DECEMBER 2015

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

DECEMBER

Namban Rengo year-end awards:
Most Improved: Sharity Nelson and Steve Karnas
Comeback/Inspiration: Chris Winter
Tough guy/Crazy Guy: Nick Coyle
Runners of the Year: Rie Onodera and Yuichi Kanamori

• An annual end-of-the-year highlight is the Okutama Ekiden, held this year on the 6th for the 77th time. Namban Rengo has been participating for 27 years, and this year we entered three men’s and two women’s teams, a total of 24 people. Our top men’s team was 35th out of 114, while the top women’s team was 14th out of 44.
• South of Tokyo, the Shonan Marathon also took place on the 6th, with seven Nambanners taking part. Arnaut Dupont: 3:06:02 (PB by 6:45); Yuichi Kanamori: 3:11:19 (PB); Yosuke Kimura: 3:21:23 (10 min. PB); Ken Pechtar: 3:56:16; Nick Coyle: 3:56:26; Taro Oguchi (?), and Rie Onodera in the Half.
• Also on the 6th, Derek Leong ran the Isumi Kenko Half Marathon in 1:24:12, finishing in 20th place.
• The Ogawa Washi Half Marathon took place on the 13th, where Alan Cannon ran 1:26:46 (PB), Teruyuki Minegishi 1:31, Chika Kanai 1:32:55 and Naoko Hanakawa 1:43:13. Good times on a very hilly course.
• Another race on the 13th — the Mitake 15K Trial Run. Our trail running contingent consisted of: Mark Shrosbee 1:22:56 (22nd), Dante Michael 1:26:03 (36th), Gildas Tuffin 1:30:26 (64th), Youri Lavoine 1:30:39 (66th), Jesse Austin 1:35:20 (94th), Juma Khafan 1:37:35 (113rd), Keren Miers 1:44:24 (203rd), Marie Gras 1:38:14 (4th), Mika Kume (?), Sumie Kawakami 1:51:27 (27th), and Emil Truszkowski 2:19:33 (673rd).
• And down in Texas, USA, Brent Millicam competed in the BCS Half Marathon, running a 1:28 good for 2nd in his age group.
• Chris Winter took to the track at the Kitamatsudo pre-Christmas meet, running the 10,000m and setting a PB of 33:52, a truly inspiring result as he was diagnosed with diabetes four months ago.
• Lawrence Schneck ran the extremely hilly Nara Marathon, coming in 168th out of 9,063 in a time of 3:03:24.

JANUARY

Wednesday nights in Yoyogi Park. Meet at the kiosk 100m inside park entrance near Harajuku station at 7:15pm.

• 6 – 1000 x 6
• 13 – 2000, 1000 x 3, 500, 500
• 20 – 2000 x 2, 1000, 500, 500
• 27 – 5,000m time trial

HAIKU OF THE MONTH

With every new year
Changes seem to come faster.
Running keeps us sane.