October 27, 2020 5,000m Time Trial
October 29, 2020November 24/25 5,000m Time Trial
November 27, 2020
Yes, there were a few, a very few, races in October.
• On the 10th, Yuta Suda ran the Yokohama Beachside Marathon 30k, coming in 1st!! His time was 1:45:38, a PB. That’s 3:30 per K. Then on the 17th, he was on the track as Konosu, running 3,000m in 9:20 and 5,000m in 16:00.
• Gary Wilberforce ran several races this month, the first being the Sugadaira Skyline Trail Race on the 11th. With 1,300m of elevation over 22k it wasn’t an easy run, but Gary powered through in 1:57:43, finishing in 1st place! Congratulations!
• Also on the 17th, Phil English won the first Zushi Aquathon. He did the 1,500m swim in 18:48 and the 3,000m run (on firm sand) in 12:25. Gary Wilberforce was 3rd.
• Over in Germany on the 18th, Dennis Buechner ran a 10K handicap race in Hamburg, in which the objective was to run faster than your age. Dennis, did, setting a PB in 37:06 (he’s 39).
• Yuta Suda kept racing, running the Katsushika Trial Marathon on the 24th in 2:33:03, and the Teganuma Eco Half on the 28th in 1:11, finishing 4th in his age group.
• Omi, oh my! Gary Wilberforce ran the Shinshu Tenku trail race in Omi, Nagano, coming in 6th in a strong field. His time for the tough 22k course, which climbed 1,000m, including steps, was an impressive 1:51. (One of the ASIJ coaches, a fairly good runner, ran it in 2:35 and was happy with that. When told that Gary had run 1:51, he said, That…is…amazing.)
• Also of note is that the Futakotamagama Parkrun started up again on the 24th with 127 runners. I was surprised to learn that there are now 15 Parkruns in Japan, with 7 more set to begin in November, including in Tokyo and Kanagawa.
• In case you hadn’t heard, Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda broke the world half marathon record on the 17th with a 58:49. He ran the first 5k in 14:19 and 10k in 28:23, at which point there were still 23 men in the pack! At 15k he took off, running the next 5k in 13:38. There were 10 men under 60:00. In the women’s race, Jepchirchir of Kenya set the world record in 65:16, followed by 8 more under 67:00.
