Shiori Statter - Running the Tokyo Backyard Ultra

Shiori Statter is one of three women who ran the Tokyo Backyard Ultra this past November.Shiori managed to clock up an impressive 100km, meaning she ran the backyard loop for 15 hours. Shiori is also a professional in the fitness industry. Shiori also takes on challenges such as starting the New Year with a 100km run around her block!

" The backyard ultra or last one standing is a form of ultramarathon race where competitors must consecutively run the distance of 6.706 kilometres (4.167 mi) in less than one hour, which is a pace of 100 miles per 24 hours. The race is over when only one runner remains to complete a lap. This runner is marked as the winner and only finisher, with all other runners receiving a "DNF" (Did Not Finish). The runner who completes the second-most laps in a race is often referred to as the "assist", in the sense that their effort is ultimately what determines how long the race is allowed to continue--there is no predefined end length or time in a backyard ultra, as long as multiple runners can complete each loop within an hour." ~ source Wikipedia.

Links
Tokyo Backyard Ultra
Shiori's Instagram
Shiori's webpage
Arnold
Run for Life: How to Run, Walk and Move Without Pain or Injury and Acheive a Sense of Well-Being by Mark Cucuzzella

Transcript

 Hi everyone. Welcome to episode  82. So, um, I did say I wasn't going to be doing  seasons anymore and this is our 82nd episode. That means we're almost at 100 episodes. Can you believe it? Our guest today is Shiori Stata. Shiori is a fitness and diet coach, but she's an ultra runner. I mean, she does things like on the first day of the year she runs 100 kilometer loops  like 100 kilometers around her house in five kilometer loops guys loops are my favorite so i can kind of relate to that in this interview we talk about shiori's run at the tokyo backyard ultra uh shiori was one of three women and she managed to run a hundred kilometers  Can you believe that running back and forth?

Um, Shiori is based here in Tokyo and our interview is actually Jap English or English slash Japanese. It is mostly English, but there will be some few Japanese words thrown in there. I guess it's an absolute mixture of  the Japanese and English combination. I hope you enjoy my, my chat with Shiori. Hi 

Shiori. Hi Shiori.  Ah, yeah. Otsukaresama.  Otsukaresama. Oh my gosh. Shiori, my children, my kids, my son and daughter, always said to me, Mom, your life is like a movie.  I don't do it on purpose. But, so on my way home tonight, I took the wrong bus. The steps that happened were, I panicked.  It was quarter to eight and I was like, oh my gosh.

I'm going to be late.  I took a bus, it passes by my bus stop, I promise you, but the bus driver said a lot of things in Japanese that I didn't understand. 

I made it. Good. 

Good 

yourself, Hong. Yeah. Thank you so much for being gracious and us re recording. So how are you doing? How's your week going? Nicely  

busy,  but should be busier.  

Oh, really?  Ah, because a lot of people are signing up for, for the new year. This is the busiest time, right?  Mmm, 

yes. 

I wonder why.

Okay. 

Yeah. No, I, I maybe, maybe I'm being a little bit lazy.  

Oh, do you think so? Oh, no. I think so. I can't imagine you being lazy. I think you're a very focused person. I think so.  

I'm good at pretending like that. Really? 

Okay, cool. So, Shiori, thank you so much and welcome to the podcast.  So, how would we introduce you?

Who is Shiori? How and when did you start running? I'm  

sherry. I'm a I'm a diet coach. I'm personal trainer Recently become a running trainer. I started running since when I was  Always like running even when I was a kid and I was in track and field team  in high school. I joined the cross country team when I was in Canada.

And after I graduated school, start like walking, I was doing  like half marathon. 10K to 20K. And  started trail running 7  years ago.  My husband invited 

me. And then you fell in love with trail running.  Yes.  

Funny story behind. I used to  not like it. My first,  first time or second time I did it was in, I was wearing um,  Normal shoes like a road shoes.

I was falling so many times  hate it. This is not fun I don't want to do any more But then my husband Andrew got me trail running shoes and tried it and I was like, ah, this is 

nice 

First place I joined was a Ometaka Mizu Okay. 15K trail running, right? It's kind of a popular one. Mm hmm.  Also, last time we talked about a little bit, but  I like the trail running because  I don't need to  line up for ladies room. 

That's true. We were talking about how in ultra distances.  There's actually less women, so  I 

was, I was very shocked. Always, when I joined for like a half marathon, always so many lines on women's room, and like always, guys room is like so,  oh, like, when I did, maybe first, I shocked was like my first 50K. I went to  I was like, so big line on men's room, then  going to redness room, like I don't need to write it up. 

No, that's true. That is so true, yeah. 

Sorry, I was just talking about 

toilet. Yeah, so obviously this we wanted today the reason why we wanted to talk was about the backyard ultra right shiori and we said there were only three women three women at the backyard ultra here in tokyo shiori was one of them shiori did 100 kilometers guys can you believe it running for that long Back and forth back and forth.

So Shuri, what made you decide to do the Backyard Ultra? What made you decide to do it?  

I like I had about  10 years before  I joined.  At that time it's already like, race was  But like reading about the race and hearing about race,  only one who's  left is, has um, how do you say,  has, he or she has the record, but other is  

DNF, even you run 

like a 300k or something.

I like the craziness. 

Also, I never really run those. Endurance race. Always like, I join, like, where it starts and the goal. So, always wanted to go those endurance race, so. Yeah, 

that's true because, uh, like, you don't know, you don't know where you're gonna end and how far you're gonna go. So, really, it's all about endurance. And How did you find  the the the ultra in Tokyo?

Did you find that? Was it fun? Or how did you feel about it?  Was fun. Really fun? Yeah Somehow, 

I don't really mind going  or running same place over and over. Yes, 

why? That's my, because I was also wondering why? How do you manage? Because With me, if I go running, and this is a problem, if I go running, if I feel like I'm bored,  that's it, if there's a bus stop, I get on the bus, I go home, like  And I sometimes do funny things, like I'm in Yokohama, and I'm running, and I'm so far away, and I'm just like, no, I'm, where's the station?

That's it. I'm, I'm going home. So, how do you keep from reaching that point where you're just like, uh uh, this is boring? S.  Many 

things to think about it. 

So what sort of things do you think about?  My 

life, my work, body conditions, what to eat,  and somehow remembering childhood.  

And  

also some gratitude about  the environment I'm running.

Yeah, because I mean, after running a certain while, you kind of get in the zone. You know, and once you're in the zone, you're just like,  that's where you are. And everything is, is fine. And gratitude definitely helps. What about your training? How was your training leading up to the Backyard Alpha? What sort of training did you do? 

I did some 

trail running, some long distance running. And also did a  treadmill to not to go too fast. 

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, to manage your pace, hey.  Because especially 

the backyard which is right in Tokyo, the Takao, that's so easy to run. Yes, it's so nice to run they're going down but if I want to go fast then I can just go fast 

That's true because it's quite flat so you could end up going fast and then injuring yourself or something or getting tired quickly So it's about managing yourself  And when I find out some 

people go faster  Yeah No 

Those boys run like crazy like next weekend  They've got an event in Takawa where they're just doing those loops and they're starting on Saturday morning They're sleeping over and they're doing it again on Sunday for fun.

Like they just do that so when they run the race, it's like You know, like they practice  like that. Yeah, so Shiori What were your highlights and your lowlights for the race? Like what was the thing you were like, this is awesome And what was like, oh no  

I like spending time running with those crazy people. 

Like when I see some people, I always find out those people in other race and always in like a top 3 or top 5. Also,  like people cheering,  so feeling like so  nice running there. But the point was, um, mental block.  

Ooh, yes. Okay, tell us about the mental block.  Yes, 

because  I was thinking about wanna go  200k but minimum 100k and  once I hit 100k I feel like  of course at the time I was tight I mean, at the time I was a stomach ache, but if  at the time it was like a 95  or  98k I think I went one more round.

So like making some Go  is always nice to go but always but I mean not always but sometimes become it's kind of stopping you for  

It's like you've you've set a limit for yourself and for you to break through that mentally your brain is like no Sure, we can stop now. You said minimum hundred K. Let's stop.

So that's the thing with ultra running right is your mind 

It's so  important.  

Yeah! So, if you do it again next year,  do you have a goal? 

Still want to go 200k.  Of course. And I don't  set minimum. 

Okay,  that's good. Okay, so no minimum. You're trying for 200.  But if you can do a hundred, you can do two hundred.

That's what the spouse 

said. It's true though. It's, 

it's true because  you just go slowly, slowly.  You'll be fine. I'll be there supporting you. I'm volunteering. I saw, 

I saw the bucket. I saw many like guys who can go.  Past and father  and like they are managing a time, like they're really  impressive. But also I saw one or two guys always finishing like one or two minutes before the next, but he was, he was then like,  keep doing it.

Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. . Like how man is strong? Are they?  

Yeah, but so this is me, me personally, yeah. When I do these things.  For me, the stop and start is hard. I can keep going slowly doing. But for me to stop,  that's hard for me to stop and start again.  Yeah, but like, how 

do you I feel like I need a minimum of five minutes to,  like, prepare for the next round.

Yeah.  It's kind of like It's a bit difficult.  I mean  Oh, let's see.  I'm going to go then and and run on next weekend. So let's see how it goes, how it goes. Yeah,  okay. So what else is planned for 2024? So we've got the backyard ultra, which you did last year and you want to do it again this year. What other races do you have planned for 2024?

For  2024,  

I had a  second.  In my life,  road running race,  42k, on March,  because I never finished. 

Oh yes,  oh my gosh, Yori, look at that, a hundred kilometers, but no 42k. Okay, so which marathon are you running?  Itabashi Marathon in Tokyo. Nice. How are you feeling? Are you excited?  Excited and a little bit nervous.

Really? Yeah, because last time, 

like about 10 years ago, I tried a full marathon and I couldn't finish it. How 

far did you go?  37 or 8. Oh my gosh, you were so  close! But what happens is you're, the wall, did you hit the wall? If you hit the wall, like you just sit down, you're like, I can't, no.  What happened?  One time,  the day was 

too hot.

But also, that was my first time doing a full marathon, so I think I went 

too fast.  When you didn't finish the marathon, does it  still bug you to this day? Or, you were like, oh it's okay, I didn't finish, it's fine.  Still bugs me.  I  understand you.  I started a 100 miler, I didn't finish it.  It still bugs me like,  yeah, it still bugs me so like you have to go and some people say to me, some people have said to me, go back and do that thing again and finish it so you can,  so you can be okay about it. 

Part of, and also I kind of experienced  that those  DNFs, it's become Kind of habit. Kind of used to it.  

My dad said that to me the other day. My father.  Really?  I was talking to him about something. And I was saying, oh, it's so tough. Life is very hard. And he said to me, Linda, if you start quitting, quitting becomes a habit. 

So don't quit.  Oh, same message. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,  that's true. It can be because you're like, ah, whatever. And then it just becomes a habit. I,  wow, okay. Wow. Yeah. 

I remember past place I did a DN  was wine. I  like Mm-Hmm. It to kushima or  is uh, it's very tough one.  DNF, and after that, two or three races, I think I did a good, um, I mean, DNF.

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, you're gonna have some DNF, so it's okay. It's okay.  Okay, so you've got your Mario Road Marathon. Yay! Yep. What else have you got? Have you got any big, big long runs planned? Yeah, 

I will join Okushinano 100k.  It's in June. And  I think I will go Nozawa 65k, 

and We just wanna try 100 mile this year  and thinking about go for  

Shigaichi.  Who, where's Shichi?  

Uh, not Shichi. I not shi. It's  bwa. 

Yes. Hundred miles. And Lake Bwa is so beautiful. I saw photos on Instagram. I was like,  wow. Okay. That'll be a beautiful one for sure. I think so. And I told you, if you can do a hundred, you can do one 60.

So  it'll be Will, will Andrew run with you or is he going to crew  the a hundred? I  

gotta go by 

myself always.  So the 100 miler in Lake Biwa, Andrew, is he going to run with, or is he going to be,  like, is he going to look after you?  I think he also wanna  

Mm-Hmm, . So maybe he's gonna go by himself and I'm gonna do it by myself.

No shame. He should stay with you. It's your first one.  bother him. He should hold your hand and make sure you finished your first one.  No,  

there's a story that he's not gonna be my, uh, pe up  because I. 

I didn't, I mean, Lord of Marathon,  we, we did together, but Andrew was talking too much, and I was a little bit unknown,  so I was like, you go first, I don't think we're gonna never start together.  

I, I have a, I have a meme, I look for it and find it,  and they're like, what you need to know when you're pacing an ultramarathoner, if they sway.

If they shouted you, if they call your names,  forget it as soon as the race is finished. Just forget, forget about it because 

we get a little bit crazy when we are running 

long distances. Yeah, yeah. We become a little bit childish, a little 

bit selfish, um, 

um, 

um, yeah. So he's an ultra marathoner, he should understand,  so it'll be fine, it'll be fine. Okay.  At the beginning of the year, Shiri, I saw on Facebook that you did a hundred kilometer at the beginning of the year.

Tell us about that run. Like,  why? There is a  Thing,  the fact that you do it in loops as well.  

Um, that's the, as a kind of 5K around my house, like did the 5K go back and go another round, but  the same place go  or over.  Which is good though. I don't need to think about like a  direction, like I don't need to worry about getting lost.

So you 

like, you like the loops. You like them. I do. You do? So the Backyard Outra format is like perfect for you because of that.  Yes!  So is it one of your favorite races that you've ever done?  Oh! Sugoi! Winter is great. Oh my gosh. Wow.  

I'm just like really suck at direction.  I cannot go for like orienteering or like OMM or something.

Me 

too. I'm, I'm very bad.  So what I do is I have a sunto. So if I go up a mountain, cause I'm always like, where does this path lead? And I want to take it and I want to I'll just press my watch and say, take me home. And then, 

yeah, 

that's what works for me. Okay, so let's do the fun questions. Uh, what's the craziest thing you have seen runners do?

Like something crazy. I would  say 

one guy  called Osada san. Mm hmm.  He did a  hundred mile, just go around the one.  Um,  big tree. 

I, I like the roots, but not that much. 

Wow. That's crazy. I think he did 

a while. It's like a COVID  time when people cannot go really 

outside.  And what about a book recommendation can be running related or just any book?  

Running related one,  I would say run for life. Okay. 

Okay, okay, good one.  Do you want to add another one or that's it?

That's it. What about a TV series or a  Netflix channel that you watch or a movie that you could recommend?  Netflix?  

I recommend  Arnold. 

Okay. Yes. Okay. Cool. Good recommendation. So before we end, I have to ask this question, because the ladies in the ultra running group are always complaining about their partners.

So Shiori, your husband is an ultra runner as well.  Uh huh. How do you find the dynamic  of being married to an ultra runner? Do you guys run together? Does he understand when you have to do these challenges?  

We run together, but also we run separately. Like sometimes I just want to  go for by myself or with my friend. 

He doesn't come. And when he want to do some  crazy challenge, I don't join.  

Okay,  okay, okay. So you basically both understand each others. Like this is how 

far we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How far we can go. How hard I can go.  So, for example, 

two weeks ago we went to Nagasaki  and we did a trail running.  We climbed up one mountain called Unzen.  And there is some roof to go top.  And first we were thinking about going together.  But found out  the loop we are trying to go  has some ice and snow.  Andrew is fine. Mm hmm.  Don't like those slippery. So I say like, um,  you can go.

Mm hmm. I go other way. Mm  hmm. Shouldn't be snow. So let's meet on the top. Mm hmm. And  

we are fine with it. I think that's everything. Unless there's something else you want to talk about, Shiori. 

One more. Can I talk about one another crazy guy? Donuts guy? Yes, yes, yes. 

I need to, I need to talk about it. I need to. To advise her, like, 

sure, make sure. Okay. 

Here's  

my friend called Brian. Mm hmm.  Very smart guy. I think he's a lawyer. He understand Japanese very well. And he climb up high mountain. He's very strong guy. He loves donut. Don't say but. I would say and. He loves donut. Every time he climb up  Mountain.  He takes picture with that. With  him.  And he's  hoping  Mr.

Donut's gonna be sponsor for him. 

Good luck, Brian.  Yeah, good luck. He's very strong. I think he's trying to do TJL 

this year. Oh, is he?  

I think Tomo did it. I think Tomo san, Tomokazu Ihara did it. Yo! Who else? Oh yeah, cause that was, I remember seeing  Oh, that's wow. Ok, that's like, wow. It's really hard 

for a foreigner to try that because you need to like read  Japanese map. 

Hi, hi, hi. That sometimes I can't really read. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. If I'm Japanese. Yeah, 

yeah, yeah, yeah. Mmm. Wow.  Shuri, that's us. We are done. Thank you so much. Honestly, I love your sense of humor. Do you know when you meet someone, it's like you just meet someone, and then it's like you get an unexpected present or an unexpected surprise when you discover they have such an amazing personality. 

Want us to go like this? Yeah, I think you're pretty cool.  You're welcome. Shuri, I just want to say kudos to you because I understand trail running can be tricky. There are so many men,  but sometimes as women we can get a little bit intimidated and not try difficult things. So it's good to see women out there. 

Yes, there were three women with like quite a lot of men, but it's good to see. You out there doing things because it encourages young girls like maybe triathletes, young girls see that and think if she can do it,  I can do it too. So that's, that's very good. It's something that's very close to my heart to show other young women, especially in life that we can be strong women and we can be doing big things and that's okay.

So that's, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and thank you very much for tonight.  Thank you. Okay, and pass my regards to your hubby and to Koji san Especially Koji, oh my god, Koji 

kun 

If anyone doesn't know, Shiori's pup was the highlight of the Backyard Ultra He was just there and everyone was just coming and being, oh, you're so cute  and he just  Took it all in. Yeah, the highlight. Have a good evening 

Thank you so much for listening. To support the show, please follow us on Instagram at The Running Voyager or please leave a rating and review on iTunes or Spotify.  It doesn't take much, but it means a lot.  Here's to a week full of great adventure. Cheers!