With the 39th Kyoho no Oka 18.3 K Road Race rather painstakingly but nonetheless successfully completed, I am already looking forward to my next fitness goal, which is the 38th Shiroi Pear 10 K Road Race. I'm running it for the first time.
When I signed up for the race, I mainly did so because the race venue's proximity to my home and also because of free pear to be served at the event.
But I have a fresh outlook on it now. Today I went to the venue on my motorcycle and rode through the course twice for research. It is a pretty good course for a barefoot runner. I mean, it's reasonably barefoot-runnable.
The race starts off the Shiroi City Athletic Ground. It goes down for several hundred meters and then gets flat. After running around 1 K it takes a first left turn into a busy commercial road, and then take another left into a narrow farm road and keeps straight for a little less than one kilometer. It takes another left into another busy commercial road toward an industrial area where many factories stand. After about one and a half on the commercial road, the course takes its first right turn into the industrial area and zig-zags through it for about one kilometer.
Once out of the industrial area, you are back on a commercial road again. But very briefly. You go into a smaller industrial area for a while and then come back on a commercial road again. But you stay on the commercial road only briefly, and turns left into a quiet farmers' district and eventually into a small forest where the sun is blocked by the trees. This last for a few hundred meters.
Once out of the forest, the finish line is near. You are back on a sunny road which connects to the halfway point of the first straight road coming from the start. Once you reach the connecting point, you take a left and the finish line is within 500 meters.
Overall, the road surface is smooth and looks friendly to barefoot runners. My only concern is the area circled in red on the man above. The road is not maintained well. There are cracks all over the place. Plus, because it is in the forest, you see a whole bunch of mystery nuts and bits of twigs and so on. They are not comfortable on the sole. But it only lasts for a few hundred meters. I can grit my teeth and bear it.
There are many farm stands along the course that sell Japanese pears. I stopped by one of them today and bought a bag of 'hohsui' pears for 1,000 yen. I exchanged a few words with a fine-looking young employee there, saying that I was going to run the forthcoming Pear Road Race, and that I was running in a Tarzan costume and in bare feet. She reacted wildly with wows and smiles.
The race is on Oct. 1. There are only 12 left until the race. At this stage there is nothing spectacular that you can do to improve your outcome. I will continue my regular training. I will run 10 K three times a week. In the last one week leading to the race day, I will what I did for the Kyono no Oka Road Race. It conditioned my mind-body perfectly. I'm sure it will work for this one as well. I cannot wait to run again.
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