Namban Rengo interval training at Oda Field, Shibuya every Wednesday evening, 7:20 for 7:30 start. The last Wednesday of the month is a 5 km time trial. Access is a 10 minute walk from Harajuku Station. Lockers & showers available (free but lockers take a 100 yen coin, returnable). Cost of the workout is free. Just turn up and join in. All levels catered for.
This year’s Okutama marked the 70th edition. Perfect conditions greeted the Namban Rengo horde in the mountains west of Tokyo. The weather was cool and crisp, but the sun made running in shorts and singlet possible.
Namban fielded a womens team, which came 12th (a fine effort against some really strong univerity teams); and two mens teams, who did well, finishing mid-pack and, more importantly, avoiding the dreaded “White Sash” that is given to teams that don’t make the cut-off time.
The event is great - how often do you get to mix with pros and top university teams, and be served by an army of timekeepers, police escorts and other officials? It makes you feel special to be running in such exalted company.
The 21th [sic] Ohtawara Marathon was held on 23rd November, 2008. Conditions were near perfect — dry, cool, calm — when the gun signaled the start of the marathon at 10:40am.
A large Namban contingent (35+) made the annual pilgrimage to this race in Tochigi prefecture. The course is almost flat and the event is very professionally run. For example, all entrants can take advantage of the facility to use their own special drinks at points around the course. There is a time limit of 4 hours for the marathon, this means the field is relatively small and quite fast. As the course is basically 2 x half marathon loops some participants decided to retire at the 21k mark.
A number of PBs were achieved in the various distances raced, including the unofficial half. From the club, Joachim was the fasted male marathoner of the day with a 2:52 finish. Christian ran the 10k in 34:10 (PB) and Yuri came 2nd in the womens 10k. Some photos of the race can be found in the Gallery, these were shot by Gary. Individual reports can be found here.
The last ever Tokyo International Women’s Marathon was run on Sunday November the 16th, 2008. TIWM was the very first women’s only marathon in the world and it has produced many memorable moments such as the glory and despair of Q-chan (Japan’s marathon darling, Naoko Takahashi) and Mizuki Noguchi’s record breaking victory in 2007. While the pointy end of the race was a fascinating duel won by Yoshimi Ozaki, Namban Rengo had eight of our fairest representatives having their own battles with this challenging race that features a 3 hour 35 minute cutoff time.
Sunday October 26, 2008. About 20 Nambanners participated in the Edogawa 10k today. There was quite a number of PBs, first-time races, and podium finishes. There was intermittent rain during the event so extra care was needed when moving from the paved sections to the tiles used at the various bridges.
Paddy continued his remarkable string of great races with yet another PB - 36:30. Kiki Tanaka clocked a PB in 49 minutes, and Hitomi and Tomoko had impressive showings in their debut running events.
Namban also had an impressive presence at Edogawa’s elaborate and formal award ceremony. Brett took 4th in the open division cruising to a negative split 33:46 despite 2-weeks of no training because of an ankle injury. Gerard Robb and Paddy would also have been on the award stand if there had been a 30-39 year old division. Jay and Fabrizio captured 3rd and 4th in the 40-49 age category. Rie was 3rd in the ladies’ open division and Tamami was 5th? in the ladies 40-49 division.
As always Edogawa was great fun. According to Shiba-san, Nambanners have been running in the Edogawa 10k for “decades” and of course making the traditional pilgrimage to El Torrito afterwards, which (aside from the poor food and poor service) was again just terrific.
Namban Rengo members Joachim Dirks and Kiyo Yoshida successfully complete the 100k Kubikino Ultra Marathon course. Joachim finished in a impressive 9:09 in his Ultra debut. Yoshida-san finished in 10:45, apparently keeping something in the tank for the full marathon he would take part in the following day. Which he came home in 3:11 — remarkable! Congratulations on your superb efforts.
With her third placing in the 22nd Mount Kinabulu International Climbathon on August 24th, Namban’s own Yuri Kanbara just keeps racking up the impressive achievements.
Yuri finished the 21 km in 3:37:02, a 15 minute improvement over her 2007 time. If 3:37 does not sound very impressive for a half marathon, consider that the course rises 1600 m vertically in just 8.5 km, starting at an altitude of 1,866 m and rising to over 4000 m. And it is not a one-way race; after scaling the summit, the runners must then make a quad-breaking descent to a finish point slightly lower than the start. According to Sabah Tourism, the average climber takes two days to make the same journey!
Six Nambanners scaled Mount Fuji in last Friday’s 61st annual Fuji Tozan Climbing Race, one of Japan’s most popular and most difficult endurance events. The Summit Race is 21 km with an elevation gain of 3,000 meters, and the 5th station race is 15km with an elevation gain of 1,480 meters. The cutoff times are absurdly strict – for the Summit Race you must reach the 8th station within 4 hours. More than half the entrants are cruelly turned back after climbing for 19km.
After two years of relative respite from the heat, it was business as usual at a hot Obuse, Nagano Prefecture. The increasingly popular Half Marathon took place on Sunday July 20. It was overcast but warm when the race started at 7:20am. By 9:00am, as the bulk of competitors were crossing the finish line, most of the clouds had burnt off and temperatures must have been near 30C. This year over 6,000 runners took part and other than long queues for toilets, the organisers seemed to cope quite well with the numbers. 22 Nambanners and friends of the club participated this year.
The Namban horde, or more specifically, Paddy, Juergan, Frank and Jay (in support) decended on the Tama River for the Gas Bashi 8km on Sunday 15th June. It was quite warm (24c) and a little windy (3m/s). Paddy came 5th in the 30-39 year age group in a time of 29:50. Juergen finished in 31:45 and Frank in 32:54.
The Oshima Olympic Triathlon (1.5k swim/40km bike/10km run) was held on Saturday June 7 on the beautiful island of Oshima off the Izu coast. Eight Nambanners were joined in the race by Bevan and Vanessa Colless from Tokyo Physio, while accompanying supporters swelled the ranks of the traveling party to 15. Chris Flanaghan (6th) and Vanessa (3rd woman) had podium finishes, while Anthony Zellar made an incident-filled triathlon debut.
Lead by Jay, about 15 Nambanners took part in an early Summer trail run today. The weather was fantastic, but recent rain meant the trails were quite muddy and slippy. Despite a few falls, nobody got seriously hurt. In total we covered about 20km and afterwards enjoyed good food and drinks at a beachside bar. Thanks to Satohi for helping to organise the run.
Hot on the heels of TELL, three Namban teams represented at the Inagi
Ekiden today on the first really hot and sunny day of the year.
About 15 club members participated in 5 and 10 km races around the Imperial Palace on May 3, in support of the Tokyo English Life Line (TELL).
November 23rd, 2007 and the wind was blowing hard in Tochigi Prefecture. Nevertheless 10 sturdy Nambanners ran the Ohtawara Marathon, seven did the unofficial half, and another brace ran the 10k. Their reports follow.
 Shibuya Ekiden 17 |
 Shibuya Ekiden 3 |