2008 Mitake 15km Mountain Marathon RR
Sunday December 9th
1:30:26 - 104
th out of 930.
Had no intention of doing the
Mitake 15km Mountain trail race again this year. But due to a communication mix up with the race organizer when I tried to enroll Jay after the deadline and ended up getting enrolled as well, I found myself on a 6:16 train the morning after the
bonenkai. And there was some early panic as even though Jay had left the party early, he missed the train that we were going to link up on and arrived at the foot of
Mitake-
san only 30 minutes before the start.
I went 1:30:27, which was only 18 seconds slower than my time from last year. But I was very content with this time in a tough race that I had decided just to cruise through, and it felt much easier than last year. And due to the large number of entries this year they broke the field into two waves of 500 (10 minutes apart and non-seeded) and unfortunately for Jay and I we were in the 2
nd wave. This meant that after about 1km we had to continuously thread our way though back markers from the 1st wave. With the trail being very narrow and rough in sections, it was difficult to pass others which slowed us down greatly.
All in all It was a perfect, cool and clear day in a very scenic mountain area. The race organization is impeccable and the hot bath after the race at a mountain
minshuku only adds to the experience. Very glad that I did the race again, but the clash with the
bonenkai makes it hard to commit.
My next races are the
Kanagawa Half Marathon in early February, followed by the Tokyo Marathon on the 17
th.
Coming Soon! - A wrap up of my triathlon season.
Did it! And I am happy.
12:04:25. Maybe a little bit slower than I had hoped and 36
mins off my my PB of 11:29, but I am still very happy. It was bloody tough, especially on the bike where the head wind on the last section totally demoralized me and I slowed right down. Have never experienced that before. The run and swim were fine, and I picked up 138 places on the marathon by steadily passing people and only having a handful pass me. My
final positon of 1205 out of over 1800 starters was about where I thought I would finish. It really was all about finishing and soaking up the atmosphere of the amazing support on course. And I could not wipe the big smile off my face on the run to the finish in front of a huge, cheering crowd.
Am a bit leg sore today and sun burnt in some places, but after a trip to the official
IM race merchandise store and the purchase of some special finishers gear I am very content. Will have a few beers tonight and then spend my last two days on the Big Island visiting friends in
Hilo and doing some sightseeing. Will have to come back here again one day for a
real holiday.
Last thoughts before the race
It is now 7:30 pm on the night before the race and all my prep has been completed. Had a great pasta dinner and a glass of wine and am feeling relaxed. The whole experience so far has been amazing, we are being treated like pro athletes and have been meeting and talking to famous people in this sport. The whole set up is of course, very professional and way beyond what I have ever experienced at any race before. Now I just have to finish the darn race to make it even more memorable.
The swim is ideal and I am looking forward to it, I really feel good in the clean, clear ocean. You can see lots of fish and live coral, plus some resident turtles. There was some swell over the last couple of days, but it dropped off nicely this morning. But when 1800 hit the water in the morning it will be a whole different story. The ride holds my worst fears, especially the threat of strong cross winds. But we did ride the most exposed section on Wednesday and it seemed to be ok. The run will be hot, but as it has been clouding over in the late afternoons and cooling off a little, so it might be ok. Anyway, I will find out tomorrow! Kona, here I come!
And thanks to everyone who has wished me good luck, this support means a lot to me. And I will have a good cheer squad here in Kona with a bunch of ex-Saipan folks living on the island of Hawaii, as well as some people from Japan.
Keren
All over bar the racing
It's show time! Well, it nearly is. The Iron Man is on next Saturday the 13th. I fly out to Honolulu and on to Kona on Monday night and I am as about as ready as I will ever be. My training went well and I am injury free, so I am looking forward to a good race. At 62kg I am probably the lightest that I have been for over 20 years, but not that much lighter than the past few years. Everyone tells me I am thin, but it just body fat that I have shed. I have the right bike and wheels (thanks to Chris F and his Zipp 404s) to race Kona on so it is all up to me and how I can handle the conditions that Kona will throw up. The mass swim start, the heat and humidity, the strong trade winds and the lava fields are all to be reckoned with, but I think I can handle the worst. Anyway my goal is just to finish, hopefully with a smile on my face!
As I have been tapering over the past few weeks I have had a nagging feeling that I have not trained enough to finish strongly. After IM Japan my ex coach told me to concentrate on intensity and not to do much long stuff. but when I look back over my training log, I think I have pretty much accomplished what I set out to do since I started training for Kona from the start of July. How soon we forget!! Anyway, here are all my training stats -
JulySwim:27km
Bike: 539km
Run: 150km
Time: 50 hours
AugSwim:35 km
Bike: 707km
Run: 218km
Time: 65 hours
SeptSwim:44km
Bike: 832km
Run: 272km
Time: 75 hours
OctSwim:8km
Bike: 128km
Run: 33km
Time: 12:20 hours
My preparation has been better than it was leading up to IM Japan, where I did not feel fresh when I got to the starting line. So I hope I have self coached my taper better this time around. As for a prediction for Kona, I will just say that my number one aim is to finish the race under the 17 hour cut off. This is one finisher's medal that I really want! The variable and possible extreme conditions make a real time prediction difficult, but I will be very happy to finish in around 12 hours (My PB is 11:29)
My race can be tracked live on Sunday (Japan time) on -
http://ironman.com/worldchampionshipRace number is 573. And I will have three friends who will also be racing. All of them have faster PBs than me.
Stephan Samoyloff 838 Canada (ex Saipan and who I will share a condo with in Kona)
Mitsu Shippee 1581 Japan (from Tokyo)
Brigitte Niederberger 1610 Swiss (ex Namban Rengo member from Hong Kong)
With a bit of luck and some computer access, I will try to update my blog after I get to Kona. And it is jsut starting to hit me that my next race will race at the fabled Iron Man World Championships in Hawaii!
Suzu Half Iron Man (well sort of) Race Report
Suzu is a tiny town on the east coast of the Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan. The race was a little longer than the usual official Half IM (2km/90km/21.1km), being a 2.5km swim, a 100.2km bike and a 23.3km run. For this race I was joined by team mates
Mika,
Stuart and
Jay from
Namban Rengo. The photo above was taken at 5:30am on race morning before we rode the 8km to the race start. As you can see by the photo, Jay's bike was already trying to escape from him so as not to be abused by him any more!
Total time: 6:20:49 Swim (2.5k) 46:50Bike (100.2k) 3:26:26Run (23.3k) 2:07:3334th place overall out of 380
5th out of 60 in 45 - 49 men.
I had targeted this race as one that I could probably do well in and as an ideal tune up and training race for my attempt at Ironman Kona in October. By looking at the slowish times from last year's race it was hard to work out if the race was really tough, or if the competition was on the weak side. Well this race turned out to be tough, especially the bike leg. Had really no idea what sort of time I would do, my estimate was between 6 hours and 6:30 hours so I am happy with my 6:20:49.
My swim went ok, but a little slower than I would have liked (target 45 mins). I raced one guy practically stoke for stoke for the last 2km and as we slogged it out to the beach I was surprised that he just stopped dead when we both got out of the water. One small victory!! Ended up as 53rd overall after the swim. A quick transition of 3 mins got me out on the road on to my bike.
This was probably my best ever triathlon bike leg as I picked up 30 places to finish 23rd on the bike. It is usually a case of dropping down the field by about the same number or worse, so it seems that the extra bike training that I am doing is paying off. And I spent a lot of time with no one around me, so I picked off riders that I could see in the distance in front. Overall the course was scenic and fast and I was able to spend most of the time in an tight aero position. The 5km climb that we did twice was another story, but I was able to hold my own and even pass others on the way up each time. One strange feature of the course was that just after the big climb we had to dismount and run 25 meters so as to cross on to a main by-pass road. Both times here I cramped up in my right leg but I was able to spin it out on the long, fast high speed decent (my max speed was 67.8km/hr). My average speed for the bike was 29.1km per hour and it must have been tough, as at Ironman Japan I managed 30km/hr over the full 180km. My bike computer time was 3:21 (target 3:30) and after a quick 2 minute transition I hit the road for the run.
The run was uneventful and I was cruising along at a comfortable pace until I saw
Jay with 9km to go. As it was an out and back course he was 9km into his run and looking good, but I was over 5km in front of him. This woke me up and I tried to run the final 9km at 5km per hour pace to finish under 6:20, but I just came up a little short at 6:20:49. Had no real plan for the run as my current training has all been LSD for Kona's taxing marathon, but was pleased that I managed a decent negative split here. All in all it was a fun, low key race. Had hoped for a top three finish in my AG, but my 5th was still pretty good considering I did not taper and did 10 hours of training in the race week. Went to a nice, slow paced part of Japan that I probably have would have not gotten to. Congratulations to
Mika for her AG win, a truly great result for a non swimmer and in only her second real tri. Jay's "sort of" trip to the medical tent was the weekend's only drama.
My next race is a 10km road race around the National Stadium on September 17th, then it will be a case of "Kona here I come!!"
Nariki Hill Climb Bike Race Report
Yesterday I did my very first bike race, and it was a blast! As a below average cyclist, I realized a while ago that I have to focus on improving my bike riding and racing skills if I want my triathlon bike leg times to drop and to be more competitive. So when I heard about the first
Nariki Hill climb bike race that was being put on by my friend
Onishi-
san of the
KFC Triathlon Club, I was keen to sign up. This is the same club that does the popular
Ome Mt.
Takamizu mountain trail race every April.
The
Nariki hill climb was 2 stages of 5 km with an elevation gain of 430m. The course was up a closed and very scenic river valley road that was about a 40 minute ride from
Higashi Ome JR station. It was your typical western Tokyo country road, but it was one of the prettiest that I have seen so far. After the first 1km or so of winding past some old farm houses, the road followed the river and headed upwards though a lush, green forest. Too bad that I could not talk any of my fellow
Namban Rengo member triathletes to join me yesterday, as it really was a great day out and a fun race.
The first stage was a qualifying stage that had a generous 45 minute cut off that I managed to do in a solid 22:30. I really had no idea what sort of time I would do, I took it out hard but tried to keep a little up my sleeve for the second stage. And the second stage was the race stage. Was surprised that I started to pass riders from earlier waves (due to the narrow road, we started in waves that were two minutes apart and I was in the the 40's veteran's 7
th wave) who were pushing their bikes up the hill from only about the 500m mark. I continued to pass riders all the way to the top, even some of the young ones from the first wave.
My goal for the second leg was to try and break 20 minutes; gave it all I could but I finished in a gut busting 20:20. This time again I managed to pass even more riders (and walkers), and all those that I saw ahead of me from my wave. One guy in my wave shadowed me all the way up on the first stage and tried to do the same on the second, but I was able to drop him easily at about the 3km mark. And I passed four more veterans that had probably gone out too fast about 500m from the the finish. Was very happy with this effort as there were some very serious looking bike riders out there. As a fairly strong climber but a first time bike racer, I thought that I was able to hold my own with a top ten finish in my age group. And this also gives me great heart for this coming Sunday's
Suzu Half Iron Man triathlon that has a reputably tough and mountainous bike course.
Result of Second Stage:
20:20 - Overall 68
th out of 314 - 8
th out of 61 men in the 40's
BTW - the winner was a Japanese
professional bike racer who finished in 14:42! And about 180 did not make it past the first stage.
As mentioned above, next up for me is
Suzu on the
Noto Peninsula over in
Ishikawa-ken next weekend. Looking at the times recorded there at last year's race, this race is going to be tough with a 2.5km swim, a hilly 100km bike and a flat and exposed 23km run. And
Mika-
san informed me that there is once section on the bike where we must dismount and walk so as to cross a busy main road! With a bit of luck I think I can do well at Suzu, but will have to be carefull so as not to pick up an injury that may cause problems on my lead up to Kona in October.
It's official! Kona here I come!
Aloha Keren,
Thank you for sending in your race results. Congratulations on your great race at Ironman Japan. You have now met the validation requirement of your 2007 Ironman Lottery selection. Your results are on file in the Ironman Kona race office.
The Athlete Information Guide will be posted on
www.Ironman.com after August 1st, 2007. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We look forward to seeing you in Kona in October. Train safe.
With Aloha,
Linda Jane Kelley
Athlete Liaison Ironman Kona Race Office
