December 2020 Race Results

• Surprisingly, the Okutama Ekiden was held on the 6th. There were more teams than last year, and the level was higher — good runners finally had a chance to run a race! We also had more teams than ever — five men’s and five women’s. The men’s A team finished a very good 17th out of 131 teams. Members were Gary Wilberforce, Yuta Suda, Phil English, Yuki Fukushima, Mike Trees and Kengo Torigoe. The top women’s team of Rie Onodera, Chika Kanai and Yuri Kambara finished 20th out of 43 teams.

• Daigo Asada ran an interesting marathon on the 13th. Sponsored by Running Science Lab, the Beyond marathon was held on an automobile test track in Shirosato, Ibaraki. They provided several pacemakers in 5-minute target time groups from 2:30. Daigo’s group was 2:55 and he ran 2:57:23. Excellent!

• Terry Minegishi ran the ReStart full marathon on the 13th at Showa Park, and was happy with his 3:36:45.

• Gary Wilberforce was out in Narita on the 20th for the Kanto 10K. Despite headwinds the entire race and a big hill in the final K, he finished in 32:27, only beaten by three high school runners.

• The first annual (?) Nambanthon was held along the Arakawa on the 24th, thanks to organizing efforts by Mike and Rieko Trees. 34 club members enjoyed the nice weather and friendly race atmosphere. Results can be seen in the News, Reports and Results section of the website.

• The MxK club organized one of their popular 5,000m races on the 27th, with numerous groups based on time. 18 Nambanners participated, and 9 ran PBs! Gary 15:13, Kengo 16:09, Phil 16:19, Harrisson 16:35, Francesco 16:46, Kota 16:59, Emmanuel 17:08, Nick 18:35 and Yuichi 19:44.