TAMA Half-marathon at Futakobashi, 18th February 2017

Finished #25 out of 388 entrants in 1:27:38, my best time by 1’47”!

<Adding more following Padraig’s advice>

It’s a flat, straight, sandy (dirt) course, not hard on the feet, but sometimes a bit bumpy.
It was windy on the day as it can often be when running by a river.
It’s well organized, you don’t need to come very early to register nor wait very long before the race.
Especially neat feature: there’s a nice 10 minute free massage at the end of the race! It seems you can also get one before running. I really appreciated the relief it gave to my calves!
There’s a 5K and a 10K course as well, but very few entrants for these distances.
Was the half-marathon course short by a 100-200m? My GPS seems to indicate so (it’s only my 3rd race, but for the other ones, I had the opposite problem). Another participant told me his watch gave him the correct distance, so maybe I had an issue with mine, but that prevented Garmin and Strava from “officializing” my PB.
It’s a well-known spot for the Nambanners as it is used for the annual BBQ and I would recommend the race to anybody who lives nearby and is looking for a race on “short-notice”. Registration is pretty flexible, the event takes place monthly (usually first Sat of the month) and you can enter up to 3 weeks before the race as it doesn’t seem to get full.