Kansai Masters Ekiden Championships

The 2015 Kansai Masters Ekiden Championship was held in Wakayama Prefecture last weekend. There were several relay races, for different age groups and genders, plus an open relay. Kyoto Prefecture were the reigning champions and had to hand back the winner’s trophy during the opening ceremony. I’d been called up to join the Kyoto team and hoped that we could win it back!

Kyoto Masters Team

The first race was an over 35 years of age men’s relay. I’m only a few months shy of my 35^th birthday so had to sit this one out. I watched the first leg runners get off to a breezy start on the track with the lead runner clocking 72 secs for the first 400m and 3:01 for 1000m.

The first Ekiden race gets underway

The only race I was eligible to run in was the open race. The first section was 3.1km, followed by three 2.4km sections. On the Kyoto team bus to Wakayama in the morning of the race, I was informed by the team manager that he wanted me to run section one AND section four, as he wanted to pull out due to an injury he’d picked up the week before whilst acting as an official pacer for the Kyoto Marathon. I can’t say that I was thrilled by the prospect of running twice, as I didn’t want to overdo it and get injured, but concealed my misgivings.

Ganbare (do you best) Kyoto!

At 1:10pm I lined up with the other open section runners for what was to be the second race of the day. After only 50m I realized that the pace wasn’t going to be fast so I took the lead. The first 700m was on the track before the course left the stadium and wound its way through a car park, onto a short section of cycle path, down a side street, with the last 300m back on the track. As I ran through the car park I knew I had a healthy lead as I couldn’t hear any other runners steps, but I didn’t want to relax too much at this stage as I wanted to give the other two runners in my team a good lead, as after all, I was going to have to run again for the last section and wanted to have as easy a run as possible the second time around.

Changeover at the end of the first leg

It was a warm day, though with a gusty wind, as the stadium was very close to the coast. Near the end of the first section I eased off the pace a little, wanting to save something for my second run. On the last bend of the track I lifted the team tasuki (sash) over my shoulders and then held it out for the next runner in my team at the changeover point, where a crowd was gathered. After handing it over, I looked around and could see that our team had about 250m lead over the second team.  My time was 10:13, which was a decent enough pace, being about 3:18 per km.

Results from the first leg of the open race

I took it easy whilst the second leg runner was out, but was a little surprised to see her return in second place, about 80 metres down on the lead runner. Once our third team runner was out, I started doing a few easy striders to get ready for my next outing, having changed vests to show my fourth leg number. I got a lot of amused comments from other runners when they realised that I was going out again! As our third section runner entered the stadium I jogged over to the changeover line, and could see that he had also lost one place, leaving me to pick up the tasuki (sash) in third place. Any thoughts of taking this second run easy were displaced when I sensed that victory was possibly if I worked hard. After about 300m I caught the second placed runner as we entered the car park. The lead runner had a much bigger lead, and I didn’t catch up with her until half-way around the course on the cycle path. It was nice to win the race and break the finishing tape to gain valuable points for our team. My time was 8:11 for the 2.4km, so a slightly slower pace than for the first section.

Results from the last leg of the open race

Sadly, Kyoto came last out of the six Kansai prefectures this year. Osaka won overall on points. On the bus back to Kyoto I asked the team manager why we’d done so badly, and he explained that he couldn’t get a full team together to enter into the women’s race, so we’d missed out on loads of points – scoring zero in that event. He also said that he wanted me to run in the over 35 men’s race next year. I will, but only for one leg next time!

Kyoto Ekiden 2015

Before I came out to Japan, I’d read about the unique style of relay races in Japan and hoped that one day I could experience it for myself. The Kyoto Prefecture Ekiden is held annually in Sandanike Park in Fukuchiyama. Each town and city in the prefecture can enter a team. This year there were 22 teams. I was selected to run with the Kyotamba team, my connection to the town being that I teach at the town’s senior high school.

An Ekiden has several unique features. The most obvious is the role of the Tasuki (sash). Each team has one sash which the runners must wear or carry and pass on to the next runner. Another is the nature of the course. When I did the National Road Relay Championships 12-stage in England, each ‘leg’ or section starts and finishes at the same place. However, the Kyoto Ekiden had a 38KM length course, with each of the 8 sections set out at a different point along the route. For the Kyoto Ekiden, each team had to be comprised of at least one male and one female junior high school student, one male and one female senior high school student, one adult female and one adult male – with a free choice given for the remaining two runners! I got given section 3 to run, which at 7.1KM, was also the longest.

On the bus to the start of my leg with the other section 3 runners, I got talking to a university student from the Kameoka team who told me that his personal best for 5000M was 14:20 and that he went out to Iten in Kenya last summer to train. I started to feel out of my depth and hoped that my team would not be too disappointed with my time.

The race started at 11am and the first two sections were each 3KM long. The first section was to be ran by female adult runners and the second by female senior high school student runners. I saw the first runner from section 2 round the bend in the road and come into view at 11:19 and head towards the changeover point where I was stood. I watched keenly so I could observe how to receive and also how to hand over the Tasuki. Kyotamba were in 14^th place by this point. The section 2 girl in my team held the Tasuki out to me and I grabbed it and turned in one quick motion and started out down the road in my first Ekiden!

Knees up: rest and ice did the trick

The runners ahead of me were well clear by this point. I had jogged the race route the day before so I knew what to expect - an undulating course through some small rural villages. It was a bit windy and cold but with clear skies. Some spectators lined parts of the race route and I could hear them say, “Kyotamba” as I ran along as it was emblazoned across my vest in Kanji. Sadly I lost three places. I’d missed 3 weeks of training in January as I tripped and fell and landed on my right knee on a concrete floor causing a lot of pain. I was just happy to recover enough to do this race, though I certainly tried to run my best.

Section 3 results

As I approached the changeover point, I took the Tasuki off and held it taut between my right and left hands, with arms outstretched shoulder width apart, as I’d seen the other runners do earlier. The junior high school boy section 4 runner in my team grabbed it and sped off only a few seconds behind the 16^th placed runner. My time was 25 minutes 23 secs, the 17^th fastest or 6^th slowest of the section depending on which way you look at it! The lad I’d spoken to earlier from the Kameoka team ran a stunning 20:56, which was inside the section record, but a runner from Kyoto City had topped that with 20:54.

Kameoka`s section 8 runner taking the victory

After a quick warm down the section 3 runners were bussed back to the start/finish point of the Ekiden. At 1pm the section 8 runners started coming in. Kameoka were the winning team this year! Kyotamba finished 18^th. The standard of running was high and I feel privileged to have taken part in this Ekiden to represent Kyotamba. It has certainly inspired me to try and improve my running times and I hope to run this race again next year.

 

Kyotamba finishing in 18th place