Strong Namban Showing at Toda Marathon

The popular Toda Marathon (Half and 10K) was held on November 16th in wonderful sunny weather with a bit of wind. 18 Nambanners were on hand, along with several supporters, to run 21.1km or 10km around a nice quiet lake (Saiko) in Toda, Saitama. The course was almost fully flat except for a few small jhills. Everyone was happy with the venue, the race organization, and the perfect not-too-hot-but-sunny weather.
Pat Higase (47:06 for 10K) and Derek Leong (1:22:59) ran personal bests, Chika Kanai was the 6th fastest woman, six of our men placed in the top 50 in the half, and Taeko Okamoto did a great job running her first half in 1:49:33. Also Jillian Healy made a gutsy effort to complete her first half marathon despite an injury. Congratulations to all!