Murakami Triathlon, the mission completed

Last Sunday, I went out to Murakami for 51.5k triathlon with Ma to overcome Niijima swim DNF, and the mission was happlily completed. Here is the report I posted to Namban (my running club) list.

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2:43:51 71st overall, 1st AG

S 35:59 131st

B 1:21:16 77th

R 46:36 51st

This race wasn't on my annual race calendar until I had a traumatic Niijima experience. I decided to do this because I just couldn't leave it without doing anything. Therefore, my mission for this race was to finish and I am happy to be able to do so this time.

Swim

The sea was very calm and flat, and thanks to the Kamakura swim with Jay, David and Ma a week ago, I didn't have fear in the water anymore. I started at the very end of crowd to avoid any brutal battle and made sure to myself to start very, very slowly. About 10 minutes after, I found myself feeling comfortable in the sea, and also picking up the pace a little by little. I comleted 1.5k without problem and even had 4 minute PB.

Bike

The course was mostly straight and flat, and all you need to cope with was the wind. I regret that I didn't bring Keren's DH bar that I have been keeping for a long time. But after the turn around point, we had fabulous tail wind all the time. I was also lucky to have a woman company all the time. I had to work hard to keep up with her. Without transition, I think my bike time was about 75minutes. (Need to work more on transition!)

Run
The heat was the factor. Also I was afraid of having a cramp in my leg, but thanks to the electrolyte tab Mary gave me, it didn't happen to me this time. And maybe because of IM training these days, 10km run felt quite short for me, but it doesn't necessarily mean I could run faster, unfortunately.

I won my age group (out of only 5 people) and had 5kg of rice. Nice bonus! I like triathlons because of this! :-D

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On the final note, thanks to Ma, Motozo, Meg, Adam, David S., Ben, Tony, Vanessa and Tomoko for sharing a good time there.

Sado Triathlon B type

Last Sunday, I completed Sado Triathlon B type (2km swim, 105km bike and 20km run). This was my 4th proper triathlon and 2nd middle distance one. Here are my result and report.

Overall time: 6h08m50s
Swim leg (2km): 47m48s
Transition: 6m37s
Bike leg (105km): 3h35m39s
Transition: 3m58s
Run leg (20km): 1h34m49s
154th overall
12th overall woman
Won my age group :-D

Two summers ago, I started triathlons as a seasonal fun activity and I have never expected "racing" in triathlons. For this time, I had a feeling that I was not only participating, but racing.

I got up at 3:40am and caught a bus at 4:20am to the starting area. The rain stopped and by the time we arrived the transition area, the sky was nicely overcastted and it seemed to become a pleasant cool day.

Swim
The sea condition was perfect, the water was almost as flat as a swimmingpool. As I knew that I am a slow swimmer, I started with the slowest groupand started swimming very slowly. First, I was just concentrating on keeping the form I learnt from my excellent swimming coaches, then soon I realised that I was passing many people, which was very encouraging for me because it never happened before. One mistake I made was that I happened to go into the inside of the course and got involved in the "battle", but even after having a Lariat at back of my neck, I didn't panic and kept　"racing" with people around me. When I came out of water, my honest impression was "is that it?". 2km swim felt much easier than 2.5km last year to me (is there any "wall" between these distances?), and I was excited when I saw my watch showing 47 minutes! I never expected under 50 minutes.

Bike
After taking an energy gel (ume aji, my favourite!), I got on the bike in an extremely good mood (go me!), but tried to keep sensible pace because 105km is not easy distance for me. Since I lost my cycle computer the day before, I couldn't monitor my speed at all, but I kind of knew the right pace from my feeling. Early part of the course was straight and flat through the golden rice field, then you hit the coast line where it started to get scenic but hilly. Around the one third of the bike course, it started raining and around 50km point it got hard, but it didn't bother me much somehow and I kept passing people. I was surprised that I felt even strong at the uphills and passed lots of guys in front of me. I thought I was not a climber because when I went for a long ride with Namban triathletes, I was always left far behind at uphills. Now the hard bike rides with those excellent athletes paid off! I passed more than 200 people at the bike part. Well, it's the privilege for a slow swimmer.

Run
I wasn't sure how hard I could run after 105km bike ride, but I was feeling OK, still had some energy left in me. My only concern was cramping. Before I started running, I drank Electro Shotz drink and grabbed Athlete Salt and Sports Beans, but I forgot to bring Cramp Stop spray with me. Anyway I was nearly fully equipped for cramping. But near the 5km point, my hamstrings started to cramp and I had to stop to stretch. I took Sports Beans praying "please please stop this cramp!!! I want to finish this race!". I slowly and carefully started to run again and went back to the decent pace. I had to run very carefully all the way because when I sped up to a certain speed, the cramp came back and I had to stop and stretch. It was a frustrating run, but at the same time, I was running faster than I was hoping to and I passed nearly 100 people during the run, so I can't really complain, right?

My Sado experience was so much fun and it became a good confident builder for my first Ironman next year (I got into Canada). On top of that, I got the first prize in my age group. That was a nice bonus. The cool weather helped a lot, and my energy supply went pretty well. Those two factors mattered a lot to this result.

Thanks to all who trained with me and gave me advises and encouragement, and to Brett who cheered me and helped me at many different points on the course.

I shall come back to Sado for A type race some day! Tri is fun! So much fun!!!

Oshima Triathlon

Just a quick report.

Swim 39:36 (172nd)
Happy to finish within 40 min. At the very latter part, I had a cramp in my right calf and got panicked, but managed to complete with no kick.

Bike 1:17:15 (including transition time, 103rd)
So much fun to pass many people! 3 minute improvement from 2 years ago.

Run 47:30 (64th)
I seemed to have used up legs at the bike leg, and got cramp at my left hams. Lost couple of minutes. But luckily I had a bag of Sports Beans with me and the electrolyte in it helped me to keep going. Time was dissapointing, but I am still glad to complete the race.

Total 2:44:21 (110th out of 212, 9th woman out of 30)
Despite my slow run time, I could finish within my target time 2h45m. I am happy and had so much fun!

All Nambanners did so well. Espacially Chris Flannagan came in 6th overall and Vanessa was in top three overall women. We are so proud of them at the prize giving party. Tri debutant Anthony did great, too! He got sick in the water and had a crash on the bike, but still finished in very good time, 2:43:33.

After the race, we soaked in open air onsen, went to the prize giving party, enjoyed nice self tempra dinner at the hotel, then had a fun at a karaoke place to close such a joyful day.

Boston Marathon Experience.

before

after (still smiling!)

This is the race report I wrote for Namban list.

Total time: 3h31m46s

5km 23:59

10km 24:16

15km 24:15

20km 24:43

half 1:42:19

25km 25:23

30km 27:32

35km 26:40

40km 25:25

42.2km 10:41

Since I decided to run this marathon as a "fun marathon", I was planning to run 5min/k pace all the way and hopefully finish around 3h30m. 5min/k pace is about 30seconds/k slower than my PB marathon two months ago, so I thought it wouldn't be so difficult although I didn't train much.

But running a marathon is never easy. I should have known it. Until the halfway point, I was feeling OK with slightly faster pace, but after passing famous Wellesley College, I started feeling heavy and slowed down significantly (Enthusiastic Wellesley girls must have sucked up my energy). Around 25km point, it seemed to me that it would take forever to finish. I regretted my attitude, having underestimated a marathon, having done onlyone long run, having eaten and drunk too much, etc.... Now, it became pain, not fun anymore.

Funny thing happened at around 35k, after the last peak of heartbreak hills. I suddenly felt fine and started to pick up the pace again. As I was passing many people who were hitting the wall, including people who passedme a while ago, I felt better and better and kept it to the finish line.

Thus I almost made the planned time, and it was almost fun marathon after all, but it would have been much more fun if I trained a bit more seriously. Ultimately, no training, no fun at marathons, anytime.

Boston experience itself was so great, though. I think tradition and runners' pride made it special. It was a wonderful event, and I want to do it again someday, with better preparation.

BTW, Namban singlet worked well there. During the race, I met one guy called Weyne (not sure about the spelling) Jones who ran Tokyo Marathon this year and he said hi to Gareth and Steve. Also I was hounered to meet the founder of Pettau loop on the course. And Pete, thank you so much for your support. It was a great fun to see you and drink with you, and sing the "Arigato song" together!

Race report: Tokyo International Women's Marathon

There is always next one. The words are usually encouraging when you hear them after a bad race. However, they came up to my mind when I was passing 15km point.

There was no negative symptom before the race. The training went well and having marked PB's at 5k, 10k and 20k, I felt confident for a new marathon PB. My tapering went as I planned and I ate very carefully before the race to avoid stomach problem.

My plan was starting out with 4:30/km pace till 10km, then change into 4:24/k pace to the finish line, expecting to have 3h05m - 3h07m new PB.
I admit I started a bit faster (22:05 for the first 5k), but considering the long downhill, it wasn't that stupid pace. When I reached 10k point where I was supposed to change to the next gear, I realised the pace doesn't feel easy at all to me. I tried to keep the pace but I just couldn't. The feeling is somehow familiar to me. Yeah, I remember, it was just like my first Tokyo Women's in 2004! The nightmare race I slowed down to 7min/k pace and swept by the bus at 34k point. Oh, no...By the time I reached Shinagawa, I started to think "Today doesn't seem my day. Perhaps I should give up my target time".

Until the halfway point, I still tried to keep decent pace (10sec per k slower than planned pace, though), but after the turnaround point, with no motivation, no concentration, no guts, no patience, I got slower and slower. When my left calf got cramp and stopped me several times around 35k, the idea of pulling out started to look tempting. But this could be the last Tokyo Women's Marathon, this could be the last chance to experience the stadium finish, I couldn't miss it!!!

With a slight fear for the sweep car, I kept running, no, jogging. Before the notorious long hill, my calf got cramp again, but I tried to ignore and kept jogging. I saw Namban cheering squad at the end of the hill. I felt embarrassed and was disappointed about myself to have shown such miserable run to my team mates.

At 40k point, I tried a harder and sped up a bit, running side by side with other runners. When I reached the stadium, I felt better and passed some people to the finish line.

My time was 3h21m54s. Almost 12minute off from my PB. Disappointed, but not shocked. Just puzzled. The experience taught me the mystery side of a marathon.

Thanks for all who came to cheer us at the roadside, and huge otsukaresama to all girls who ran the race.

◎Splits
5k 22:05
10k 22:17 / 44:22
15k 22:17 / 1:06:39
20k 22:51 / 1:29:30
half 1:34:36
25k 23:02 / 1:52:32
30k 24:16 / 2:16:48
35k 26:55 / 2:43:43
40k 27:34 / 3:11:17
42.2k 10:37 / 3:21:54

Takashimadaira 20k

1:25:10 (net) / 1:25:33 (gros)

I am happy with my run although I missed 10 seconds for my target. I have been doing this race for 4 years in a row and the main purpose is to check my fitness level before my main race Tokyo Women's. I compared the 5k splits of these four years and found an interesting point. My first 5k split is getting slower as my total time improve. This year, I am very happy with the fact that I ran whole way almost even pace, and actually I felt 4:15/k pace easier than last year. I take it as a good sign for my marathon in 4 weeks time.

2004　20:50 / 21:31 / 22:22 / 22:11 / Total 1:26:55
2005　21:07 / 21:28 / 21:42 / 22:04 / Total 1:26:24
2006　21:13 / 21:33 / 21:44 / 21:45 / Total 1:26:15
2007　21:22 / 21:11 / 21:15 / 21:20 / Total 1:25:10

Suzu triathlon report.

This was my third triathlon and the longest distance ever for me. What worried me most was swim part. 2.5k in the ocean sounded pretty impossible to me first, but somehow, I chose this race as a summer project. I urgently needed to improve my swimming skill in 2 months. On top of swimming 3 times a week, I borrowed a "Total Immersion" DVD from Stuart and I also took private lessons. All worked pretty well on me and gradually I started to feel easier (never faster, though) in the water. It's always nice to experience your improvement through your training, and you can get it most when you are a beginner. So the improving process this time was so precious for me.

We had a beautiful weather on the race day morning. Unlike my first tri in Oshima last year, the ocean in Suzu was clear and calm, thank God! So I had less pre-race anxiety than expected. Although I had a bit of difficulty on navigating myself straight (sometimes I swam into others at right angle), I never panicked or drowned and could finish most-worried swim part alive. So relieved!

At the bike leg, we cycle 2 laps of 50.1km course. There are 3 significant hills in a lap and the third one is notorious "Ohtani Toge" where I saw many people pushing their bikes on the course. My target at the bike leg was not to get off the bike and cycle through to the top, so I tried hard nonetheless I was sometimes slower than people who push bikes. 2nd lap was especially hard with tired legs, but the spectacular scenery along the coast helped and competition against other women kept me going.

At the run leg maybe I should have tried harder, but didn't have enough guts left in me anymore. To be honest, I chose to enjoy the event rather than killing myself to run harder. I stopped at the every aid station (there are more than 10!) and enjoyed sumptuous water melon, oranges, lemons, bananas and umeboshi as well as drink and ice. I tried a bit harder at the last k and passed 5 or 6 people in front of me. Was I mean?

My overall time was 7:47:15. I don't know this time is good or bad, but this is the longest time I have ever raced and I am very happy that I could get to the finish line.

I became 8th out of 22 women finishers and won the age group, which was a nice surprise, but most importantly, I enjoyed the whole experience in this tiny town Suzu. Lastly, I would like to thank my tri mentors Keren, Jay and Stuart for sharing this great weekend. Tanoshikatta.