After I ran in the Kyoto Ekiden in
February for the Kyotamba team, one of my team mates, Okura, asked me to join
him and another team, P-Man, for a 24
Hour Ekiden Road Race in July. As it was 5 months away into the future I agreed
with little thought given to the reality of what I was signing up for. Well,
last weekend I took part in this race.
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| P is capital letter of Physical, Powerful, Passion, Pure, Proper, Practical, Perfect, Pretty and so on. |
Due to the disruption and damage caused
by Typhoon Nangka, which had battered the Kansai region of Japan during the 2
days prior to the race, the start of the Ekiden was pushed back 5 hours to
17:00 on Saturday 18th July and shortened to 19 hours. The race was held on
Maishima, an artificial island just off the coast of Osaka, which was created
to host a variety of sporting events and is known as Sports Island.
Teams were made up of 18 runners, with 120
teams taking part. I was surprised when I arrived at the venue about just how
big an event this was. After setting up our team tents and equipment, I asked
P-Man’s team leader who would run the first leg. Okura pointed to another man
and said that he was the first runner, but the other guy shook his head and
made it clear he didn’t want to do it. Okura then asked me if I wanted to go
first, and I said yes.
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| Team P-Man after the race |
So just before 17:00 I lined up with 120
other runners under the watchful eyes of a couple of thousand spectators for
the start. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and the crowd counted down
the last few seconds to the start. The race began at a blisteringly fast pace.
I wanted to try and run a fast time on this first leg as I knew my fellow team
mates would look carefully at my result, but also because I wanted to put the
team in a good position.
P-Man finished 5th in 2014 and had high
hopes of bettering that position this year. The first 200 metres of the course
was straight, before turning to a short and steep downward slope. As I ran down
it I must have been in about 30th place, and began to try and work my way
through the field. It was tricky though as the course was really narrow in
parts and I did get held up a little because of this. I completed my first lap
in 4:20, handing over the team Tasuke,
which had an inbuilt racing chip to monitor how many laps the team completed,
to the next runner.
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| Runner change over area |
After the first leg I made my way back
to the team tent and lay down for an hour. This was unchartered territory for
me as I had never run for much more than 3 hours previously. In total I ran the
course 14 times over the 19 hours. My times did slow down but not by as much as
I feared. I think the slowest lap that I ran was 4:43. I was given a 3 hour
rest period between 23:30 and 02:30, during which I got about 30 minutes sleep.
I actually felt pretty good after I woke up. I got to see dawn breaking over
the city skyline of Osaka in the distance as I was completing one of my laps in
the early hours of the morning.
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| Night running |
Though there were some very serious
teams with top quality runners taking part, there were also a good number of
teams taking part just for fun. For example, I had to weave around male runners
dressed in skimpy skits and wearing wigs, a team that all carried a rugby ball
around with them, and I also recall passing a woman dressed in a full chef’s
outfit carrying a large metal mixing bowl at one point during the night!
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| Sometime late on Sunday morning |
The atmosphere became incredibly charged
again during the last hour of the race, and it was exciting running the course
on my last lap with less than 30 minutes remaining, accompanied by roars and
cheers from the by then thronging crowds.
With 10 minutes remaining, race officials closed off the runners change
over area. Then it was left to the runners already on the course to keep
running the circuit until exactly 12 noon when the race ended
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| 7th Team Trophy |
After packing away the tents and
equipment, we went over to see the closing ceremony. Team P-Man finished 7th
overall and we were presented with a trophy. Though I felt exhausted, I have to
say that I do not feel as tired as I did after completing a full marathon. I
think it will only take me a few more days to recover. Team P-Man is going to
meet up again in the next few weeks for a celebratory drink, which I am looking
forward to. I suspect I will be asked to join the team again next year, though
at this point the thought of doing this all over again, plus another couple of
laps over an extra 5 hours of racing, seems barbaric. Maybe that’s why the team
will meet up is in a few weeks’ time, when the stiff legs and fatigue have
lifted. Over a few beers with team mates, it will be hard to say no, as after
all, next summer seems so far away.
