Namban's Blog (18)

Fuji Susono runner's impressions:



Gary: Very pleased with a 1:49 in the heat and hills. Thanks to Jay for

perfect organizing, great place, great company.



Chiba-san:

"10K and much beer"

DNF in 2008 and 57.15 in this year

Thank you great organizer, Jay, you could take 35-Nambanners to the

wonderful weekend experience.

To tell the truth, that hilly Fuji Susono's course wasn't so hard to run

for me.

Recently I participated in a hilly… Continue

In the elite division, Adil Annani of Morocco won the race in 2:10:15 ahead of Seiji Kobayashi in 2:10:38 and Keita Akiba in 2:10:53.

While we are waiting for Yoshida-san's own report!

Congrats to a new PB!

Yoshida-san, 2:43:40



Here is our hero's story:

I ran Beppu Oita Mainichi Marathon on last Sunday. It was my 50th memorial marathon. I finished 2:43:40. It was 4 minutes faster than previous PB. It was the most wonderful performance in my…

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Here are the comments of several Namban participants:



Jay 1:19:38

I really enjoyed the Kanagawa Half. With over 10,000 participants, the event is certainly at capacity, but somehow I made it to the starting line in the nick of time and joined Martin for a smooth 19:15 first 5k. From there I picked it up – it felt good passing people and I went through the 10k in 38 flat. I was still feeling quite happy and comfortable all the way… Continue

Gong Hei Fat Choy

In addition to Blurmax wonderful post and pics, here the official results, hopefully an inspiration for some Japan members to go there and run. I found very few western names among the participants, maybe they are not into Chinese New Year.

Number Name Category Time Position Position

344 Wong, Tin Yau M19 0:25:11 1 1

76 Chung, Tak Lun M19 0:25:30 2 2

753 Choi, Tat Ming M35… Continue

The return leg of the Hakone Ekiden provided for a dramatic competition from the beginning, with Toyo losing the lead to Waseda at about 3k, just to regain it at 8, after the Waseda’s highly-regarded Kato obviously encountered some problems. From that point, Waseda followed Toyo with the gap between the two schools about two or three seconds. Amazingly, Kato, with a painful expression on his face, regained the lead at 19k and finished with about 20sec… Continue

This is the main event on the Japanese relay scene, even more important than yesterday's corporate ekiden. official website

As every year, the runners started in the central business district of Otemachi in Tokyo and set off to run about 110k to the hot-spring resort of Hakone. Not much excitement on the first 15k. At about 17k, Waseda University's Yasawa went ahead and build a 50m lead over a… Continue

As every year, this race was held in Gunma north of Tokyo. As opposed to the more famous Hakone Ekiden it is only a one day event featuring corporate teams, promising a bit of drama this year as favourites Konica-Minolta had been beaten by Honda in the preliminaries. The course has seven legs and is 100k long.

official… Continue

See official website for a map of the course.

Runners lined up in Tsukuba Central Park, with six-time-winner Ritsumeikan University from Kyoto the favourite.

A group of runners reached the first hand-off after 5k, with Ritsumeikan's Risa Takenaka a close second to Kyoto Sangyo University's Itoh, who finished in 16:06.

Kyoto Sangyo lead into the second 3k leg, followed by Ritsumeikan and three more runners. On the… Continue

The annual Fukuoka Marathon was held as usual on the first Sunday in December. Conditions were favourable and commentators were hoping for a fast race.

A group of Japanese and international runners, mostly invitational, went through the 5k in 15:07.

15k passed at a relatively slow 45:25, with still about 15 runners in the leading pack. The runners reached the half-marathon mark in 1:04:01, with commentators speculating that the slow pace would favour Japanese runners. At this point,… Continue

Unfortunately, our reporter was not able to secure the results of everybody, maybe due to after race (or after drinking) fatigue. Here the results of the people who were already up when he sent in his report!

Congratulations to all the members who ran PB's!

Christian is closing in on Namban's top-runners!



Ed Clease (エド) - 36．44

Christian Sommer (クリス) - 34．10pb

Gerald (ジェラルド) - 35.53

Hitomi (ひとみ)… Continue

On April 24 (Thursday), there will be a godo (means jointly organized) time

trial at Oda field. It is organized by several running clubs such as Atomi

Club. It's a good opportunity to compete with runners from other clubs, and

you might even find your training partner!



When: Thursday evening, April 24

Where: Oda field

Distance: 5000m



There will be 3 groups according to your time and each group start

separately. Please run in the group of your… Continue

A dozen Nambanners participated in Sunday's Ome-Takamizu trail run. It was a gorgeous day for running on the scenic but brutally hilly course. After the run most of the group enjoyed a splendid Hanami pizza party thanks to Teruyuki. Also much thanks to Keren for organizing Namban's participation, and Asuka for her logistics support.

Below are individual times and comments. Full results can be found… Continue

Omar:

I was looking for a half marathon last year to tune up for Tokyo (before I got sick and decided to make Tokyo a for fun / serious race) and found that Shinjuku was closed … hopefully though I managed to get in (thanks Mika).

Wonderful course, probably my favorite for a half marathon, as I you get to run right in the middle of Tokyo. Bad points no km marks and after the first 10km you crash against the slower runners and 10km runners and literally bump into them.

I had…

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Namban Rengo had a great day with 5.75 teams on the podium. In the men's open we finished second to the Harriers (which looked like Namban Rengo's professional division, with two Namban on their team). The women placed 1&2, sorry to Masako's (also a 0.25 Namban-team) Chudai OG, especially if we should have passed them on the last leg on which Yuki doubled up. And thanks to Masako for not telling…

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Here are results and comments from Sunday's 15-kilometer Mitake Mountain Marathon trail run:





Mark Feeley 1:27:01 (72nd overall out of 900 registered)



I thought the course was great and I just tried to relax and enjoy the scenery. After 45 minutes I was surprised to see a sign for 5km to go. I felt too good and thought I hadn't been pushing hard enough. There was a lot of climbing in those last 5km though and I was definitely tired at the end.



When Jay and… Continue

Here are the times and race reports that were provided for last Friday's Ohtawara marathon, half-marathon, and 10k. My apologies for omissions and errors. Nambanners enjoyed superb performances despite the strong winds, recording 5 PBs and capturing 3 award medals:





Yoshida-san 2:50:08

My goal time was 2:50. I did not expect to break my PB of 2:49, and my result was slightly more than a minute slower than my… Continue