Having
done this race last year, my first in Japan, I had been looking forward to
repeating the race. Last year I finished fourth overall and first veteran man
aged 30-49 in a time of 17 minutes 22 seconds. For this year’s race I set my
eyes on a top three finishing spot and beating last years' time, preferably with
a sub-17 minutes run.
This
year, the only change from the previous year was that the race was on a Monday
and not Sunday, it being a national holiday. My plan was simple. Knowing that
once the starting gun was fired, there would be a sprint start from most of the
field along the race course, which for the first 200 metres was uphill, before
the pace settled, I would wait until the course turned out of the park where
the race started and descended into the nearby town – and then work at catching
and then hanging on to the lead group. This is what happened last year. This
year though I just couldn’t seem to get my legs going. It was half way down the
steady descent into the town that I realised that there was no way that I was
going to catch the lead group.
I
just tried to dig in and graft away and not give up hope that I could at least
have a solid run. After 1 mile there was a steep 200 metre climb which didn’t
seem too difficult, though a young whippersnapper worked his way past me on the
ascent. At the crest of the hill I could see down a long stretch of flattish
road which the course was to follow and decided to latch onto the youngster and
use him to pace myself down the road. However, after about half a mile his pace
began to waiver so I dispensed of his services and slipped past him.
Two
runners passed me at 4K. I could hear them working at catching me and had
expected to see the youngster once more, but unbeknown to me he had faded well
back by that point. The race finished on a track and I tried to at least look strong and determined in front of the assembled crowd. I crossed the line in eighth
place overall, and third veteran man aged 30-49, in a time of 17 minutes 18
seconds. So I had achieved one of my goals, though I was disappointed not to
have run a better race.
 |
| 3rd man 30-39 prize: locally produced Tamba wine, a bag of rice and certificate |
The
second placed overall finisher was a fellow British runner, also called Mike,
formerly of Darlington Harriers. He recognised the Morpeth Harriers club vest
that I had worn during the race and we chatted whilst waiting for the prize giving ceremony. It seems that he’d previously lived in Japan many years ago,
had married a Japanese woman, was a veteran 50 years plus runner and returned
to Kyoto annually at this time of year on a business trip from his current base in
Reading in the UK and made it a tradition to run the Kyoto Tamba Road Race. Small world.
