Tokyo 2020 Olympic Road Race

Like millions of people in Japan I was also super excited when Tokyo was declared as the host city of 2020 Olympics. Watching the Olympics event live was always at the top of my wish list. Yesterday, 24th July was the day I got my first taste of the Olympics, the world’s best and grandest sporting event. At the lake Yamanaka I was able to watch the world’s top cyclists competing with each other, my long held wish finally realized.

However, of course it came with difficulties and disappointments along the way. The biggest difficulty of course was COVID-19, the pandemic that brought the world to its knees. A couple of weeks prior to the opening ceremony, Tokyo saw a surge in the number of C19 infections. The Japan Olympics committee had to take the decision to conduct the games without any spectators. With that, my hope to watch an Olympic event live also went for a toss.

However, there is something different in the values that we have in Colt and one of the values say “We always find a better way”.

With this in mind, my brain started working extra to find a way to watch the Olympics event live. As all indoor events were out of the equation, my focus shifted to the outdoor events. Being a running enthusiast and a rider myself, the marathon and cycling road race events were my top options. The marathon was going to take place in Sapporo which is a 2 hours flight. In normal circumstances I would have loved to go there. But with “Social distancing” as the mantra of current times, I had to wave a sayonara to the marathon. So I zeroed down on the cycling event. The Olympic cycling course is 238km long. Depending on where on the 238km long course you wish to watch it and where you live in Tokyo, there were other points to consider or to overcome. In general there were restrictions announced on traffic in Tokyo from 7am to 10pm. Living on the opposite side of Tokyo to the start of the road race, I made the decision to leave home at 5 AM, drive and reach lake Yamanaka before the traffic restrictions came into effect. Still, I wasn’t comfortable going alone the full 150 kilometers, so my brother in law Shailesh Date agreed to join in. As photography is one of his hobbies, his long standing wish of taking photos of top class riders in action would also be realized.

With great enthusiasm and a good amount of planning, we reached lake Yamanaka in time. Found a nice spot with a bit of curve road in sight to watch the action live. Waited there for couple of hours. Around 13:30 lot of support vehicles zoomed past us and few minutes later a huge peloton of 100 plus riders came in the sight. A helicopter too showed up hovering over the lake Yamanaka perhaps filming the great action for the benefit of viewers glued to their television/smart-phones/tablets all over the world. Within few seconds the peloton rode in front of us. Just for the few seconds! Literally!! But that made my day!!!

Respect to the authorities, thousands of volunteers and everyone who is involved in conducting Tokyo2020 Olympics in the pandemic. I have no doubt this event is far more important to the athletes around the world who give their prime time to the sport of their choice. Unlike other professions where the average length of active professional life is 35-40years, athletes may only have an average 10years. Missing on one Olympic event could be a huge setback to them. 

Therefore, highest appreciation to everyone involved in finding a better way in making Tokyo2020 Olympics a reality, despite of very very difficult times. 

(Photo credits Shailesh Date)

Tour de Catalunya

Cycling in the Catalonia region of Spain - Until 2016, this was no where near my bucket list. Come 2017 September, I am totally hooked to cycling, thanks to the group riding done in Catalonia with 9 other riders from UK and Netherland. 

Group 5 on day2

My company conducts the charity bike ride every year in Europe. When I heard about it for the first time, my first thought was "wow, this is cool, let me give it a try". 

And so it began.

Bike ride enrollment - How did I get in? -

It was sort of a big deal to get yourself to the other side of the fence. What I mean by this, is that the charity ride was not a free for all event. On a certain date and time, the entry application was opened to all Colt employees. Selection was going to be the first come first serve. In order to ensure I get through, I kept all my personal details ready in a notepad, kept the application page open and as soon as it was the entry time, I clicked the refresh button. Once the deposit payment screen displayed, I knew I was in. Having honed my event entry skills for many running events up until then, this was the easiest part. Later I found out that all the slots were filled within the first 5 minutes and no other riders from Japan had gotten in through the front door application process. The other 4 riders were also in, albeit via slots reserved for Asia. 

As this was a charity bike ride, all the riders were required to commit to raise a certain amount of money for a local charity that was selected by the Colt country office. All riders who got in were committed to this cause, besides spending for other expenses from their own pocket. 

Buying a road bike -

After an assured slot in the 2017 Colt charity bike ride, which I named "tour de Catalonia", my next task was to buy a decent road bike. Despite everything else the fact was that I was a runner, and not a rider. If you ask me anything about running, I am reasonably confident I will be able to advise you few things and you might be my happy customer. But, when it comes to cycling, this was not the case. I decided to consult Steve Tallon. You may ask, "Why Steve?" And to that I would say, "why not Steve?" After all, for what other reason has he successfully done London to Tokyo bike ride in 6 months. In April just before the golden week holidays, I joined Steve for lunch in order to extract his knowledge about bikes. And oh boy! He introduced me to this whole new dimension of the English vocabulary! For the most part, I struggled to understand a lot of what Steve explained about bikes :(  Fortunately for me, I had visited couple of bike shops before talking to Steve and had some idea about the prices and how high they can go. While Steve was sharing his knowledge of 20 years of riding, I was worried that it may cost me good deal of money and I may not get permission from my wife to buy an expensive bike. After an hour long lunch and a walk back to our office, I understood that the minimum factor I need to check while buying a bike for this 470km ride was the Shimano105 group set. This was still an entry level spec, according to Steve. Shimano Ultegra group set was his first choice. It took me a good deal of time to understand that 'group set' means a gear set. And a lot more time to understand how I can assemble/disassemble the bike.

Couple of days before Golden Week I placed my order for the bike. It was a Giant tcr sr2. It's price was almost double than my initial budget. With few more mandatory to carry items like repair kit, spare tube etc when you go on a long ride, the overall expenditure so far had already reached a level that had not been anticipated by me. The Scicon bike bag was my last shopping and also something that totally excited me. Because of all the money I had spent, I started hiding the details from my wife, but eventually shared everything with her, and also got her to rally behind me because I really did want to do this bike ride. 

Training and reaching a start line --

My road bike giant-tcr-sr2 got delivered during golden week and I started my training. 

Giant TCR SR2

Despite of strong advise to buy cycling shoes that comes with clips, I decided against it for the fear of collapsing and injuring myself which was not uncommon among first time clip users. The value of clips was yet to be understood. Overall I did around 1200km of riding before the event. Longest ride I did was of 130km on weekend up to Sekiyadojo on Edogawa river and back. Though I wanted to do few hills, my entire training was on the flat surface along either Arakawa or Edogawa rivers. 

To reach Barcelona from where the bike ride was going to start, I had booked a Swiss Air flight from Tokyo to Zurich to Barcelona rejecting two other options of BA and Air France. Going by BA means I needed to take transit visa for UK on top of Shengen visa from Spanish embassy. I can deal with one visa processing pain and ideally would prefer none but being Indian we need a visa for most of the countries, at least for now. 2nd option was Air France but they were charging additional 30,000JPY for a bike. Overall Swiss Air deal was cheaper. After an 11 hr flight to Zurich and another an hour and a half to Barcelona, I reached FC Barca's home on 18th Sept with three days to acclimatize. On Barcelona airport I waited for an hour in front of baggage belt for luggage to arrive only to found out later that my bike bag which was an oversize baggage was going to come to different belt. In an hour long wait before noticing that freaking notice board, I had already started thinking that Swiss Air has lost my bike and I will have to say good bye to the ride even before reaching the start line. Luckily bike had arrived and was moved to separate location as I had not picked it quickly enough. Everything was set now.

The day before the ride three other riders from Tokyo reached Barcelona. We opened our bike bags in our hotel room. Confirmed nothing was broken. Assembled the bikes. Adachi san who is a bike freak, oiled the chains, inspected and certified that our bikes are fit for the ride for over next 4 days. I and Nari had decided to do normal route as against adventurous and longer route. Adachi san and Yoshii san were up for adventure. In the dinner time briefing session  that evening, after detailed presentation by event managers our CEO Carl made his simple two line speech - "All the best. Keep safe".

Day 1 - 110km (Barcelona - Tarragona)

After a healthy breakfast in the morning I took a look at my office emails for the last time using hotel wifi. There was a "good luck" message from Masato my boss on behalf entire CTO team in Asia. I hoped I will make them proud as none less was expected. 

Ready to hit the road

I kept a goal before me to finish a day at a time and be safe. The real meaning of later was yet to be understood by me in its true sense.

Group 5 on day1

The bike ride got flagged off at Colt's Almeda campus in Barcelona at 9:00am on 22 Sept. I was in group 5. Rob Churchard, project manager in our London office, was our group leader. I met him and other 7 riders for the first time at the start line. Unsure who they are and what kind of riders they are, all of us started riding through city of Barcelona. There was some traffic at that time of the day but nothing compared to traffic of Tokyo at the same time of the day. A day before the event, I had scanned through the safety guide given by event managers. As per the guide, if I was to overtake any rider ahead of me, I was supposed to give a shout "on your left". Why left? It should right! Rob reminded me we are in Spain that has right hand drive system. So to overtake you need to do that from left side :) Hola! "On your left" it is.

Soon we left the city traffic and reached coast of Mediterranean. 5km ride along the coast and we were at the bottom of our first hill. All 10 riders regrouped, headcount check done, resumed the ride what was our first hill climb. For me it was my life's first major hill ride. Soon I was out of breadth and was drifting away from the group. A savior came in the form of flat tyre. 

working on a flat tyre

It was Sushant's cycle, the rider from our Amsterdam office. Entire group stopped. Waited for tube replacement. Rob Churchard took the charge of replacing the tube after sensing the difficulties Sushant was facing to finish the job. So each group was responsible for safety of riders as well as taking care of stuff like tyre punctures. In my mind I was relived for the fact that I got some space to gather my energy and also a time out to pee. Meanwhile, other Colt riders passed waving hand at us. In 15 mins we resumed. The spectacular view of Mediterranean coast was always on our right for next 5-6km.

other riders passing us when Rob & Ivana were taking care of Sushant's flat tyre.

me taking photos and struggling to catch up with other riders

Soon we started the down hill. It was here I had my second trouble. I was neither used to up hill nor down hill. I was facing difficulty to control speed. At one turn for a brief moment, unable to control speed, I went into opposite lane. Luckily no vehicle was coming from opposite side. Saved! Safety first, safety first. I reminded myself again. Seeing the difficulties I was having on down hill, Rob approached me and advised to ride safe and don't bother if others are going fast. Soon we reached our first pit stop. Support staff was ready with protein bars, energy drink to refill water bottles and our day bags. We resumed after 10 minutes of break. After that it was mostly flat surface. I was comfortable on the flat surface which continued until lunch point for an exception of hill right before lunch break. Sandwich bread, three types of hams, variety of vegetables, fruits, mustard, ketchup was neatly arranged on a long table. 

our caring support staff colleagues

Eat as much as you like. Support staff was taking extremely good care of all riders. I met all Tokyo riders and my boss Ramona at lunch spot. After 30 minutes we continued our ride but this time with a new leader. Dean Melish. At lunch spot half the group went to longer and adventurous route. Rob Churchard our group leader was one of them. So Dean Melish led us and he did it with an ease of seasoned riders which he was. Post lunch we left motor road and started riding on a narrow, stony road. It wasn't bad but speeding was not possible as much as we would have liked to go. On this surface also I had difficulty catching up with other riders. It took me some time to recover the gap that was created due to my controlled speed on down hill. Finally I regrouped with rest of them and stayed together till last 7-8kms. We passed through many small Spanish villages and farms. The olive farms were fenced and guarded by dogs who barked at us till we are out of sight. We entered Tarragona. Around 7-8 more km to go and I started drifting away from the group. I was fatigued and couldn't stay together with them. It was here the entire group waited for me at the next red light. I regrouped, apologized to them and tried to stay with them for the rest of the distance which wasn't much. Ours was perhaps 2nd or 3rd group to reach the destination out of 10. With days efforts all of us were game for beers and that is what we did. Marc H bought beers for all of us. Then someone or other kept bringing more beers. Soon we consumed all chilled beers in the hotel. Yeah, hotel in Tarragona was not prepared for beer consumption speed of us. In a typical never give up spirit, Dean got us few more beers from a neighboring shop :)

after day 1 ride

I would have liked to take more photos than I did while we were on the road earlier in the day. I asked Dean that night why nobody stopping to take photos. He said if you want to do that then this is not the group you want to ride with. This made it clear to me -- when you are riding no distractions please! 

Day 2 - 103km (Tarragona - Tortosa)

We were told it is going to be mostly country side narrow road on day2. We realized quickly as 8 half gelled riders started their journey towards Tortosa. I sensed James Brown did not even know I was part of the group on day1. Sushant checked if I will be really riding with the same group on day2. Going by my day1 performance I can understand if they thought they are better off without me. I wanted to be part of the same group and more importantly I had no day1 fatigue left. I joined the group and we started sailing through farms and hills and mostly hills. 103 km were going to be mostly hills and we learned it in our own way. I did not let them down and did my best not to veer away from the pack. After a while James Cadogan told me I am a much improved rider compared to day1. It sounded sweet to me. Hills continued and there came a sharp hill out of no where. "shit" and "wtf" were used rather generously by many. Yeah you read it right, many, and not just me :) I heard a loud shout from the back, "no foot on the ground, no foot on the ground". It was James C. It did the trick. We did climb that little beast without getting off of our bikes. We were sailing so well that none of us realized we missed the lunch spot. Our support crew brought the food especially for us at a non designated spot. One of the support staff said the sweetest thing I heard in that entire day and may be in a very long time. It was "we will never let you go on empty stomach!". 

Day2 saw us reaching the destination ahead of everyone and we did enjoy it as entire pool of the hotel was to 8 of us. We made the best use of it by heading straight into the pool followed by, yes, beers. 

after day2 ride

I ventured a bit into Tortosa town to buy a water bottle and that now we had reached almost an hour earlier than other groups, also to see Tortosa as much as possible. 

river l'Ebre passing through Tortosa - 1

river l'Ebre passing through Tortosa - 2

   

Day 3 - 139km (Tortosa - Castellon)

It was going to be the longest ride today. After too many hills of day2, flat surface of day3 was going to be the welcome change. Without any problem we sailed entire distance. 

most of the day3 ride was like this

and long but gentle climb

only hill of significance on day3 and this is how it looked from top after climbing it

Rob was back to lead the group as he was not doing excursion today. On the way we saw Nari had a flat tyre. As he was alone doing replacement I asked Rob if we should go and see if he needs any help. I was right. He needed the different kind of pump and Rob had it. We gave it to him and started the 2nd half of our day3 ride. James C told me again today that I am a much better rider compared to even day2. They were really encouraging words for me. It might be James's way of keeping me motivated. 
Day3 distance was some distance to cover and I was not sure if it was going to be a good idea to do excursion on day4 as I was having some pain in my thighs. Rob wanted me to do it and he said I will have no problems. He too echoed same line as James C that I am a different rider on day3. I decided to take the decision in the morning.

View of Castellon from hotel room

Day 4 - 124km (Castellon - Valencia)

Unfortunately my thighs were hurting a bit in the morning. I dropped a note on WhatsApp group to the rest of the riders that I am not doing the excursion and went for the breakfast only to realize everybody in the pack are doing it except for Dean and Kevin. I changed my mind and decided to do it. It was the last day of the ride anyway. I knew my thighs are hurting but not as bad as they would after a full marathon. Breakfast with Yoshii san that morning was also one of the contributing factors that helped me take the decision. 

We started as usual from our hotel for the final destination Valencia. Out of 124km, 15km long hill with 1100m elevation was waiting for us. Martin, the rugby player in his past life and a gem of a man, was our second in command. I had some trouble staying with the group in first flat 20 kms. I had to try hard not to widen the gap. Martin was on my tail making sure I don't fall behind too much. As we approach the hills, it was a game of nerves. As advised by Martin who was always with me I got into my rhythm, tried to maintain the cadence and ignored the speed. Soon I started feeling comfortable. Martin gave another tip to change to high gear, rise from the saddle and do some hard paddling. I did it as instructed and it helped gaining some blood circulation by changing the posture. I repeated that few times as I was feeling better due to that. The couple of riders from other group had joined me and Martin on the climb as their cadence was matching with me. Soon we reached the peak where rest of the pack was waiting for us. We grabbed our lunch quickly, took some photos with fellow riders and hit the road again, this time on a long down hill. 

Adachi san, Yoshii-san and me with Ramona

Nari and me

and the best group of the ride :)

Rob Churchard came to my rescue again when I started drifting away from the group due to my down hill troubles. Rob made sure the reunion and thence we sailed 70km together as a well gelled pack, all the way till our final destination Valencia. A little detour for a quick swim in Mediterranean sea was the only distraction before reaching Valencia. 

quick swim in Mediterranean sea

Total riding time of my group was 19hr 58minutes and the distance covered was 476km with an average speed 23.6km/h. On the scale of 10, I would rate my performance as 6, 7, 8, and 9 for each day starting from day1 to day4. Besides contributing to noble cause through charity, it was a great team building event. I thank all my colleagues, friends and family for providing immense support. Muchas gracias :) 

@Valencia after completing 476kms ride 

Did we do any charity after all? 

It was the charity bike ride after all. Besides riding a bike for 476km, 4 days in a row and not injuring our self, the main goal for all riders was to raise funds for the local charity selected by local Colt office team. In Japan we had tied up with LivingDreams who provide support to children of various ages in Japan. we up setup online fund collection page on GoGetFunding.com, I acted as anchor to collect all the funds. First online donation came from Masu Yosuke who himself had had to drop from the ride due to his knee injury during training. The funds started rolling in slowly but were still no where near the target of minimum donation amount for us to proudly declare to event organizers in London that we achieved the fund raising goal. In our weekly 30min sync up, after some brainstorming we agreed to do three main things to reach out to as many friends and colleagues as possible and raise the funds. 
a) do the fund raising at BBQ organized by our ambassadors group. 
b) setup a facebook page and invite all friends to like it and keep informing them about charity bike ride. 
c) send email with an update so far and make a donation appeal to all Colt Asia employees. 

We saw an increase in the donations when every appeal email was sent out. Be it 10 days to go, 5 days to go or live update from Barcelona. Three email appeals, our reach out efforts on Facebook, and a massive reciprocation by our colleagues and friends in the form of generous donations, we surpassed 500,000JPY target by a decent 180,000JPY. In next few days we will meet the LivingDreams team to decide the details on how they want us to support their charity causes.

Hope more riders take part in the bike ride next year and also participate in the charity activities. Till then ciao :)

Do you Kyoto?

100 days to go, 50 days to go, 30 days to go and so on... Kyoto marathon organizers kept reminding runners about their marathon day via Facebook. Take a look at some of the photos that were posted on FB (top-left person in the collage is Mayor of Kyoto city).


 These photos did have it's effect. At least on me. Not that I was not dedicated to my training but sometime you do have lazy day where a FB post like this does its trick and pulls you out from the cozy bed on a chilled winter morning.

I started my real marathon training when "100 days to go" had flashed on FB. Kept target of doing 1000km in over 100 days but was far off the mark until the race day. Could do only 650km. Perhaps my target was too aggressive or may be I am just not ready for 1000km plan yet.

80% of my training was done on a flat course of Arakawa river. Doing hills or hill repeats was not originally part of my plan, albeit out of compulsion, as there are no hills in the immediate neighborhood where I live. Going to imperial palace in Chiyoda-Ku was one option but that takes away more than half a day on weekend. For a family man like me it is not easy on weekend to stay away from family duties ;). But towards the end of the training plan I managed to do few hill repeats under the guidance of seasoned runner and fellow Nambanner Johannesen Jay (who used to run together with ultra marathon great Scott Jurek in Seattle). Only then I understood the value of hill repeats. Quality over quantity!




 My first marathon time was 5 Hrs 19 Mins. For Kyoto I  kept sub 5 as a  goal when I started the training. Cutting those 19 minutes, I thought, is tough but let me try it.


On 99th day I did my first long run of 25km on a new course I had found with the help of Google map. Run along the ShinNakagawa river for 17km and meet Arakawa river. Take a U turn and run back along Arakawa river for 8km to reach home. You can see course map on right. This is another pleasure of running. You can explore unknown parts of your town on foot.

Initially my time was pathetic on long runs and doing Kyoto in sub 5 felt like a distant dream. Another challenge in Kyoto was the marathon course itself. It had couple of  hills with around 95 meter elevation. Okinawa marathon had taught me a lesson of never to underestimate the hilly course.

As a part of training I decided to control my weight and one way to do it was taking right diet. When I started training on 100th day my weight was 63kg. I planned to bring it down to 60kg by controlling diet in terms of quantity not quality. So with couple of exceptional days, my majority food intake in this period was ...
-- Breakfast: Yogurt, avocado, banana, kaki, dates, dry fig, prune.
-- Lunch: Goya, Onigiri, Soba, Okinawan food, green salad, small quantity of rice, fish, sushi, pasta, quinoa.
-- Dinner: Light home made Maharashtrian meal ( two chapatis, veg curry)

Manjiri used to keep quinoa ready for lunch after long runs. It was her care and support made it possible to have balanced diet. Good, happy, lovely life :)

In Nov I did 4 runs of 30k to 33k four weekends in a row. This was a mistake and I learned it hard way. After 3rd and 4th run I started sensing weakness. By the time I finished run I started shivering uncontrollably in low temperature. Those two days, when I reached home I entered bathroom immediately and stayed under hot shower. I started doubting my capability of doing full marathon in Kyoto in Feb when winter is at it's peak. Next two long runs I cut down the distance as a precaution. This brought the most required break. Just ran two 15-22k runs for next two week ends and then on third week end I went for another 35k. There you go. I was feeling normal again. My confidence was back.

Way to Kyoto (a day before marathon)

Tokyo had heavy snow Friday whole day and till Saturday morning. All flights from Haneda Airport were cancelled. Trains were running late. My walk up to the station from house was a tough task due to thick snow on the ground and heavy wind. My umbrella broke by the time I reached station but after that it was smooth sailing. Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto was couple of hours ride. Reached Kyoto around lunch time, collected bib and buff at Miyako messe. The place was full of excitement and marathon air. After taking a Kyoto style green tea, I went to hotel for check-in. Here onwards it was all about staying calm and resting your mind and body.


I did Kyoto

Marathon started at 09:00 from Nishi KyoGoku stadium. I was in block J and that was second last block. I was prepared with my waist belt 6 energy gels and two power bars. I met Junto, my fellow Tokyo university class mate who was also in the same J block. We both lined up waiting for the race to start. But 20 mins before the starting gun sound, I went to my last toilet before the race and when I came back J block had already started moving. Here I lost contact with Junto.

It took 10 mins for me to cross start line after gun sound. I started pushing my way ahead mainly from right side of the course. It took me 1 hr 58 mins to complete first 20km. This was better than my pre race estimation. I avoided taking another toilet break till this point but in hindsight now I feel I should have taken it even if that means a loss of few minutes. My own experience of avoiding toilet break was, acute pain in groin :(  Luckily course had many toilets and I only had to bear the pain for 1 more km.

The most toughest section of Kyoto course was after 20km. It is stiff 70 meters elevation over 2.5kms (I think this hill is "Kitsune zaka"). Course takes U turn after reaching peak. If you are good on down hills then you can literally fly back for 3-4 km. Even though I am not good hill runner (neither up hill nor down hill) I clocked my best time in this 5k. I also took my first pain killer in this section, just as a precaution for remaining distance.

25km to 31km course I faced tiredness and fatigue both together. But enter Kamogawa river side and everything changed. Soft clay course for next 4km was just perfect at this point in time. Only trouble was width of the course. With so many runners running along side, trying to push way ahead was just not working. So I just decided to stay the course and enjoy Kamogawa running. All good things come to an end and this one was no exception. At around 34km we were back on tar road.

Up to 38km from here was slight up hill. I sighted "5km to finish line" in this segment and decided to speed up a bit. Ummm... But any attempt to do so was causing pain above my left knee. So again I decided to stay the course with steady pace.

At 40km I consumed my last energy gel. "2 km to go" board was lurking on left side of the road enticing me to speed up and I obliged. There was no pain and rather I had started feeling better. I was imagining about finish line in my mind. I was passing runners one after another. But at around 500m before the finish line, a lean fit guy overtook me with a decent speed, ignorant of the fact that if it is my day, no one can have their way without a fight. I kept on his tail and sped past him easily from his left. Now it was a race to the finish line. He was on my tail making his intentions clear. He was not going to give up and let me have my way easily. Finish line came in sight. The fit guy went for a kill and sped past me like a wind. So he might have thought. 200m was the only distance left and two of us were now fighting for our pride. I was not as lean as him or even may be as fit as him but I was trained for situations like this on Yoyogi track with fellow Nambanners. I pulled all my reserve energy and went all out for the dash... and boom... In matter of seconds I left him and few other runners for dust and crossed the finish line.

In any race this last stretch is typically the highlight for runners. It certainly was for me in Kyoto. 04:29:25! I never had imagined to clock this time. Deep in mind, my best case estimate was 04:45:00 but was willing to accept sub 5. But sub 4:30 net time became possible only due to that guy who unknowingly created charged up atmosphere for those last few minutes.

Post marathon body pain was far less compared to first time Okinawa marathon experience and I knew it immediately after crossing finish line in Kyoto. So where does it take me? Completing marathon used to be the goal so far. But now the bar is raised.

Do You Kyoto?... Yes I do Kyoto,... err... I did Kyoto :)

Nankuru Arusa

Okinawa Marathon 2013

This was my first full marathon. I wanted to do my full marathon debut in Tokyo Marathon - 2013 this year. But I was not lucky enough to get selected in the lottery draw. In those days of feeling dejected due to rejection, I started looking for other races as my urge for running 42.195 at age 42 was stronger than feeling dejected by anybody. Logged into runnet.jp and found 2013 Okinawa Marathon on left-top of the page and luckily entries had started an hour ago. I thought this is not mere a coincidence. Next moment I put my entry successfully as there was no lottery system. First come first serve. Fair and straight.

How did I do the training for marathon?

Physical Training

Till this point of time, I had ran 6 half marathons in an year and half. My longest running at training was 21km and I had developed stamina for this distance though my time was still never sub 2 hrs for any of the half marathons I had participated. Under the guidance of internet AND a senior runner Padraig, a fellow Nambanner, I created a training plan. Total 4 long runs were designed to be more than 30km. Padraig's suggested training plan was more aggressive for me (850kms) but from his standpoint it was the minimum. I settled on plan for total running distance 570km in a little over 3 months. As we live virtually on the banks of Arakawa river in Tokyo most of my training was on Arakawa, especially 90% of Saturday long runs. My total running distance during this training period eventually was 475km. But I had done all my 4 long runs of 30km, 32km.

Mental Training

Couple of weeks before the race, I also started mentally getting ready for the various possibilities of my race result. One website I came across was also suggesting to do it. I envisaged three scenarios for myself.
-- Best Case Scenario : Time 04:50 minutes
    break-up
        01km to 10km in 01:05,
        11km to 20km in 02:15,
        21km to 30km in 03:30,
        31km to 42km in 04:50

-- Don't mind Scenario : Time 05:20 minutes
    break-up
       01km to 10km in 01:10,
       11km to 20km in 02:30,
       21km to 30km in 03:50,
       31km to 42km in 05:20

-- Do mind Scenario : Time 05:50 minutes
    break-up
       01km to 10km in 01:15,
       11km to 20km in 02:30,
       21km to 30km in 04:10,
       31km to 42km in 05:50

As I had done Arakawa 30k in 02:57 just three weeks before the marathon, I was hopeful for Best Case Scenario. But as it was advised by experts of the running world, I thought it might be wise to have couple of more scenarios to avoid too much of frustration.

Know as much as possible about the marathon course

I studied the course of the marathon on the website. It was going to be up and down for some distance with maximum 110m elevation. A friend of mine had done Naha marathon in Dec 2012. When he saw the animation movie of course of Okinawa marathon he told me the course is same as Naha marathon and most of it is rather flat. I believed him and was relived to hear it as I am not very good at running lots of ups and downs.

One last minute advise I got from Padraig was to reach for breakfast at least 15 mins early in hotel than its start time. Otherwise, if I am late or even on time, many other runners will already be there lined up and it may take some time to get inside forget about actually having the breakfast. I made a mental note of it.

As it is never too early to start packing, a week still to go, I started packing my stuff that I wanted to take with me. As a result I only missed on buying wet-tissue which I did on the airport. How it went on the race day?


On Race Day

I was part of thousands of other runners waiting for gun shot. An elderly runner (I want to be like him when I am his age) behind me asked how many calories I gain with each gel of sachets I had stuck to my running waist belt? I had no answer. I had never thought about it. I had started using it blindly per advise from my senpai runner Padriag. As I believe in honesty being best policy I told that I do not know. But I offered him other information how I am going to use it. A sachets after every 10km is how I was going to use it and I told him. Then in return be told me he is from Naha and have ran Naha marathon and few more other marathons. Ummm, he too was senpai, no doubt!

As race started it took me to 9 minutes to reach start line. Many runners, as it was apparent from their running and demeanor had joined to be part of the moment, for that one clip on TV, you know!

First 10kms went as per script. I finished it in 01:02. In fact three minutes better than my best case scenario time. This 10km part was total flat. Same as Arakawa course. I was drinking more water than what I would have done on Arakawa, due to fear of getting dehydrated because of 23 degree temperature.

Out of remaining 32kms, 25 kilometer course was up and down. Running on this type of course was not part of my training as I mentioned at the beginning, still I reached 20km mark three minutes more than my best case scenario that is in 02:18. No problem. I was happy with the progress so far. Had consumed two energy gels I was carrying in my waist belt. So far I had not touched the goodies being given by local supporters along the course who had turned out in large number to cheer the runners. Cut lemons, Oranges, Banana, Okinawa speciality sweets were being offered.

Up-down was still going on and I started sensing problem at 29km. We were about enter Kadena base of US navy. This stretch was of base was 3km with gentle slope. Soldiers and their families living on base had come out to cheer the runners. Their style of cheering was distinctly different. A woman was cheering us loud with a board with large letters "You look crap! But it feels good to see you!" :-)

Something was not right. It had become difficult for me to even run on this gentle slope. Both of my thighs started hurting. With every step I felt I may have to give up! I was still running with the support of cheering plain clothed American soldiers and their families but I had slowed down badly. Had this stretch of course been at the beginning of the race, I would have ran less than 6 minute a km but now it was 8 minute a km :-( I saw few runners stepping out of course on the lawn and doing stretching. I thought of doing it myself. As I side stepped and started to sit down, sudden pain surged straight into my thighs and I froze right there. So stretching was not an option left for me to be of any sort of remedy. I had no other option left for me but to continue running.

We left Kadena base and entered more familiar world of Yamato the Japan. Luckily I found toilet right after the gate. Anyway making it to finish line per my best case scenario was out of question. So what difference does it make if I spend few minutes for toilet! These were my thoughts at that moment. Another luck. There were only couple of other runners waiting for toilet before me, making me spend less time in the queue. But making it to finish line at least as per my "Don't mind" scenario was still weighing on my mind. I saw one toilet door was showing available for use. I asked runner waiting in the front why don't he use it! He listened to me and went ahead and tried pulling door and there came a scream of a woman/girl from inside! Oops!! I had no place to hide (luckily other two toilets doors opened one after another and that guy and me slipped in to get relief from ??? Do I have to say anything else? Toilet break made it ample clear to me that my thighs have given up on me (or other way round) and are hurting badly enough for me to think of running my usual run.

Gentle or stiff, uphill or downhill, 34km onwards my sole aim was to reach finish line in one piece, injury free. So slow but steady I kept going with an average 8.5minutes a km. Exception was only last couple of kilometers where we had again reached plane course. These 2kms saw me recharged a bit where I could cut down 1 minute to make it 7 and half minute a kilometer. Touch wood, but so far in all the running event I took part, I have always reached finish line in a style with a dash passing at least a dozen runners. Okinawa marathon wasn't an exception.

Epilogue
Post marathon, my recovery was like this. Marathon night - Could'nt sleep well as any tiny movement was causing pain.
Post M day 1 - climbing down stairs was just impossible.
Post M day 2 - climbing down stairs is still difficult n painful
Post M day 3 - climbing down stairs is now doable with bearable pain
Post M day 4 - started thinking how many kilometers I should run on this Saturday :-)

In Okinawa dialect I think "Nankuru Naisa" means "No worries" and reflects the easy going culture of Okinawans. Going by tough time I had on up down course of Okinawa marathon, I thought using this title in opposite way, "Do worry!" that is "Nankuru Arusa!".

In general, running events in Okinawa are infamous for poor completion rate. 2013 Okinawa marathon saw 76% runners completing the race in stipulated time of 6:15 hours. Compare this with Tokyo Marathon where 96% runners completed it in given time. One can argue Tokyo Marathon completion time is 7 hours, course is mostly flat etc, etc. But stats are stats and numbers do not lie.

Rice Farmer

It was dream golden week (GW) this year. Other wise, every year, come April-May golden week holidays, we go through a phase of "what do we do in this Golden Week?". This year was exception. Couple of months in advance, my colleague had offered me and my family to join them for rice plantation. So we decided to become a farmer, no matter if it is only for few hours. Had no prior knowledge, experience about it except seeing it in movies. Neither had any idea how exactly we are going to spend 2 days with totally unknown people (except I knowing my colleague professionally).

Day 1, left home early morning. Under normal circumstances, time to reach Kamogawa by car is 2 hours. But as this is GW, reached our first destination "Minami Bousou" near Tateyama in 6 hours. Nakajima-san family had already reached there and was waiting to receive us. Being localite and experienced driver that he is, it helped him to save almost 2 hours during peak traffic. One more family, friends of Nakajima family had more head start, so they were hunting good restaurant for all of us. Soon we all joined them and our first lunch together was in a local eatery. Our choice of food was, by all means, fresh seasonal fish caught in near by seas. Namero Gohan, Tenpura was mouth watering. Only complain about food is, it took a bit longer to come out of kitchen :-)

Post lunch, troupe headed for seashore. It was sunny day and kids and all of us adults were in great spirit of enjoyment. All the while on rocky sea shore, kids were singing a song,

La la la la, la la la la
Tonari no Kobuta ga
Bu bu bu bu

When I too joined them in chorus singing "la la la la la", ... wow! their excitement and joy was immeasurable. In this spirit, led by excited kids, all of us climbed mini tower. Had a birds eye view of seashore from the observatory. It is no way anywhere closer to view of Queens Town (NZ) gondola we had seen few years back, but did enjoy this one also. In kid's spirit!

Evening too was eventful. Get-Together arranged by Tanada club (trustees) was unique. Specially prepared food was in abundance. However, it was party atmosphere that stole the show. Anchor started the ball rolling by pulling legs of fellow trust members, warning them not to speak long, do not drink too much as some of them had done last year :-) Mike used by him was nothing but a bottle of beer. Once beers started taking control of us, anchor commanded club members to speak a word. It was applicable to new club joiners, but, eventually everybody were pulled to speak for this or that reason. Those who spoke were also in right "spirit" of sharing and enjoyment. We too contributed by introducing our self. We had a question from one member.

"Where are we from in India?"
"Mumbai... and in fact..."
I couldn't complete the sentence due to roaring applause. But I had to complete it cause we are not exactly from Mumbai.
"Mumbai... in fact a city called PUNE near Mumbai"
(and this needs to be said in this sequence cause chances of they knowing Pune were very low)

It was really feel good factor to know you are welcome in the group of natives.

Next day, day 2, I had additional plan apart from rice plantation, for which we had come to Kamogawa. Photography! Provided weather is good. Woke up at 4:30am. Bit early considering we were off to bed around 23:30pm previous night :-) Got up and slightly opened the curtain of the room, and I almost screamed out of excitement. Entire east sky was painted with shiny orange color by messenger of Sun God announcing the arrival of his master. Changed myself to top gear, quickly got up, Nakajima-san joined me and we rushed to paddies. It was worth the efforts and pure joy to be in nature in wee hours when the world is still asleep. Have a look at my best shot taken that morning.





First touch of muddy paddy. Sowing rice might be routine job for many farmers around the world, But it was my first experience despite having farmers family background. Rice is not what we grew in our farm back when I was child. Spent 2.5 hours in a group of other people like me in a paddy sowing rice and many thought kept splashing mind, despite of ache in knees due to less leg movement in sticky mud. The thought most impressive, however, was not mine that I want to share here. It came from Mrs. Nakajima. We liked her POV. It goes as ...

"We keep telling our kids about not wasting food because. We are also taught by our parents about it. But after spending time sowing rice in paddy for few hours, teaches us how much efforts are required to put in by so many hands to bring a bowl of rice to your dinner table."

Hopefully, my daughter understands it on her own as she too was in a sticky, muddy, paddy with us.

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