Fun in the Sun at the Tanigawa Mari Ekiden 5/20

This is a “fun” ekiden, rather than a “serious” ekiden, which is not to say that the 12 Nambanners taking part didn’t try to run fast. We did; it’s just that the distance is only 5k per person, there are so many teams that most of them are slow, and there are lots of funny costumes (guys with flames for hair, AKB48 including a fat guy, waiters, etc.). In fact, our teams did quite well: the A team of Nick, James, Derek and Dan finished 21st and the B team of Bob, Mike, Matt and Chris 43rd, out of about 600 teams. The Mixed division team of Satohi, Thomas, Erina and Adrian was 106th out of about 700. Beer and doner kebab/Indian/yakisoba from conveniently located trucks went down well afterwards as we enjoyed basking in the sun and describing how brilliantly we all ran. Oh, and toasting James’ last official race in Japan 🙁

Photo collage by Adrian Ringin