple years and spent a lot of those years injured. Six surgeries and multiple broken bones. Plenty of time on the sidelines watching everyone else play. It was hard not to think, why me?
Looking back, that’s where I learnt to deal with setbacks. Doing the rehab nobody sees, getting back to where I was, then doing it all again after the next injury. It made me resilient, and I’ve taken that into everything since, including work. When things don’t go to plan, I’ve usually been there before.
Training around a full-time job
I work in marketing and I’ve been training 12 to 15 hours a week for the past six months. Most weekdays are double days, with a run before work and another session after. When I’m away for work, sessions move earlier or later than I’d like and I run wherever I am.
Without a race director, there’s a lot to organise. The route, crew, van and accommodation along the way. It’s hours of planning and logistics on top of training and work, and it’s starting to take a toll. I can get so locked into my routine that I forget to slow down, so I’m trying to prioritise one social thing a week, even just a coffee with a mate or time at the beach.
What I didn’t expect is how much training for something like this would change the way I handle work. Things that used to stress me out don’t get to me in the same way any more. When you’ve done the hardest thing you’ll do all day before you get to the office, a tough meeting is a lot easier to take in my stride.
Some weeks are messy. The training still gets done.
Changing shape
Physically, the main change has been going from a rugby body to an endurance one. I’m down 10kg since my first 100-miler, and that’s while eating close to 4,000 calories a day. I had to hire a suit for a friend’s wedding because nothing I owned fit any more.
Matty programs both the running and three strength sessions a week. My biggest week so far was 140km. It finished with 23km on Friday, 50km on Saturday and 35km on Sunday, then I was back at work on Monday.
I’ve also had to learn to rest. I used to feel guilty taking a step back. Now I trust it as much as the training. One or two big weeks won’t get me ready for Japan. It’s all the weeks stacked on top of each other.
What I’m worried about
At Kosci and Keys I knew I’d cross the line and get to recover. In Japan I’ll run all day, eat, sleep, then get up and do it again. I’ve got no idea how my legs will feel on day four.
The other big worry is eating enough to back it up the next morning. I’ll need more than 8,000 calories a day, double what I eat now, and my stomach has to handle it on the move. I’ve been testing different foods on my long runs, but there’s no guarantee what works in training will work in Japan.
Day five is the toughest on paper, about 90km and close to 1,000m of climbing, on legs that already have four days in them. Luckily, I won’t be doing any of it alone. My partner and a few mates are flying over to crew, and a local driver and van will be our rolling aid station. I couldn’t do this without them.
Then there’s my own head. My mind is one of my biggest strengths, but it can be a weakness too, because it keeps me going when maybe it shouldn’t. At Kosci my shin swelled up at 120km and I kept going for another 40km. Over six days, that could be what gets me to Tokyo, or what stops me getting there.
Getting out the door
People ask how I stay motivated. Some days I don’t. The early starts wear you down, and there are nights I finish work and just want to go home and sit on the couch. Having family and friends around who keep me accountable is huge. Sometimes I need that extra push to get out the door.
For me, starting is always the hardest part. Once I get going, I break everything into small chunks. One kilometre at a time, or just get to that next tree. That’s what most of my double days feel like, and it’s how I’ll get through Japan.
You don’t have to run across Japan to prove anything to yourself. Everyone has their own version of this, something that feels a bit out of reach. If this run gets even one person to back themselves and go after theirs, it’s worth every 4:15am alarm.
Mine starts in Osaka on 8 November.
Sam Norris is a Sydney-based ultrarunner. Follow his run from Osaka to Tokyo on Instagram @samnozz.
Related:
How personal loss motivated James Naylor to attempt to run from Melbourne to Sydney in 10 days
