Monday, January 29, 2018

Race Report: Tateyama Wakashio Marathon 2018


On Jan. 28 I ran Tateyama Wakashio Marathon 2018. I finished at 3:43:13 (gross)/3:43:08(net). I renewed my previous personal best time by more than two minutes. I am happy with my improvement. Below is a report of how I ran the race.

The gun went off at 10:00 am sharp. I started off from the first zone. That's the one for the fastest runners where I don't belong. But I had no choice, because when I went to the starting area, it was already so crowded that I couldn't get through to my zone.  So when the race was officially under way, there was only a small gap between the official start time and the time I crossed the start line. 

I started off at a very comfortable pace, because I had planned to save energy until the 25 K mark. Between 1 and 2 K I heard a voice from behind, and a familiar face passed by my side. He is a student at my school who has a far better time than mine. We wished good luck for each other. In no time he disappeared into a crowd of runners as he picked up his pace.

The temperature in Tateyama was around 6 degrees Celsius at the time of start, and it felt fairly cold. It didn't go up very much as I went along. Before the 10 K mark, I took a pee break once and it caused a time loss of 30 to 40 seconds. I didn't like it, but it's far better than the discomfort of holding it. 

Near the 12 K mark there was the first food station. I took out a plastic bag from my left pocket and put four pieces of bread into the bag. The bread has custard cream in it, and is very delicious. It's from a local bakery.  I ate two and kept the rest in the pocket so that I could fuel myself in case I should get hungry between food stations. 

Between the 10 K and 20 K mark you can easily go faster than you planned. The course is straight and almost flat. Plus, the view is good and there are noticeably more cheerers along the road. I got overtaken by so many runners who happily picked up the pace. But I stuck to my pace. 

I passed the halfway point at 1:50:55. Much faster than I had originally planned. I slowed down a bit. In no time the course was going to take a left and go into hilly inland. A slight increase in pace at this stage could take a toll on my legs. But shortly after the halfway point I had to pee again. My heart sank in dismay. But again the discomfort of holding it could make me distracted, so I accepted another time loss of 40 to 50 seconds there. 

Soon after that, though, the pace runner for the 3:45:00 finish came from behind, so I decided to go with him. The runners around him all looked focused. Their quiet determination rubbed off on me. Then came the sharp corner near the 22.5 K point where the hilly inland route started. Immediately the course started going up. I overtook one runner after another who ran out of gas after running the first half too fast. I felt very focused as I was already freed from my pee problem. I still felt very strong because I was still well within the distance I was accustomed to in training.

Seven & I Holding's convenience store was in sight on the right at the top of a mild hill, which marked the 25.5 K point. As I reached the peak, I quickly took a left. A few seconds later I saw a man throwing his arms in the air and waving them. It was my friend Ui-san. I gave him a high five. I looked around for my bilingual companion. She was about ten meters down the road. She handed me some oranges. I took them from her hand, and said thanks as I left her behind. 

The highlight of the inland route is a long and winding slope at the 30 K mark. Last year I was already quite exhausted at this point. But this year I was full of energy and almost pain-free. God knows how many times I had trained on hills to prepare myself for this section of this particular race. I increased my cadence and took shorter strides to minimize energy loss. There was a water station halfway up the hill, but I ignored it as I didn't want to slow down. When I finally reached the peak of the hill and felt my heart rate still fairly steady, I realized that I had become a lot stronger than I was in the previous year. I felt proud. 
I enjoyed the descent at a brisk pace. But in no time I had to take a pee break yet again (third time in the race!). I didn't want to lag behind the pace runner, but there was no choice. The break was long, and my heart sank with frustration. As soon as I left the toilet, I picked up the pace to catch up. I was pleasantly surprised that I had the ability to to do so at this stage of the race. But I was also careful not to overuse my energy. So I increased the pace only gradually. 

When I reached the top of a downhill that overlooked the Gulf of Tateyama near the 33 K mark, I saw a yellow balloon attached to the running cap of the pace maker. I quickly measured the distance between me and him. It was somewhere around 100 to 150 M. I decided to give myself a couple of kilometers in order to catch up to him. I carefully slowed down my pace on an upward incline, and picked up the pace when the road was flat again. Between 34 and 35 K I finally caught up to the pace runner. From that point on each K was a countdown to the finish. 
When I reached the 40 K mark, I walked off to the side of the road and took off my aqua shoes, held the shoes in my hands, went past the pace runner and put on a spurt. The road felt cold on my sole but I didn't care.  I swung both of my arms like a mad man, and overtook one tired runner after another. "Go, barefoot runner!" a spectator yelled. A surprised cry followed, "He's holding his shoes in this hands! What happened to his shoes?" Nothing happened to my shoes, except that the wearer took them off! I ran past a wall of cheerers on both sides of the street, receiving warm words of encouragement as well as wild reactions to the barefoot run.  
I took one last left to the home stretch leading to the finish line. The pavement was  briefly replaced with a short graveled road. Nasty edges of small gravels hurt my soles. I grimaced in pain. But a moment later it was replaced with fluffy grass, and from there on it led straight to the finish line. Down I went, swinging my arms as if there's no tomorrow. I closed my eyes and kicked. A few seconds later four blue horizontal bars were in sight, and a moment later I was on the other side of it. I put my left shoe down and ran it across a few of them just to make sure the sensors registered my time officially. I took a few steps forward and stopped, and gazed up at the sky that was still hazy, but that expanded vastly. Suddenly a tremendously joyous sensation engulfed me and I couldn't help laughing. I got a major dopamine rush and couldn't control myself. I laughed like a mad man, and wowed, and yee-ed.    
I finally saw my wrist watch and found out that I had renewed my PB, finishing well under 3:45:00. It was almost 5 minutes faster than I had originally planned. I was satisfied.
My next race is Ohme 30 K Road Race on Feb. 18. This race has a different kind of challenge. Distance-wise, there is nothing new for a man who has run a full marathon. But precisely because it's shorter, you get to run it faster. And when you run faster, it means a bigger challenge for your entire cardio-vascular system. I will be doing one or two big interval training sessions, whose details I haven't decided yet. 
My goal is three. One, I will finish under 2:30:00. Two, I will run in aqua shoes. Three, I will cross the finish line barefooted. I will do the best I can in order to achieve all three goals. The key to success, I believe, is "barefoot hill interval training".  


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