OCTOBER 2016

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

OCTOBER

• On the first day of the month, 10 club members had a lot of fun running the Special Olympics Charity Ekiden — see the report to the right.
• The next day, Satohi Numasawa ran the Madarao Forest Trail Race 50K, finishing in 6:40:12 as the 12th woman. Ai Hasegawa also participated. Stan Chow was in Taiwan for Ironman Taiwan, where he recorded an excellent 11:48:24, as it was HOT! At the Hirosaki Apple Marathon, Yukari Murahara ran 3:52:12, good for 14th AG and 21st woman. And in Germany at the Koln (Cologne) Marathon, Marek Behr ran to a 4:15 and then joined the other 6,000 finishers in drinking 22,000 liters of the local beer.
• On the 9th Satoshi Hashimoto was in the US for the Chicago Marathon, where he ran 3:04:02. Bob Poulson and Yoshie Niitsuma were out in Chiba for the Nagareyama 10K. Bob ran 39:58 to take 4th in his AG. At the Yokote Half Marathon, Yuki Fukushima ran 1:22:41.
  And at the Choshi Marina Triathlon, David Rubenstein finished 7th in his AG.
• On the 14th at the Kasai Seaside Park Night 10K, David Sweet recorded a time of 39:31, accompanied a bit further back by Krishna Kumar, Gareth Evans, Rika Evans, and Jorge Soriano.
• The annual drinking festival where there also seems to be a race is known as the Koshu Fruits Half Marathon, which was on the 16th in Yamanashi. 20 Nambanners enjoyed a fair amount of wine tasting the evening before so times were probably not outstanding. In Tokyo, the Turtle Half Marathon was held along the Arakawa river. Katsu Kinoshita marked a 1:41:55, followed by Yuri Kanbara and Laura O’Connell.
• On the following Sunday, the 23rd, the Kanazawa Marathon saw Bob Johnston set a new PB of 3:27:42 and Mika Kume finish in 4:09:13. Marie Gras was at the Karuizawa Half where she did not get a PB but was the 2nd woman finisher! And down in Oz at the Melbourne Marathon 10K, Chris Winter ran 36:47 for 49th overall. Nice to see him getting back into good shape.
• The month ended with the Osaka Marathon on the 30th, one of the 10 largest marathons in the world. Representing Namban Rengo were Nizar Grira 3:14, Gareth Evans 3:25:33, Krishna Kumar 3:34:50, Ashley Harvey 3:57:25 and possibly a few others. Also on that day was the Mito Marathon, where Rika Homma made her marathon debut in a very good 3:41:45. At the Teganuma Half, Nick Coyle raced to a 1:44:14, a PB by 3 minutes! Yoshie Niitsuma was also there. And at the Tokyo Trial Half Marathon, Ken Pechter set a PB. Congratulations to all!

NOVEMBER

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

• 2 – 1000 x 6
• 9 – 2000, 1000 x 3, 500 x 2
• 16 – 1000 x 5, 500 x 2
• 23 – 2000, 1000 x 3, 500 x 2
• 30 – 5,000m time trial at Yumenoshima Track (near Shin Kiba station) starting at 8:00

HAIKU OF THE MONTH

Lace up the new shoes.
November is the time for
Serious racing.