One out of the hat

There are days when nothing goes right, and there are days where everything just somehow falls into place. I'm happy to say that today's Kanagawa Half was one of the latter. I don't really know where it came from, out of my hat, out of my butt, from up my sleeve, but somehow today I managed to run an 83:10 clock time, probably about 82:55 chip time, a PB, by over a minute on the chip time! I have not been sandbagging on the blog. I honestly thought I would be lucky to run 85:00 the way I have been running in training, and what with the leg and all. Those short 4:00/km pace runs were hard! Yet today I averaged 3:56 for 21.1!

It was a clear, sunny, but very cold day. As I arrived at Isogo I was surprised to see that there was a light dusting of snow all over the cars in a car park beside the railway line. The temperature was forecast to peak at 6 degrees and it certainly wasn't there yet. There was just the slightest of breeze, but the course twists its way around dockland, and any wind at all would be noticeable out on the course. The start was at 11:30, so the sun had a chance to bring the temperature up a little in the sheltered, sunny spots, but in the shade or wind, it was still cold. So I chose to run in a T-shirt with Namban vest over the top, shorts and gloves. It turned out to be just right.

My race strategy was to start out reasonably easy and then, if possible, pick the pace up to around 4:00/km; perhaps if things went well, I might run the first 5k in 20:30 or so. I would then try to get onto 4:00 pace and see how much of a struggle it was and see how long I could hold it. But as it turned out, despite a bit of traffic at the start, I quickly settled into a good rhythm with a pace that felt fastish, but comfortable (apart from the cold affecting my bladder in the way that the cold does do). The first five km came up in 19:53. Well, that's a good start, I thought.

Basically the next 10 km was fairly uneventful, I just held onto my rhythm, running the second 5k in 19:33. I made a conscious decision not to push the third 5k, just to sort of float through it to give myself a chance of not fading too badly. As a result, it was a tad slower at 20:03, but hey, for it to be still at 4:00 min pace while I was basically taking a slight breather, I started to realise there was a chance I might be able attack the last section of the course. I wasn't really thinking about the projected time, or PBs or anything like that, I was just closely focusing on how I was feeling. From 15k they had markers every kilometer. From there on I tried to ease up the pace without pushing myself into a lactic death spiral. The splits over the last 6.1 km went as follows: 3:50, 3:57, 3:55 , 4:00, 3:55, 4:07 (last 1.1).

I started to realize I was on track to go under 84:00 from about the 17 km mark, and knew I just had to hold onto the current pace to do it.  What really helped me bring it home was that somewhere in that last couple of km I fell in running side by side with this younger Japanese guy. He passed me but didn't draw away. Then, just holding my own pace, I pulled back up to him, but then he didn't let me go. We were running side by side but both concentrating hard and didn't look at each other for ages. Then it became obvious that we were using each other as incentive, then we both simultaneously looked at each other's face and each broke into a big grin and said "ganabatte!" We then ran it in harder and harder, and at one stage he started to fall back. But I urged him to come with me, and he did. In the final 100 m I had just a bit more kick and went ahead a little and also passed about another 5 or 6 guys who were coasting up to the mat, basically because I was just so pumped at the exhilarating burst of energy I got from running with this young fella. It was such a blast!  After crossing the mat I turned back and found him. He had his hand out for a handshake, but being a strange foreigner I had to go and gave him a big hug instead. It really was one of the most special moments I've had in running.

It was a great day, with about 11 or 12 Nambanners in attendance. There were several other PBs besides myself. Fellow Australian (Beenleigh) and new blogger, Keren had a blinder with a six minute PB and missed breaking 90 minutes on the clock time by a gnats nut. But we started together, so his chip time would be under 90 I should think. A fantastic run for him.

This is an excessively long post, I know, and I should wrap it up, but I just want to say how awe-inspired I was by Cool Runner Tesso from Brisbane, clocking up well over 100 km and taking out the women's category and third overall in the Caboolture Dusk to Dawn last night. There are no superlatives adequate to describe that achievement. I had read the results before heading off to Kanagawa, and I took more than just a little inspiration from her efforts.

And in conclusion, 2P, does this mean you win your chocolate frog? I think I owe you one anyway, just for giving me that spark of hope and confidence to have a go today. Thanks!