May 2019 Race Results

• May racing began with a very warm day for the Kasukabe Half on Saturday the 4th. Kota Torii avoided a stop for a train (!) and ran 1:35:48, and Rui Natsuka finished in 1:55:03.

• Marieke Brouwers had a successful run at the Paracup Half on the 5th, winning the women’s race in 1:35 on a hot day. New member Yuriko Ota ran her first half in 2:00, which was her goal.

• And two more winners! Also on the 5th, Yuta Suda won the Minato Maizuru 18K Trail Race in 1:53:06. And on the 6th, Dennis Buechner won the very small but enjoyable Up Run Arakawa Higashi-Oshima 30K (Edogawa-ku) in 2:07:51. (Race also has 5k, 10k and Half.)

• At the 16k and very steep Nariki Forest Trail race on the 12th, Luigi Mondino finished in 2:08:27 for 61st out of 840.

• Terry Minegishi and Yasuo Hayakawa did a 50K race along the Tamagawa. Terry: 5:00:57, Yasuo 5:38:46. It was hot!

• On a slightly hot day at the Sendai Half, Nambanners enjoyed the green city of Sendai. Yuki Fukushima 1:15:38 (PB), Chika Kanai 1:36:25, Faith Geraghty 1:38, Emma Ashford 1:41, Satohi Numasawa 1:41, and Yoshiro Morioka.

• Fuji Susono offered 24° and a 5k hill to challenge 14 Nambanners. Gary Wilberforce was 5th in the 10K in 34:27, Jay Johannesen 4th in 10K AG, Roselle Kingsbury won (I think) her AG and Rui Natusuka was 8th AG. Dan Hewins finished in 52:25. In the Half, Tony Collins ran 1:38:37 and Padraig MacColgain 1:44:49.

• Emmanuel Obser was in Strasbourg, where he overcame a week of sickness to run 1:29:13 in the Strasbourg Europe 2019 Half.

• 5 club members formed a team for the Yokohama North Dock Ekiden on Saturday the 18th. See the article and photos in the news section of the website.

• On the 19th, Hiro Terada ran 100km in the Nobeyama Ultramarathon. He made it to the finish in 13:05:38 — great! Shihori Shinsaka was also there but got cut off at 87km – also impressive! Mika Kume did the Oshu Kirameki Marathon in Tohoku one week after Ironman Santa Rosa because…why not? She finished in 4:12. Steve Karnas also ran it, in 3:24. Faith Geraghty and Sarah Martin both ran the Kashiwazaki Marathon in Niigata (beautiful course!) in about 4 hours as training for an ultra next month. Overseas in Germany, Dennis Buechner took 1st place in the 12k in the TrailRunUrban Challenge Nord. And in Ireland, one of the original Nambanners, Patrick O’Grady, ran a 4 mile race and won his age group in 21:17 (3:18/k).

• At the very old and still popular Yamanakako Road Race on the 26th, Gary Wilberforce came in 11th in the half in 1:15. Also running in the 28° weather were Tony Collins 1:40:40, Dan Hewins 1:54.31 (PB), Yumiko Kato, Don Roxburgh, Yuta Suda and Roger Berman.

• Also — US college student Sean Lonergan, who ran with us last year including the Okutama Ekiden A team, finished 5th in the NCAA Div. 3 national championship 1500m in 3:51. This is a VERY competitive race.

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