The September 2025 Nintendo Direct kicked off with Shigeru Miyamoto discussing Nintendo’s celebration of Mario’s 40th anniversary. One of the more minor announcements including sponsoring the Kyoto’s 2026 marathon. My view on participating in a marathon jumped from over my dead body to I need to sign up ASAP. Follow me as chronicle my training journey as I reflect on why I love video games and Nintendo in the first place.

Click here to check out my first entry: Week 1 and 2.

Kyoto Marathon 2026 Training: Week Three

I’ve reached my third week of training, and I now understand the important of rest days. After pushing for eight miles on my long run at the tail end of week two, I was gassed. Thankfully, the stars aligned, and I got a deep tissue massage. I completed a shorter run Sunday and rested Monday.

There is a level of guilt I feel whenever I “rest”, whether it’s rest from work, parenting, working out, or any other aspect of my life, I feel like I’m slacking. I was raised on the narrative that life is defined by productivity. I became that person that would multitask, work through lunch, or find something to clean if I ever find myself in downtime. So, you can imagine when training for a marathon, a rest day can kind of be mind-bending. An inner voice kept shouting, “B-but you should be TrAiNiNg”!

Have you ever felt this way? Guilt or anxiety when you slow down to catch your breath? This journey is teaching me to think long-term–that rest on one day is beneficial to the plan. My muscles are recuperating, and my motivation is preserved when taking caring of myself. It’s a lesson I wish I’d learn earlier in life, before I burnt out in pharmacy or injured my shoulder with pole workouts. Marathon training has become equal parts physical training and exercise in discipline.

After my rest day, I went full speed ahead with a five-mile Tuesday and four-mile venture Wednesday, with the latter focusing more on time. My goal is to end my third week with a nine-mile-long run. Mayben ten. I can’t push myself too quickly. I still have a long road ahead.

Reflecting on My Firsts with Nintendo

Since this is my first marathon, I reflected on a lot of my firsts. While my memory is a touch fuzzy, I recall the Game Boy Color and the Nintendo 64 were my first gaming systems. For the Game Boy Color, my first game was Pokémon Red. With my Nintendo 64, my first game was the pack-in, Wave Race 64. My parents weren’t fans of video games, so I poured hours into only a handful of games during my youth, and took advantage of the occasional Blockbuster rental.

Pokémon Red had a profound influence in my life. Not only was it one of the first video games I ever owned, but it was a game I bonded with my friends over. We’d bring our cables to school, link up our handhelds, and traded Pokémon. I truly thought the technology was revolutionary! I enjoyed assembling and training a team of my own, fully embracing the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” motto.

To no one’s surprise, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was my first N64 game I latched onto. It was there I encountered my first terrifying moments–the Wallmaster in the Forest Temple and Dead Hand beneath the well. I also first rage-quit after running into that one locked door in the Water Temple after running out of keys (nowadays I feel like the Water Temple wasn’t that bad).

Some of my first rentals at Blockbuster were Starfox64, Banjo Kazooie, and for some reason, Turok. I also remember being totally confused with Mischief Maker and getting lost in Quest64 because the graphics were so wonky, I didn’t notice where to exit.

Although I missed out on a lot of gaming goodness in the 90s and early 2000s, it benefits me in a sense that I get to still experience lots of “firsts” to this day. Metroid Dread was my first Metroid experience, and I loved it. Nintendo Switch Online helped me dabble into games I couldn’t afford or have time to play. Even with non-Nintendo things, I’ve gotten to experience firsts with the Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and Metal Gear Solid franchises. Impressive gameplay and mind-bending stories add spice to my bland, everyday life, just like planning for a marathon is doing!

Kyoto Marathon 2026 Training: Week Four

Week four was the week that hit hardest so far. I pushed myself even further to achieve a ten-mile long run. That Saturday afternoon, I laced my sneakers, put on a long podcast, and ran on the Rail Trail for almost two hours straight. By mile six, I was slick with sweat and taking hasty sips of water. By mile eight, sharp pains ran over my right knee, but I pushed forward and achieved ten miles at an average 10 minute 54 second pace. Yeah, I really slowed down by the end, but I was proud. I pushed two addition miles on my long run in two consecutive weeks. However, that came at a cost. I was nauseous for the rest of the night and was exhausted beyond reason all of the next day. While I was proud of reaching a new milestone, my body warned me of my limits, so I planned to stick with 10 miles for the next long run.

The question is, will I get to that next 10-mile run? Little did I know that my son would give me the gift of strep throat, throwing a massive wrench into my training plans in week 5…

Overcoming Obstacles in Gaming in the 90s and Early 2000s

When I first got into gaming, the internet was in its infancy. If I rented a video game and didn’t know how to solve a puzzle or defeat an enemy, I only had two major choices: keep trying or give up. I sank countless hours in a few games that seared itself into my memory in the funniest way. I say funny because I would ever spend so much time banging my head against a wall nowadays.

One such memory was with Mischief Makers, a platform puzzler that released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997. I was draw to its bright colors and neat looking green-haired character on the box cover art. I guess my child brain couldn’t understand the concept of the game and “shaking” enemies, and without the internet, I was left returning the game unfinished.

Another time was with Quest 64. This one is quite hilarious because I didn’t even make it past the first area. Why? Because I literally couldn’t see where the exit was. I remember spending hours, no lie, hours because the graphics were so…polygonal, that my spatial understanding couldn’t tease out where the new road out of the kingdom was. So, I spend my rental time roaming the Melrode Monastery.

Now, before you laugh and ridicule me for being a terrible gamer, I would consider this more like funny memories during a simple time and with…well, a simple mind. I was probably around ten, barely been exposed to video games, and had no internet at my fingertips. What I appreciate about these memories was the sheer motivation as a child, and if I had owned the games instead of rented, I’d bet I would’ve kept trying until it clicked (or until I got my hands on the web and found a game guide). Regardless, these childhood memories make me realize two things: 1) my appreciation for how easy we have it as gamers today and 2) my sense of perseverance that I can take with me while I train for my marathon.

Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games

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