Ohtawara Marathon 2005

The Night Before – Tuesday 22nd

We drove up to Ohtawara with Colin and Jim in Colin’s car. Traffic was slow getting out of Tokyo, but once on the expressway we had a really good run. Shortly after getting off the expressway we managed to spy an attractive looking Italian restaurant, so no further discussion about dinner options was required. It even turned out to be pretty good and we had an ample meal of spaghetti and risotto. We checked into the hotel around 9:15, ducked out to the nearest convenience store to pick up some breakfast, had a soaking hot bath in the hotel’s ofuro (bath-house), and got to bed a bit before 11:00.

Race Morning – Wednesday 23rd

I slept like a log until 5:30 and then dozed until 7:00. After waking I only had a coffee. I had read somewhere recently that breakfast and simple sugars will interfere with the body’s glycogen metabolism, resulting in inefficient glycogen use and more rapid depletion of reserves, so it is better not to have anything until the glycogen reserves are running low, say 25 to 30 km into the race. I felt it was risky, but decided to give this a try, as it did fit in with what has happened to me during long runs, especially long pace runs.

I also had a decent number two, so that was a relief in more ways than one. I got through my first three marathons without the need to stop, so I didn’t want it to happen this time either. I prepared my special drinks – just regular powdered sports drink but with a Carboshot taped to the side.

We headed up to the race at 8:00. It was a clear, still and cool day—around zero degrees in the morning, headed for a top of 12 to 14. The Ohtawara marathon is extremely well organized and special for a number of reasons. Let me list some of the main ones:

• Race starts and finishes in the same place
• Athletes have access to a lovely big gymnasium where you can make a “camp” and safely leave gear, get a shower after the race (no baggage collection dramas), and relax in the gym until 10 minutes before the race if you want.
• Runners can submit their own drinks for collection at stations every 5km from 10 km ( I put mine in at 25 and 35)
• Every 5k: sports drink in sachet’s with a straw, water in cups, sponge stations.
• Very cheap at 3000 yen (about A$40)
• Timing chips with splits measured at 10 k, 20k, 21.1k, 30k, 40k, and end.
• Groups of cheering locals in good numbers along the route.

The Race

I get a good position toward the front of the field. We wait patiently the last few minutes and the gun goes and we are away. There is no congestion and we are almost immediately moving at a good pace, twice around the unsealed surface running track and then out onto the road. I feel like the pace is a bit fast, but I’m not breathing too hard, so I just get into a rhythm and hold it. The first 5k is all flat. I am aiming at running an even 4:07/km, which, if I can hold it from start to finish, will give me a sub 2:54:00, though I realize this will be hard to hold and anything under 2:55:00 would be considered “goal achieved”!

The first 5-k split comes up in 19:35…oh dear…much too fast. I realize my breathing has been a bit harder than it should be and try to back off. The next 5k has a lot of slight downhill. My breathing gets easier and I am feeling comfortable. Then 10k comes in 39:22! So I have still run at sub 4:00 pace for the second 5k, and now I am concerned that this has been a terrible start. The third 5k takes 20:20, only 15 seconds over pace. But this is slightly uphill. The fourth 5k is more uphill, not the kind of hill you would notice much if you were walking, but quite pronounced when running at the edge of your endurance pace. So I run this section in 20:44, or 4:09 pace. Not unreasonable and I am now exactly 1:54 ahead of target time.

However, over the 15k-20k section I have developed some ominous bowel cramping. It is very uncomfortable and I don’t know whether I am going to get away without a stop. It gradually gets worse and shortly before the 20k point I see a sign that says “toilet 500 m”. I take the sign as a sign and decide to take the break because the consequences of not doing so could be worse than losing a little time. And I know I have time up my sleeve. I get the job done very quickly and back on the road. Being between the 20-k and 21.1-k points allowed me to accurately work out how much time it cost me: 31 seconds!

The half comes up in 85:31. That would be a half PB if it hadn’t been for the 84:00 min time trial I ran in Komazawa Park a few weeks ago. So I have definitely run too fast over the first half and I know it. The question now is: how badly will it bite me in the second half? I am closely monitoring the feeling of my legs and they are starting to fatigue, but I am still moving at a reasonable clip and my stomach is completely settled down. The course is two loops of the same course, so the flat and downhill 25k and 30k splits come in 21:01 (4:05/km after the halfway point) and 20:33 (right on original target pace).

So I have got through 30k, the aches and pains have not intensified too much and I am feeling like I could pick up the pace if I had to. Good. But I know it is much too early to try that. Then 30k to 35k is slightly uphill again and comes up in 21:14. Oops…starting to slow more significantly now.

There is a “5k to go” sign and I have been thinking that this is where I’d like to try to pick up the pace and run the last 5-k as hard as I possibly can. So I take it reasonably easy when I pick up my 35-k drink and carboshot. Get them into me and then cruise up the steady hill until the sign comes up. “So now the race really starts”, I think to myself. And my legs are getting sore, especially in the hamstrings. A guy overtakes me and I get onto the back of him and he drags me along for a while. I feel like I am running as hard as I can. My breathing goes ballistic and I am working my guts out. My calves are biting and threatening to cramp and I have to hold back a little to stop them going off. Gradually my friend pulls away. Even so, I am now passing other runners at a steady rate and feel like my pace is at least sub 4:10. It turns out I am paying for the fast start though, and in fact I am running at only 4:16 pace, and the bit between 35 and 37.195, where I was taking my drink and gel, was 4:30 pace…so the bite is on.

Around the 40-km mark I am really digging in. The road still has a very slight uphill grade and I’m suffering trying to keep my pace as high as I can. My legs are screaming and my breathing is very hard. This last few km is a long straight stretch of road. There are many people lined along the route. Then I hear the cheers coming from a group of my Namban friends. “Go Steve, Go. Put your head up and just GOOO!!” At this point I am going, I am going, going as hard as I can. But I want their cheers to fire me up and get me moving faster and I scream back at them. “I am f***ing going! I can’t f***ing go any more!!” And I continue screaming this at myself as I pass, and try to find some more energy. But it is not much good. I really am extracting all that my legs and energy systems can deliver. At 1 km to go there are more Nambanners. I’m too weak to scream at this lot and try instead to raise a bit of a smile and lift my head, an altogether more appropriate reaction I should think.

Then the balloon raised above the track finally comes into view and I turn the corner with only a few hundred meters to go. I realize from my watch that I am going to make it under 2:55:00. I relax a little bit but still run hard to the line. I am looking now at the clock at the end of the straight beside the finish. It is saying low 2:54 something, and I keep running, running, but I am not going to sprint. Just run it in hard. And finally I cross the line and click my watch. 2:54:47! (Good enough for 68^th place for all men.) The last 2.2 k were at 4:26 pace, so the tank was pretty much empty.

In the final wash-up, the fast start did not screw me too badly, but I can’t help but think I might have been able to hold a correctly run 4:07 pace from go to whoa. I’ll never really know of course, and still managed to achieve the goal of sub 2:55 despite losing half a minute in the porter-loo. So all in all it was a really satisfying result and I have run much faster than I ever thought I was capable those long three years ago when I started running. My gut feeling is that this is it, that I won’t be able to keep up the training to ever better this result. I guess time will tell.

We ended up having a wonderful night of celebrations at the ryokan in Shiobara. Much champagne and beer flowed and the rotenburo was well used until the early hours.

Race data:

Distance	Split	Pace
0	0	0
5	0:19:35	0:03:55
10	0:39:22	0:03:57
15	0:59:42	0:04:04
20	1:20:26	0:04:09
21.1	1:25:31	0:04:37
25	1:41:27	0:04:05
30	2:02:00	0:04:07
35	2:23:14	0:04:15
37.195	2:33:06	0:04:30
40	2:45:04	0:04:16
42.195	2:54:47	0:04:26
Last 5km		0:04:20/km