With her third placing in the 22nd Mount Kinabulu International Climbathon on August 24th, Namban’s own Yuri Kanbara just keeps racking up the impressive achievements.
Yuri finished the 21 km in 3:37:02, a 15 minute improvement over her 2007 time. If 3:37 does not sound very impressive for a half marathon, consider that the course rises 1600 m vertically in just 8.5 km, starting at an altitude of 1,866 m and rising to over 4000 m. And it is not a one-way race; after scaling the summit, the runners must then make a quad-breaking descent to a finish point slightly lower than the start. According to Sabah Tourism, the average climber takes two days to make the same journey!
Six Nambanners scaled Mount Fuji in last Friday’s 61st annual Fuji Tozan Climbing Race, one of Japan’s most popular and most difficult endurance events. The Summit Race is 21 km with an elevation gain of 3,000 meters, and the 5th station race is 15km with an elevation gain of 1,480 meters. The cutoff times are absurdly strict – for the Summit Race you must reach the 8th station within 4 hours. More than half the entrants are cruelly turned back after climbing for 19km.
After two years of relative respite from the heat, it was business as usual at a hot Obuse, Nagano Prefecture. The increasingly popular Half Marathon took place on Sunday July 20. It was overcast but warm when the race started at 7:20am. By 9:00am, as the bulk of competitors were crossing the finish line, most of the clouds had burnt off and temperatures must have been near 30C. This year over 6,000 runners took part and other than long queues for toilets, the organisers seemed to cope quite well with the numbers. 22 Nambanners and friends of the club participated this year.
The Namban horde, or more specifically, Paddy, Juergan, Frank and Jay (in support) decended on the Tama River for the Gas Bashi 8km on Sunday 15th June. It was quite warm (24c) and a little windy (3m/s). Paddy came 5th in the 30-39 year age group in a time of 29:50. Juergen finished in 31:45 and Frank in 32:54.
The Oshima Olympic Triathlon (1.5k swim/40km bike/10km run) was held on Saturday June 7 on the beautiful island of Oshima off the Izu coast. Eight Nambanners were joined in the race by Bevan and Vanessa Colless from Tokyo Physio, while accompanying supporters swelled the ranks of the traveling party to 15. Chris Flanaghan (6th) and Vanessa (3rd woman) had podium finishes, while Anthony Zellar made an incident-filled triathlon debut.
Lead by Jay, about 15 Nambanners took part in an early Summer trail run today. The weather was fantastic, but recent rain meant the trails were quite muddy and slippy. Despite a few falls, nobody got seriously hurt. In total we covered about 20km and afterwards enjoyed good food and drinks at a beachside bar. Thanks to Satohi for helping to organise the run.
Hot on the heels of TELL, three Namban teams represented at the Inagi
Ekiden today on the first really hot and sunny day of the year.
About 15 club members participated in 5 and 10 km races around the Imperial Palace on May 3, in support of the Tokyo English Life Line (TELL).
November 23rd, 2007 and the wind was blowing hard in Tochigi Prefecture. Nevertheless 10 sturdy Nambanners ran the Ohtawara Marathon, seven did the unofficial half, and another brace ran the 10k. Their reports follow.
Fifteen Nambanners took part in the 5th Obuse Mini Marathon last Sunday in almost perfect conditions — many came away with PB’s and better times than expected. The organisation of the event was almost perfect (see Christian’s report). The first event hosted about 500 runners, it’s now approaching 5,000. Gary and Mami’s organisation of the trip, as usual, was faultless.
 Yoyogi |
 Shibuya Ekiden 7 |