Maebashi & Shibukawa City Marathon Race (The 5th)

Date: Sunday, April 22, 2018　　Weather: Fine

Location: Maebashi City, Gmma Pref. JR Ryomo Line Maebashi station


Details of Race：

Race	Full	Time Limit	6 hours	2,200 runners
	10 km		*	2,500 runners
	5 km		*	800 runners
	1.5 km		*	300 runners
Entry Fee	Yen 6,000
Contact	Postal Code 371-0022 2-5-1, Chiyida-cho, Maebashi City Secretariat of Maebashi & Shibukawa City Marathon Race Tel: 042-998-9248
Gift	T Shirt, Finisher's Towel
Free Service	Sport Drink, Banana, etc.
Remark	Free shuttle bus service available

Images：

 
T shirt Finisher's Towel

Impressions

• I joined full marathon race after almost one-year interval.
• I injured my left knee before Kitakami marathon race in October 2017 and gave up the race.
• I consulted the doctor and was told that the cartilage of my left knee was getting worn away.
• The pain did not go away and I got five shots of hyaluronic acid and finally the pain had gone.
• However, I was worrying that the pain might recur and thus I didn't feel like running again. I decided to walk instead of running for some time to come.
• I resumed running in early April to join the race, but the maximum running distance was 10 km.
• My training was not enough, but I didn't have a pain in my left knee and I decided to join the race.
• However, unexpected situation happened. According to weekly weather forecast, the temperature of Maebashi at weekend might reach 30 degrees Centigrade althogh it's still April. It's almost summer!
• To be sure, the shift of weather of this year advances 2 weeks compared with the average year.
• Cherry blossoms in Tokyo had gone in an instant within March.
• Anyway, after finishing the work on Saturday, I got on the train of Shonan-Shinjuku Line bound for Kagohara. I could luckily get the seat.
• At Kagohara, I changed the train to Takasaki and made connections to Maebashi. I got off at Maebashi for the first time. The station was smaller than I expected. As forecasted, it was hot.
• I checked in the hotel located 10-minute walk from the station. Then I went to nearby supermarket to get food. I drank red wine as usual and went to bed earlier with drunken.
• I got up at 4:30 AM on Sunday. It was fine outside. It seemed to be getting hot.
• After taking breakfast, I wore running wears. I wore a heavy layer of sun block. I also applied a poultice on my left knee just in case.
• I checked out at 6:00 AM and I got on the shuttle bus around 6:15 at the station. The bus reached parking area near the marathon site. I noticed a big and tall building very close to the parking area. I wondered what it was. I found it was a Gumma prefectural office. I thought it was too gorgeous as government office building. I would say that it really waste taxpayer money!!
• The marathon site, Yamada Green Dome was 10-minute walk distance from there. I got T-shirt at the dome and deposited the baggage.
• The opening ceremony started at 7:20. It was really boring owing to continued speeches of mayors and members of the municipal assembly and so on.
• The full marathon runners gathered at starting point around 7:40.
• The race started at 8:00. The starting point was narrow and crowded with runners. The loss time was 2.5 minutes. The number of full marathon runners was around 2,200. It was not so big.
• The course of full marathon race was alongside Tonegawa River. Runners ran northward to the Shibukawa City and returned to Maebashi City again. I could see sometimes the stream of Tonegawa River.
• I could also clearly see Mt. Haruna at left side and Mt. Akagi at right side while heading to the north due to fine weather.
• Anyway, it was fine as forecasted and hot when starting. I felt anxious about the race.
• I also worried about my left knee, so I started to run slowly, but somehow I gradually speeded up.
• Owing to long interval from previous race, I felt it took much time to reach 10 km point.
• Anyway, I could pass both 10 km and 15 km points earlier than I expected, but I sometimes felt a sense of discomfort on my left knee.
• I could pass 20 km point after 2 hours 15 minutes from the start. I already did not care about my left knee
• It was so hot that I tried to drink water and sport drink at every water supply point.
• The temperature seemed to be high, but owing to blowing wind, I did not feel so hot while running.
• However, I noticed that the temperature indication around 11:00 was 29 degrees Centigarade! The temperature in the sun should have been more than 30 degrees Centigrade.
• Under hot weather conditions, I managed to reach 30 km point aid station.
• After drinking water, I tried to start to run. However, suddenly I felt pain on my both thigh. Thus I could not run and was forced to walk for a while.
• Since then, I repeated walk and run and reached 32 km point anyway. However, my energy to run already had expired. I could not raise my legs to run any more.
• I caluculated that if I walked the remaining 10 km at the rate of 10 minutes per one kilometer, I could complete the race within the limit time of 6 hours. Thus I decided to walk to the finish.
• I saw several runners fell alongside the road owing to heatstroke. According to the newspaper and TV broadcasting on Monday, the maximum temperature of Maebashi on Sunday was 30.5 degrees Centigrade and 16 runners of this race were sent to the hospital!! It was really terrible hot weather conditions for runners.
• Anyway, I continued to walk. I saw a few runners were walking instead of running. The number of runners who were walking increased approaching the finish. It could not be helped owing to hot weather.
• It was also so hard for me even to walk under hot weather. Sometimes, I had diffculity to walk owing to the pain of my tiptoe.
• Finally I passed 40 km point, but more than 5 hours already passed since I started to run. Only 2 km remained, but I did not feel like running.
• I managed to complete the race. Time was 5 hours 33 minutes. It was a long, hard and patient race.
• Immediate after finish, I had a cramp on my both legs and also felt very bad and thus I could not move for a while.
• I had to take a rest for a long moment.
• I finally struggled to reach the shuttle bus stop after changing wears. I took on the bus bound for Shin-maebashi Station. But I found that I had to wait more than 30 minutes to get on the train bound for Takasaki to be left at 15:10.
• At Tajkasaki Station, I could get seat in the train bound for Tokyo and finally take a rest.
• I could return to Higashi-kurume past 18:00. It was really a long, hard and exhausted day. I was happy to get home without problem. To my joy, my left knee was Ok after the race of more than 5-hour run and walk.
  
  
  Records
  
  

  5 km	34 moinutes
  10 km	1 hour 04 minutes
  15 km	1 jour 39 minutes
  20 km	2 hours 15 minutes
  21 km/td>	2 hours 22 minutes
  25 km	??
  30 km	3 hours 31 minutes
  35 km	4 hours 18 minutes
  40 km	5 hours 09 minutes
  Finish	5 hours 33 minutes

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