Kawasaki Monthly Marathon

The Tamagawa river is a great place to run in Tokyo, away from the traffic and road junctions. Just miles and miles of track from almost Haneda airport up to Fuchu. On the last Sunday of each month, the Tamagawa running club hold a very well organised running meet. Its on the Kanagawa side of the river between Gasubashi and Route 1 bridge, the start and finish is on a cinder running track. There are 3 events 3km, 5km and 10km (and a 1km childrens race at 9.15!) starting from 9.30am November-March, an hour earlier April-October. The first time you join, the cost is 1300yen and after that you just pay 1000yen. You receive 2 cotton race numbers, to keep and bring to future races and the new required item is a barcode so that they can quickly record finishing order after the race.

Despite living close by and wanting to join more of these events, I've only managed to attend one of these events in the past year due to other commitments. It was back in July when the heat and humidity had already risen to uncomfortable levels - and for that reason, the 10km event was cancelled on that Sunday as it was in August and September, again due to the heat. I remember the agony of doing the 3km, then struggling in the 5km event wanting it to finish and drink as much water as possible.

This morning the conditions were much more favourable for running, clear skies, temperature between 2-4 degrees. The sun was shining making it feel warm, but running into the northerly wind meant hat and gloves had to be worn. On the return leg, heading south, the hat and gloves came off.

This morning I had the intention of running the 10km event as part of a longer training run in preparation for the Tokyo marathon which is only 4 weeks away now. I ran down to the track and registered, still thinking it wouldn't be long till the 10km start, and I could do some more warm up jogging until the start. It was nearly 9.30, but the 10km wasn't until 10.30, so too long to warm up what else to do but join in the 3km, and the 5km events in the meantime?

I made an easy pace for the 3km as I didn't want to be standing around too long for the next event, then the 5km was another slower than normal pace in preparation for the 10km. They allow all the 5km runners to finish before the start of the final race, so it was around 10.34 before the track was clear and we could get into the main event. Similar numbers of people for each race (about 250?) but most people are here to focus on one of the distances. Not sure how many do all 3, my guess would be about half.

Happy to record 42m 54s, then run back home via route 1 bridge. In the end I think this odd interval training of 5-3-5-10-7 worked out well I was on my feet for 3hrs 20mins and many people say time on the feet is great preparation for a marathon. Doing these intervals made the morning interesting as well, no need to carry an ipod to numb the boredom of a multi hour training run. Hope I can build on this in the next 2 weeks with long weekend training runs.

Hatsumode in Chichibu

Hatsumode means first temple visit of the year, and for Japanese people this is an important ritual. So I thought it timely to try out a ride I'd wanted to do all of last year, but due mainly to training for events and the weather, it never happened.

So today we managed to gather 3 henro who have completed the 88 temple pilgrimage of Shikoku, ready to sample the 34 kannon temple tour of Chichibu. Both Steve and Warren completed the Shikoku tour as their first bike tours, Steve several years ago whilst Warren was fresh from November 2010. Could have been 4 henro, but Gunnar was playing bike polo, as you do.

We gathered at Kumagaya station from 8:15. Quite a distance from Chichibu, but the alternative is another long and expensive train journey which would reduce cycling time so we started with a nice roll out along the Arakawa river. Could be the best section of cycle path around, deserted, new, and with views to Chichibu mountains, the southern Alps and Mount Fuji straight ahead as we cycled west. 

We had to leave the Arakawa after a few km, but route 81 was very quiet and was a decent route out. The original idea was to keep on the 82 close to the Arakawa around the ridge of mountains then down to temple 1. Nice and flat. But after 20km, the itchings to head up something hilly were too overpowering and we went for the 'shortcut'. Initially we found an amazing road, winding its way uphill past frozen rice fields before ending at a quarry - clearly we had made a wrong turn, so we checked the maps before heading back down the hill and on to the correct 'shortcut'. The climb up to 361 was much steeper than expected, a great rindo but open to traffic - not that there was any traffic. We had made it up to the highest point on the ridgeline road which passes over Nihongi pass, and we were rewarded with great views to the west.  It took another steep descent to get back to the 82, a nice diversion but the climb was worthwhile for the views and the exploration.

Finally we reached the Chichibu town sign at the top of a small toge, and from here it was a roll down to temple 1, Shimabuji. Funny thing was the first thing we saw was the familiar face of the small wooden boy holding the name of the temple and temple number. The same little guy who was at every one of the Shikoku temples - he must have the monopoly on temple pilgrimage information boards in Japan.The temple was well presented, and had a shop selling everything the pilgrim would require, from the white clothing and hats to candles, incense and books to collect the stamps of each temple. I bought one as a souvenir, even though I dont expect to complete this meguri.
The 34 temples are spread out over a distance of 100km, but to visit them all by bike would take at least 2 days, longer depending on how long you wish to stop at each temple.

We were getting hungry, but decided to make the short 2km journey up a small valley to temple 2, Shinpukuji, before lunch. The hunger probably added to the pain of this short journey, the climb was very steep (18%?) and sustained right up to the path the to the temple. The temple sits by itself, with no office or shop, the nokyocho is down the equally steep descent back towards route 11.

After a larger than expected lunch, (but polished off without difficulty) time was getting on and we agreed to make a stop at temple 4, Kinshouji before heading for the train. This temple is famous for the statue of a nursing mother Kannon often referred to as Blessed Virgin Mary Kannon, and has a garden with more than 1300 sculptures.
To the right is the entry in my nokyocho for Kinshouji.


Of note for future - the ride back, up and over Sadamine toge was a gentle climb but a very long and fast descent all the (43km) back to Kumagaya, so a recommended end of ride before getting the speedy Shonan Shinjuku line all the way home.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/26831604/

Hakone Ekiden 2011

The Hakone Ekiden is a relay race from Tokyo to Hakone and back, competed by 20 universities in the Kanto area at the start of each new year. Its of great national excitement, like the basketball contest in America or the boat race in UK, and receives live TV coverage both days and headlines in the newspapers after the event. Also, the 108km from start to finish are lined with flag waving Japanese, and the roads are cleared of traffic while the race passes.

Otemachi (21.4km)  Tsurumi (23.3km) Totsuka (21.5km) Hiratsuka (18.5km) Odawara (23.4km) Hakone Ashinoko

Clear roads from Tokyo to Hakone? Sounds too good to be true, and for the last 4 years members of the Tokyo Cycling Club and Positivo Espresso have sought the golden path ahead of the runners to varying success.

The rolling road closure means that the road is only closed up to ~20 mins before the runners arrive, then reopens as soon as the last runner and support vehicle has passed. So the aim of the ride is to be in very light traffic before the road closure, but not so far into the closure that the police (2-3 at EVERY junction) or volunteers ask/force us to leave the road.

This year Ludwig was arranging the meeting times and locations, with German precision and accuracy. Ludwig, Travis, James (fixie) and Andreas began at the very start in Otemachi. I joined at Kamata, and we were sprinting from traffic light to traffic light all the way to Yokohama where we met David and James Machin, ready for more sprints between lights to beyond Totsuka where Mike was waiting to join the TCC ranks.

We weren't the only cyclists on the ride, several groups of Japanese cyclists were ahead of the race as well. Unlikely that many of the cyclists were cycling the whole distance, but some put up a good flight and enjoyed sailing along the roads with Fuji san ahead of us. Along the coast would prove to be our best view of the mountain all day, and as usual Fuji san did not disappoint for providing an impressive and awesome view, now fully covered in snow down to the tree line.

I have to say the roads were not as free of traffic as I had dreamt of, but certainly light and free of heavy trucks so this made for a very pleasant ride out to the coast then along the ocean to Odawara. Here we had a combini stop, and in schedule we departed for the final leg and once rolling we realised that this ride is really a massive hill climb after a long warm up. The road climbs to 864m before descending the final 3-4 km down to the lake. This is where the competitive spirit in everyone was flowing, I latched onto a group of around 12 Japanese cyclists who were travelling at speed up the at times steep slopes, zigzagging between stationary cars. One guy was managing to take his full disc wheeled bike up so fast that he bumped into a mountainbiker, then fell onto a stationary car before carrying on.

We all regrouped (except one) immediately after the finish, and met the PE boys at this point, before heading a few km along the lake to the michi no eki restaurant. I was surprised and then again not surprised at how little interest they had in seeing the runners finish, but it was chilly waiting around so I did not hang around to take any photos and was more than happy to spread out on the floor and sup some hot sansai udon.

After lunch, the PE boys stuck with tradition and sailed down route 20 to Atami ready for a posh ride on the shinkansen back to Tokyo. Ludwig was in a more exploratory mood and so we climbed another 250m up to the top of Toyo Tyres Turnpike, then descended route 75 down to Yugawara and the coast. This was a fantastic road, smooth, not too steep with great views over the Izu peninsula and the ocean, it seemed to go on for ever. As James said, it was almost boring the length of this descent!


Another great road (740) rolled parallel to the main 135 up to Odawara, this was another great piece of road and we were soon back to Odawara and packing the bikes up for the Odakyu or Tokaido trains back home.

A great start to 2011, fast riding on quiet roads with nice folk from TCC and PE, hope to get a few more rides like this in before the heavy snow arrives - or maybe it wont reach us this winter?