Lidia Simon (ASICS) returned to the city of many, many of her past glories yesterday and won the inaugural Osaka Marathon in 2:32:48. A three-time champion of the Osaka International Ladies Marathon, Lidia was invited to help kick off the new “people’s marathon” in Osaka. After a disappointing DNF in Berlin last month, Lidia decided to make Osaka an all-out run and took the title in solid fashion. 2nd-place Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), finishing in 2:33:36, said, “It wasn’t really as close as it looked. I was with Lidia only until 15 km, then she broke away.” Lidia and Kiyoko have been in this spot earlier in their careers, also going 1-2 at the 2007 Toray Cup Shanghai Marathon, when Lidia won in a new course record.

The win amazingly comes almost 14 years (!) after Lidia won the Osaka women’s race for the first time in January 1998. This is the 12th time Lidia has run a full marathon in Osaka, including also her 5th-place finish at the 2007 Osaka World Championships. Afterwards, she told the gathered media, “It is so great that I won the first [Osaka Marathon] race, I heard a lot of people calling my name ‘Lidia, Lidia.’ It made me feel Osaka was like my second home.”

Sunday’s win puts a nice finishing touch to Lidia’s 2011 season, which had been marked not only by the Berlin marathon, but also the tsunami-induced cancellation of March’s Nagoya International Women’s Marathon, where she had been one of the marquee invited athletes. Next up: Looking for London 2012 qualification, where Lidia could be the first woman in Olympic history to compete in five Olympic Marathons.

At the same time, I experienced no apathy or lowering of mood in general: I was laughing, joking and was happy as usual. It has helped me on Xanax Generic.

Kiyoko Shimahara at the Osaka awards ceremony with Manabu Tanaka on the left, and Mike Nishi and Carey Pinkowski of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on the right. (Photo courtesy of Second Wind AC).