Overseas results from the 3rd: Adam Osbourne placed 3rd (1st in AG) at the Hutton Roof Crags fell run in Kirby Lonsdale, England, while Jesper Edman (3:51 PB) and Matt Holmes had a hot time (32 degrees) at the Stockholm Marathon.
Also on the 3rd, Roselle Kingsbury ran the Sakuranbo Marathon 10K in Yamagata pref., Mark Shrosbee ran a hot 1:29:39 Half at the Tama Half, Rie Onodera was up at the top of Hokkaido on Rishiri Island for a 53-km race that she ran in 5:05:52, finishing 5th, and Yoann Potiron and Yoko Kubo were in Nagano for the Togakushi Mountain Trail 10K where Yoko was 11th out of 154, and Yoann was 18th. Great results!
Report from Faith Geraghty on her June 10 race. A jolly group of Nambanners escaped the Tokyo humidity and rain on the 9th by taking part in the Sugadaira Trail race 22km event. Sarah Martin did us proud again by coming third female overall (2:51) closely followed by Emma Ashford (3:09) sixth female overall. Chika Kanai (3:19) won her age group, Padraig MacColgain (3:20) was 10th in his and I was fourth (3:23) in the last of my years in the women’s 30s! some other Nambanners were spotted including Faith#2 Suzuki. Beautiful scenery and excellent organisation – we thoroughly recommend!
Also on the 9th, Yuki Fukushima lowered his 1,500m PB to 4:23 at the Nittaidai Time Trial.
Alan Cannon and Derek Leong were in Izu-Inatori on the 10th for the Kinme Marathon. Alan suffered through the 10K in 42:32, managing 9th in his AG.
In what has become an annual pilgrimage, Yuichi Kanamori, Yukari Oimatsu and Yuri Kambara and Nick Coyle went to South Africa for the Comrades Ultra Marathon (88km). It was a Down Run year, which they ran in Namban black kit, after running Up last year in yellow. Naturally all made the 12:00 cutoff: Yuichi 8:37!! and was awarded the Bill Rowan medal for finishing under nine hours. Fastest Namban finisher yet. Nick 9:54 (after having food poisoning the previous day!), Yuri 10:24, Yukari 11:27.
At the Hida Takayama 100km Ultramarathon, Harrisson Uk recorded a time of 9:00:02, good for 22nd overall out of 2,500.
The Harriers club held a 5,000m time trail on the Oda track on the 14th, which several Nambanners treated as a race. Results were Mike Trees 16:50, Dennis Buechner 18:26 (PB), David Sweet 19:10, Andrew Drought 19:16, as well as Ken Pechter, Simon Jelfs, and Mika Kume.
Rie Onodera ran the Tachikawa Vegetable Marathon 10K on the 16th, finishing in 43:06, good for 3rd place in her age group.
And on the 30th, Eric Lebrasseur, Satohi Numasawa, Chih Liew and Yoshie Niitsuma ran the Utsukushigahara Trail Run. In the 80k division, Eric timed 11:46:25 for 22nd overall. In the 45k race, Satohi finished in 6:37:58, good for first place in her age group and 8th overall woman.
