Lately we had a lot of rainy days. The weather forecast of coming Saturday was rainy.
Besides, the temperature was low. The condition for marathon race was worst. I was a little bit depressed.
As forecasted, it was rain and cold on Saturday morning. Anyway, I walked into the rain around 6:00 AM to the station.
It's been the long time since it rained in the morning on the marathon race day.
I changed train at Akitsu to JR Musashino Line and got off at Musashiurawa Station.
I got on the shuttle bus from there (Fee: Yen 200)
The bus reached near marathon site in ten minutes. It was still rainy.
I walked to the marathon site. It was rainy and windy. The wind was cold!
I went to the lakeside where running mates gathered. It was so cold and windy that the lake surface was rolling.
The 70-km ultra marathon race started at 8:00 AM.
The opening ceremony of full marathon race started at 8:30. The rain started to cease.
The start of full marathon race was 9:00 AM. Fortunately the rain stopped for a while.
The temperature was still low and thus I started to run with vinyl bag worn.
It was said that 1,428 runners registered to the full race, but actually I thought
around 1,000 runners ran owing to bad weather.
As to full marathon race, runners ran 9 times around Saiko Lake (4,652m in circuit) and ran
327m in the athletic field.
The rain stopped when started, but it continued to sprinkle as forecasted
to noon.
I had to run against cold wind from start point, but while running opposite shore course, it was
following wind.
I felt hot at the end of one circuit and took off vinyl bag.
I took various kinds of foods at every circuit. Especially I had a lot of rice balls and noodles.
But unfortunately I could not have cream stew. My stomach was full when I entered into ninth circuit.
There was distance indication at every 5 km.
I could run calmly this time since I had to run the same course 9 times.
I was passed twice by my fast running mate who won last year. He was the 4th this year.
The rain finally stopped while I was running 30 km point.
I was disgusted with running when I entered into 8th circuit, but I continued to run with patience.
I ran with my own running pace at last 9th circuit.
The finish time was exactly 4 hours 30 minutes 00 second!
I could hear the cry of wild pheasant in the bush many times while running.
After finish, we had a small drink party beside seashore. It was getting warm and the sun appeared.
We returned to Musashiurawa Statiuon by shuttle bus and went to Japanese pub for
the second drink party. We enjoy drinking hot Japanese sake.
I returned to Akitu Station with another running mate. He asked me to go to the second Japanese
Pub. I agreed with him. After the second pub, we went to Karaoke! We enjoyed singing for one hour and
thirty minutes.
I returned home around 22:00? I enjoyed full course today!