The 35th Kyoto City 5K Road Race

There is a saying in Japan: ‘Three days cold, four days warm, spring arrives’. We have certainly had our three cold days this week. Snow was falling when I left the track in Kyoto City after finishing my session on Monday evening. This weekend, things have been very different. Today, race day, was the warmest day of year so far, with temperatures pushing close to 20 degrees. Great conditions for the many spectators that lined the south bank of the Hozu River in western Kyoto City to watch the 3K, 5K and half-marathon races.

A small crowd of about 200 men assembled on the start line of the segregated 5K race. The first few hundred metres of the race were ran over a badly worn patch of grass, with fairly dense crowds of spectators cheering us on. As is usual, the starting pace was brisk, but when we joined a narrow cycle path along the river bank after 200M, it quickly settled down to a more manageable pace. I was in about 12^th place by this point, and as we approached the first short climb, I got knocked aside by a runner who wanted to get in front of me and clearly felt that I was running too slowly for him!

After cresting the rise, the path remained flat all the way to the first turnaround point. I managed to work my way smoothly through the field to 4^th place, and was sat just a few metres behind the leading pack of three by the time we reach the turnaround, 1 mile into the race. I was pleased to pass the lad who had knocked me out of the way earlier and even more pleased to see that he had dropped a good distance behind me when I went around the first turnaround cone.

The leading group managed to pull away from me a little at this point, but I worked hard to try and hold my pace. Half way back along the path to the start area, I was passed by a lad in a black t-shirt who went on to finish third. After passing the start/finish area, the race route continued along a more quiet section of path. There was a second and final turnaround point. As I rounded this, I could see that the 4th placed runner was coming back towards me and I sensed a good opportunity to use him to try and keep up my own momentum, as I felt like I was wilting in the heat. I caught and passed him soon afterwards, but lacked the kick to open up a big enough gap to destroy his morale.

Predictably, with 400M remaining, the youngster on my shoulder kicked and passed me, finishing just 2-3 seconds ahead of me. At least doing battle with him kept me focussed in the final stages. I crossed the line in 16 minutes 46 seconds. This is the second fastest time that I have ever finished a 5K race. My 5K PB is 16 minutes 40 seconds, which I ran on a track in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in May 2011. A good result then, boding well for the future.