LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

JANUARY

• The Tanigawa Mari Half Marathon (Mari is a still-popular former top marathoner) was held along the Arakawa River on the 8th. 7 Nambanners battled the wind for half the race, although otherwise the weather was good. Tsutomu Ishida ran a 1:21:07 PB, followed closely by Dan Newman in 1:21:26, Don Roxbough in a PB 1:27:43, Paul Mundt in 1:28:36, Pat Higase in 1:46:05, Thomas Sawada in 1:47:40 and Adrian Ringin in 1:51:57.
• On the 15th, Yoshiko Katakura, who gets stronger as she gets older, ran the Frostbite Half Marathon (Yokota) in 1:30:07, placing 2nd out of 364 in her age group.
• The Chiba Marine Half/10K on the 22nd was not blessed with good weather, as 12 Nambanners suffered persevered through cold, rainy conditions. Nevertheless, PBs were run by Harrisson Uk in 1:18:40, Stan Chow in 1:25:00, Kylie Breeze in 1:31:30, Padraig MacColgain in 1:32:41, Arnout Baneke in 1:38:48, as well as by Mike Rayner (39:45) and Thomas Sawada (46:42) in the 10K. Also freezing their tails off were Paddy O’Connor, Chika Kanai, Keren Miers, Geraldine Nogami, Mary Eckstein and James Midgely, whose pre-race strategy of drinking champagne until 3am proved that sleep is over-rated as he ran a 1:24.
• On the 29th, many of us watched the Osaka Women’s Marathon on TV, as Shigetomo ran an excellent 2:23 and Fukushi blew up once again. Two Namban ladies also enjoyed the good weather and good Osaka course: Yoshiko Katakura ran a great 3:12:26 (1st 50-year-old?) and Mika Tokairin a very good 3:19:41 off not much training. There was also a half marathon that Tom Boatman enjoyed.

FEBRUARY

• 1 Namban 5000m time trial
• 5 Kanagawa Half/10k
• 8 600/800/1000/1200/1000/800/600
• 15 1200/1200/1000/1000/800/800
• 19 Ome Marathon 30K/10K
• 22 1000 x 6 (pace runs for Tokyo runners)
• 26 Tokyo Marathon
• 29 Leap Year 5000m time trial

HAIKU OF THE MONTH