LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD
DECEMBER
• Michael DeLouis and Guillaume Bossard traveled to Cambodia for the Angkor Wat Half Marathon on Dec. 1st. This is a beautiful race that also raises a lot of money for charity. Michael finished 12th in 1:27:10 and Guillaume 101st in 1:38:37.
• As every year, the first Sunday of the month was the Okutama Ekiden. This year’s 75th edition saw 112 men’s teams and 54 women’s teams racing up and down the Ome marathon course in western Tokyo. The Namban Rengo men’s teams finished 61st, 94th and 104th, while the women’s teams were 12th, 25th and 43rd (clearly, our women are superior to our men). Outstanding performances were turned in by Eric Lebrasseur, 33rd on the 3rd leg, Brett Larner, 39th on the 2nd leg, Derek Leong, 44th on the 3rd leg, and Gildas Tuffin, 46th on the 5th leg. Fast women were Aki Hoshino, 9th on the 2nd leg, Carolyn Kim, 13th on the 3rd leg, and Yoshiko Katakura, 17th on the 2nd leg.
• At the club year-end party on the 7th, 2013 awards were presented to:
Comeback of the Year: Tadhg Meany and Mika Kume
Most Improved: Derek Leong and Taeko Katano
Runners of the Year: Tomoaki Uchiki (2:42:18 at Otawara), Anna Novick (2:56 at Boston) and Aki Hoshino 3:15:46 at Yokohama and 3:14:10 at Tsukuba, the following week!)
Special Mention: England-based Mike Trees, one of the top 50-year-olds in the world.
• Raymond Wong was in Hong Kong on Dec. 8th and ran in the Coca Cola Running Fun 10K, finishing 5th in his age group in 39:34.
• On the 15th, Bob Poulson and Marc Fuoti ran in a relatively small, enjoyable 10K race in Komazawa Park — the LA Marathon Promotion race. Bob’s time was 38:27 and Marc’s was 44:08, a PB. There were no age group prizes, but we got a nice T-shirt.
• Tadhg Meany turned in a fairly quick 37:18 10K on the 15th at the Kanto 10 Mile and 10K in Narita. This is a very old race— the 10 Mile dates back to 1886, which is amazing, especially considering it’s measured in miles.
• Also on the 15th, Alan Cannon ran in a Corporate Ekiden at the National Stadium, a farewell event for the current stadium. He recorded a 19:21 for his 5K leg.
• Our dedicated trail runners, Eric Lebrasseur, Yuki Senshimo and Chih Lieu were out in Chiba pref. on the 21st for the Nokogiriyama Trainrun Race. Eric covered the 28km course (garmin measured at 30.6km, elevation gain of 1,200m) in 3:10:23, the 2nd 40-50 male out of 241. Yuki’s time was 3:59:08, good for female 6th place, and Chih’s was 4:02:36, 50th 30-40 male out of 222.
JANUARY
Wednesday night workouts are at Oda Field track from 7:30pm.
8 – 1000 x 6
15 – 1200 1200 1000 1000 800 800
22 – 1200 1000 1000 800 800 600 400
29 – 5000m time trial
HAIKU OF THE MONTH
Thanks to Jillian Healy for this haiku:
In the snow running
Fingers no longer my own
Gloves are important
