november training summary

the idea was to go for the half-marathon, but after my injury i was unable to train for a couple of weeks before the race. anyway, here is what i managed to do:

distance: 48.4miles (77.6km)
time: 5hours 18minutes 59seconds
runs: 2 races, 2 easy, 3 tempo

nagoya city half-marathon

i did it! today i completed my first half-marathon. having tested out my injured foot on friday i decided it was ok to run. by the end of the race i couldn't even notice any pain in my foot - mainly because of the pain throughout the rest of my body! it will never cease to amaze me that no matter how hard you prepare for a run, it almost always hurts your body. haha, it is one part of running that i love of course.

so how was the half-marathon experience? well it really is a long way. the final few kilometres were tough as i slowly dropped off my dream pace, but not surprising as i didn't train (and hardly even walked) for the past two weeks due to my foot injury. i was really really pleased and was also touched by some friends (lili and rich) coming to watch and of course my beloved rie being there are the start and finish to cheer me on. the feeling of total deadness and lack of energy in my legs as i climbed over a small humpback bridge ("it felt like climbing a mountain," i would later tell rie!) with a few hundred metres remaining really let me know i had done it.

anyway, the result:
i came in 52nd (out of about 2000 finishers - around 3300 started) in a time of 1hour 21minutes 0seconds. i was actually the first non-japanese finisher too!
my splits were as follows:
5km: 18m 28s
10km: 19m 07s (37m 35s)
15km: 19m 12s (56m 47s)
20km: 19m 44s (1h 16m 31s)
FINISH: 4m 29s (1h 21m 0s)

as you can see the last 6km was the hardest, especially the final 1.1km! i probably went off a little too fast, despite trying to control myself. but, it was a great experience and one i am looking forward to repeating next year.

once again i would like to reserve some special mention for japanese spectators. there were thousands of people lining the whole route (which was just one lap) throughout nagoya. they cheer and shout and wave flags. if running in england had been like this i would probably have never stopped! thoroughly enjoyable and really fulfilling. the plan now is to rest up for snowboarding this new year and start running again in january if all goes well.

here is the race website: http://nagoya-city-marathon.jp/

injury strikes (that's a pun...)

after months of preparation there is only so much you can do to prevent random injuries from happening. in fact, if you made a list of 'dangerous' activities, i would bet that going bowling would not be very high up that list. despite that, i managed to suffer an injury at bowling. this one really was not my fault. a friend from work in japan who had recently moved back to america came through town for a conference at the weekend. we went out for a rowdy night of food and drink and then headed to the bowling alley. for some unknown reason my friend decided he had to show me his love through the medium of a hug/tackle. while i was looking the other way (literally minutes before i was preparing to leave) his large frame made contact with my more slight frame and we both fell to the ground. as we did so his knee landed square on my foot and i felt the crack straight away. sure enough, it swelled up nicely and when i went to the doctor on monday he confirmed it was fractured on the knuckle at the base of my big toe. at least it was not a clean break, but with only 2 weeks until the nagoya city half-marathon it is not good!

rest and using lots of 'shippu' to treat it are basically the only things I can do.

can't remember how i bowled, but am sure i must have won!!!

handa 10k race

today rie and i ran a hard 10k race out in handa city, aichi. it was two laps on a very hilly course, that kind of caught us by surprise. the race started and ended in the handa city athletics stadium though and, as usual, there were crowds of spectators watching and cheering all the way. it is so nice running in japan where people cheer as you are doing your best. and we both did our best and got new personal best times:

rie came in 10th in 51minutes 47seconds.

i came in 5th in 35minutes 42seconds. feel like i could have got close to 35 minutes if it was a flatter course.

overall it was a really nice day. there were lots of people around because there was a 5k race, a 3k fun-run and also a relay.

here is the link to the official page: www.city.handa.aichi.jp/sports/shigoto/marathon/index.shtml