On Mar. 14, 2021 the Nagoya Women's Marathon 2021 took place in Nagoya, Japan. Many runners joined it online. One of them was my former high school tennis team member's elder sister, Ms. Akiko Miyamoto, a multiple sub-3 runner. Though my PR is not even close even to the worst of her records, she kindly invited me to join her for the run. She says nothing gives her greater moral support than accompaniment of a fellow runner. I gladly accepted her invitation.
The result is an amazing 3:28 finish for Akiko, and a retirement at 33 K for me. I was simply not ready to run the full marathon distance at the moment. But nonetheless it was a greatly inspirational experience, as well as tremendously beneficial training for me.
We ran both of the super famous training routes for Olympic medalist Ms. Naoko Takahasi and Yuko Arimori, which are called the Naoko Road and the Yuko Road respectively.
The Naoko Road is a 10 K shuttle route. The Yuko Road is an oval 12 K route with a brief shuttle section. Both start from the same point, and include a steep downhill right after start and a steep uphill right before finish. The Naoko Road is largely flat except for the undulation near the start/finish point. The Yuko Road on the other hand has a massive hill to get over between 1 and 3 K.
My lap for each of the three 10 Ks is shown below together with one for the last 3.25 K of the Yuko Road.
10 K: 50:51.09
10 K: 51:35.00
10 K: 57:08.76
3.25 K: 17:56.33
33.25 K: 2:57:41
I was familiar with the Naoko Road, because I'd run it numerous times in the past. But some parts of the Yuko Road were unpaved and it wasn't friendly to someone like me who were in minimalist shoes. Furthermore, a strong head wind continued for 3 kilometers along the river, which sucked energy, both mental and physical, out of me, hence the significant drop in pace in the 3rd 10 K. (See above.)
But all in all, it was a tremendously inspirational experience for an average citizen runner such as myself to run with a multiple sub-3 runner like Akiko. Her concentration before start, her perseverance in the last quarter of the race are something I look up to.
I'd like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to Yuko and Akiko for having invited me to this exciting online marathon attempt.
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