Ekiden

This past weekend after more than a year without a race, I ran an ekiden (relay) race in Osaka with a team I trained with once before. I didn't know the members very well but they invited me and I wanted to get a fitness check in, so Loran and I went. The course was located in North Osaka about an hour and a half from home so we had to get up early to get there.

When we arrived we met the other members of the team and I found that I would be on the men's masters team. I was going to run the first leg. This running club had 5 different teams, men's open, women' open, masters, etc.
I did a warm-up with a guy who I had run with before. It was quite fast just a notch or two below race pace. This guy is quite competitive. When we did a long run (30K) together before, he took the run out at a suicidal pace (for him) and ended up dying leaving me to run the last half alone. Anyway the warm-up was quite brisk but we ran the course together so it was quite useful.

The whole ekiden experience in Japan is kind of amazing. There were tons of people there 1000+ with all different lengths of ekidens going on at the same time. They had an ekiden for elementary school children where each child ran 1.5 K. The open men runners ran 4K each and the Masters men ran 3K each. All of these races were going on at the same time so it was an organizational puzzle but of course it came off perfectly with no screw-ups.

So when the Masters men started I was kind of amazed to look around at the start and see no one who looked that fast. Usually when I start I am surrounded by fast looking 20 olds who I know I have little chance of staying with, but when I surveyed the crowd I had a flash of hope. Anyway the gun went off and instead of getting blown away at the start I was with the leaders.
What a great feeling. It was like going back in time. I haven't gone out with the leaders in many years. Anyway soon we merged with other divisions running their legs so it was hard to see what place I was in. My splits were 3:49, 47, 41. 11:17 for 3k. It was a pretty pleasing race for me. The other exciting element was I was going back and forth with one guy over the last mile and in the end ended up out kicking him and two others. I feel as a Masters runner that I have the racing experience and kick of a 5 min pace runner (which I used to be) in the body of a six minute pace runner (which I am now).
The rest of my team ran well and we ended up getting 2nd in our division. I definitely enjoyed the racing experience and want to do it again soon.