When is a race not a race?

This past week I heard that one of the groups I run with was going to to have a marathon on the weekend. In Japan marathon means anything from 3k to a ultra marathon and as I wanted to get a long run in I decided to contact them to find out the details. After Yoko, my friend, contacted them to get info for me, Gito-san called and gave me directions to the race. Actually he called me several times to make sure I understood exactly how to get there. I appreciated his kindness and his lack of nervousness about talking to a non-native speaker. Many people are quite shy/reserved about talking to "foreigners", but that is another story. Anyway..he was incredibly kind to me. He told me they would have a 5/10K and a half-marathon. I decided to run the half-marathon because I needed to do a long run on Sunday. A half marathon isn't really a long run, it is only 13.1 miles, I feel like it must be at least 14 to be a long run :) How is that for being obsessive compulsive...



So the next morning I got up early 5:30 and left the house at 6:30 to get there on time. After 1 bus ride, 1 train ride and a 15 minute walk, it took about 2 hours to get there, I arrived at the race site. It was on the banks of the Yodogawa river maybe the biggest river that runs through Osaka. This river is typical of many rivers in Japan. Picture a river, then a small bank, than a large flat area that stretches to another bank. On the flat area in most cities in Japan you will find baseball fields teaming with hundreds of young players every weekend. The riverbanks are basically parks. At the edge of the flat area the bank rises up again to a bicycle path that follows the river for the length of it.

I arrived there a bit late so after registration I had about 5 minutes to warm-up. I never had any really intention of racing the half-marathon so when people asked how fast I was going to run I said 1:40. Not fast but good workout pace. A couple of people said I should try for 1:20 or 1:30. I wasn't feeling very well. I had had a fever all week so I knew that I wasn't at my best. Anyway once the race started I knew I couldn't run it at training pace because if I did I would be in last place and it would be kind of embarrassing. So off we started with the first mile in 6:40. I knew I couldn't run that pace the whole way so I slowed down a bit and ran the next 9 miles at around 7 minute pace which to me felt like a lot of work. Unfortunately nobody was running that pace so I ran 95% of the race alone.

(I have to commend the organizers on their efficient use of space. As I said the race was along the river. It went out and back in one direction, past the starting point. Out and back in the other direction and then repeated itself. So we raced a half marathon in a relatively small piece of land without closing any roads.)

The last 3 miles were a bit of a struggle. I was freezing which is very unusual for me in a race so I started to cramp up a bit. Miles 11 and 12 were in about 7:20 and the last was about 7:00 for a final time of 1:34:00. This is not a particularly good time but considering I was sick the week before and I wasn't mentally prepared to race it was a good training effort.

After the race they had an awards ceremony where they gave out prizes and goods from sponsors. For my lowly 10th place I received a muffler and a pair of gloves. I think this is so much better than races in the US. When I was racing well, many moons ago, I won many trophies and ribbons which all went in some box to gather dust and rust. It is so much nicer to win something you can actually use. At Japanese races I have won so many cool things, when I do win. Rice, clothing, gift certificates...

Another thing I liked about this race was how old school it was. It is what I imagine races in the 60's and 70's used to be like. Small, informal and with a lot of serious runners. Anyway it was great fun.

Wednesday night workout

Every Wednesday night for the past couple of months, I have been taking the bus/train/subway into Osaka to run with a group at Osaka castle. There are two reasons I am making this long trip every week. The first is that I need some running companionship. It is quite difficult to do my hard runs by myself and a group definitely raises the level of my training. The second reason is as an English teacher in Japan it is not easy to get opportunities to speak Japanese. My life revolves around English. When I teach I am speaking English and most of my colleagues are westerners so I don't speak Japanese very often except when I go into town to shop etc. Anyway this has been a great experience because I can combine a great training run with some contact with Japanese culture.

Anyway this past Wednesday was another tough workout. The plan was 12k at 4:30 per k pace with the last 3k as fast as desired. This week there were just three of us, myself and two guys I had never run with before. We started of with Akaishi san in the lead. He said he was out of shape and was going to run 5 min. pace but of course was bluffing and from the gun was running about 4:20's. I ran just off his shoulder the whole time but let him set the pace. It was quite inconsistent ...he would run steady and then he would push the pace for a while. I never felt like I was going to drop but I could tell he was pushing it. I don't know if he was actually trying to drop me but it felt like it. In this kind of run I fell obliged to stay with the group until the last 3K as per instructions. So if one of the other runners is surging I have to just keep up but I always feel like I can't surge back. I have to take it without responding. So we went on this way for a while surge, slow, surge, slow, when a little toy dachshund came running at me and brought me to a halt. I knew it wasn't going to bite me but I just didn't want to trip over it. Anyway by the time it lost interest the other two runners were way ahead. They didn't slow for a second. So after I caught up to them I decided since they didn't wait for me I had no great obligation to slow down and run with them so I just went by them. They made an attempt to stay with me for a bit but Mr. "Surge" dropped quite quickly and "runner X" tucked in behind me until the 3k to go mark. At that point he asked me if I wanted to speed up. Usually on the last leg we run quite hard and I am used to pulling away from whoever i am running with here. But when I increased the pace he just tucked in behind me. The last 3K I was pushing quite hard and the last 1.5 k was almost race pace but he stayed on my shoulder the whole time. I was definitely doing my best to drop him with no luck. As came to the end of the 12K I was totally dead but to my chagrin he said thanks for the run and turned around to do one more loop of the 3k course. When you run hard with someone you can definitely tell where you are in the hierarchy of the group. It was obvious at that point that he was the fitter person that day. But what a great run. I could never put in that kind of effort by myself.

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.

Lost Blog

It has been a long time since I posted for various reasons. It seemed like a great idea at first, a way to record what was happening in my life but as time went on the thrill became less and less. I felt like I was writing to someone without ever getting a reply. It felt like writing into a vacuum. The words go out but there is little response. But after many months of not writing anything I think it is something I should do for myself, not to get a response, but to record thoughts and experiences. I also I think that writing is good intellectual exercise.

Anyway I will make another attempt. So many things have happened since my last post. For the past six months I have been teaching at Tezukayama university in Nara part-time. The university I was at before has a five year limit. After 5 years you have to quit for at least six months and then they will hire you back at your beginning salary. Not a great deal of course but thankfully they liked what I had done over the past five years and waved the pay reduction and promoted me from assistant professor to associate professor. Actually that is as meaningful as the pay "raise" to me. I never liked the title "assistant professor". I don't feel like an assistant. So anyway I like the title "associate professor" better. I feel like I am almost a real professor now. Since I will never get a PhD this is probably the closest I will ever come to being a full professor.

It was fun to teach at a different school for a while. I just has two classes, two days a week. One was the highest level class in the program and the other was the lowest. The high class was a lot of fun. There were several Chinese students in the class which really helped the energy level and it also gave students more of a reason to use English because English was a common language between the Japanese and the Chinese. The low level class was more of a challenge. I usually teach 100% in English because I think it is much better for the students if I use only English and also it encourages them to use English with me if they think I can't speak Japanese. But this class was so low I had to use Japanese. But it really hurt the class because it erased any need on their part to use English in the class. But I got through the semester and I think the students had a good experience I consider it a success.