Run with the Wind

NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD - THIS REVIEW FOCUSES ON THE RUNNING ONLY.

I was incredibly happy to find out that there was a two-cour anime about running, and was ecstatic to find that it was also really good. I was out there running before I watched this anime, so this isn't really a critical review as it is comparing the running in the anime to running in real life, just in case you're one of those people that gets a bit too inspired by anime and actually tries out the sport (I may have gotten carried away and started playing volleyball for a year because of Haikyu).

First, I like that the anime shows that you really can just put on a pair of running shoes and just... run. That is pretty much true. Although, wearing basketball shoes would likely give you blisters after racking up a few miles, and wearing jeans is definitely not recommended, unless you really like chaffing. If you do only have jeans, wear your loosest pair. There is actually a WR for fastest mile ran in jeans, so it's not impossible.

One of my first hype moments when watching the anime was a short shot of Haiji's notebook which displayed everyone's first 5K times. Everyone's times bar Prince's were around 19-21 minutes, with Prince's being around 35. I can tell you that this is mostly accurate, but in a good way. Prince's time is pretty much dead on. I live with a bunch of weebs, and also forced both weebs to run a timed 5K, with the times being 34 and 36 minutes. And they had about as much training as Prince in that time (a few runs, but over a longer period of time). The other times though, were relatively insane. At the time of watching, I had been running for a year, and my PB was 22 minutes. It's worth emphasizing that they all have some sports in their background (Jota and Joji's times were probably the most realistic, as they both still play football), but times like that are quite difficult to get. Even now, my PB of 21:34 on a 5K barely scrapes those times.

Then there's the Hakone qualifier. This is where the real anime stuff kicks in. A 16:30 5K is absolutely, balls-to-the-wall fast. Maybe not by professional standards, mind, but my God, that's blistering. I will tell you now, realistically you absolutely CANNOT go from 35 minutes to 16:30 in 10 months. With Haiji's training schedule, it does actually seem possible, but his training schedule also wouldn't have worked on Prince. Early on, they're running 5K to the lake, then 5K back, which is a 10K a day, every day, every week. That's roughly 42 miles a week. That's not a mileage you can start on. Even if your stamina can push through, your legs will not. It takes a fair bit of time to build the leg muscles needed for that kind of running, even with hot baths everyday and Haiji's magic protein rice. The least you could probably start on is 15, and then building up by 10% each week. Any more than that and you'll get shin splints as an amateur, for sure. Shin splints are not fun. After that, he also runs them ragged on a track, which is basically training for elites at this point. Your legs would pretty much be beyond dead. Also, it's very, very lucky that none of them were injured or caught a cold during training, as injuries would've put you out, and colds are aggravated by running (even though you can run with one, just as Shindo did).

Other than that though, I'd say everything was fairly on point. It would have probably been completely spot on if they had another year to train and started off more slowly. If you want to take up running, definitely do it. I'd recommend listening to some anime OPs with a good BPM to set a nice running cadence. At first it'll be hell and you'll be exhausted, but it gets better and better until eventually you become addicted.