Walking on Water

Or in my case running on water. Ok so it's water that has been kept at a temperature of -10c or below for around 3 months so it's had a pretty good time to harden up.

It was beautiful on the river today, sun was shining, people were out playing, folk were walking, and the occasional car was out for a drive, all on the river, not the river banks, on the actual river.

 A small brass square, with the edges rounded off and with 4 steel pins in the corners is hurled down the ice, a bit like skimming stones, as it spins it makes a great noise. The purpose as far as I can tell is to take out the 'big' wooden barrel in middle. I think he said it was worth 5 points with decreasing value the further away from the centre you get. Some one shouts out the scores as they happen, another sits on a large polystyrene block and keeps score, while several others just get boots in the way of the spinning pieces to stop them going for miles. So what with the noise of the piece skimming along the ice, the shouting of scores, the cheers of encouragement and the sound of quite a heavy brass shape thudding into the felt soles of step boots, it's not a peaceful pastime. I must learn some Mongolian, enough at least to exchange pleasantries and hopefully find out more. We have seen it played on strips no more than 25m long, this one was at least 40m.

If you like your running flat it is a great place to go, beautiful in the sun, and with the right gear good fun. Even with my Yaktrax runner spikes/springs system there were times when grip was hard to come by. You certainly had to keep your centre of gravity right over your feet, so lots of small steps. There were also some unnerving cracking noises occasionally, and with hot water from leaking pipes finding it's way into the river in a few places, you had to pay attention. For the most part I was running on hard packed snow, on top of an awful lot of ice. In places the whole river was smooth and packed down, in others I ran on the 'road', at least I would be safe on the road, even I don't weigh as much as a car.

one of the 'slip roads' and my way off the motorway

The road just keeps going.

 Maybe next time I'll see just how far you can go!

ran home today

Winter is no longer coming - it is here!

I thought I'd list what I wore on my run back from work, and it was just about right for the 6km 40 minute jog home.

shoes - normal inov8 roclites, with debri gaitor to keep out the snow (but a size too big)

3 pairs of socks - normal school socks, insulated thermal Japanese technology socks, heavy duty smartwool winter socks.

4 pairs of trousers, compression/cycling shorts, thick winter cycling tights, lined shell/training pants, windproof over trousers.

4 shirts/jackets - long sleeved thermal base layer, thick long sleeved base layer, running soft shell fleece lined hoodie, patagonia wind shell.

2 buffs, one mainly for the neck, one to cover the face and ears

1 thick fleece hat (hoods as required)

3 pairs of gloves, liner gloves,  thin fleece gloves, big soft shell wind resistant fleece gloves.

I got home with my eye lashes white and icing, and the breathing increasingly difficult as the buff over my mouth and nose froze.

Now be careful out there!

oh my that was fun

It has been snowing now since Wednesday morning, fine dry powder that despite the time it's been snowing amounts to only a couple of inches. Today (Friday) is a run home day, so I did. It was interesting! We had discovered on the way to work that the sidewalks where they exist are treacherous - no body uses them unless they really have to, everyone walks on the road, where there is grip to be had. This does make for interesting times on these roads, women in tottery high heels, kids in trainers, and men and women in deels and steppe boots all sharing the road with the many 4x4's, most of which have not switched to snow tyres yet so don't exactly corner well.
My run took me across some waste ground, soon to be built on no doubt. The sun was low and the light was flat, maybe a function of the light mist of snow still falling, maybe the sun glasses weren't helping, either way it was almost impossible to pick out the undulations and each stride became something of a surprise, not knowing where or when my foot was going to touch down. I didn't fall but it was touch and go on a few occasions.
I made it through the waste ground, and back into the park where the light was so flat it was almost impossible to see anything at all. I only got to see when I was back doing the dance between road, and oncoming vehicles, and slippery sidewalk. I made it back into the apartment complex ok where an army of mainly women were frantically sweeping away the snow, to leave impossibly slippy wet or icy tiles.

no grip

grip but...

I guess they have to keep on top of it or it will just end up so deep it will never clear in the spring but for now at least the roads are the safest place to be.
We have some ice spikes and screws to put into the bottom of shoes coming (thanks Bob) but I'm not sure quite how much of an advantage they will be on the swept and polished sidewalks.

Winter training

Now some of you know I do like a plan, a training plan that is, and a goal, generally something a little excessive, something that might just instill enough fear of failure in me to keep me motivated enough to go out and train rather than rely on my natural ability to 'just keep going'.

So here it is.

Mongolian Sunrise to Sunset

Only to stand any chance of completing a 100km run with 3365m of cumulative elevation gain I need to start running again now - winter base training.

I do love a bit of winter base training. Never planned one that lasted for 5 months before though, with some of the longer runs either serious hiking undertakings or on a treadmill in a gym.

Any road, it started today and we are testing equipment to let us run in this up coming winter.

Turns out it was a little excessive for the relatively mild temperatures we encountered, but we've found a good, largely traffic free route from the apartment that forms our 5km loop. It was nice to be running again. Now where's that gym?

dust and a sharman

We spent some time last night talking to one of our colleagues who puts our running exploits to shame. She has completed the 'grand slam of ultra running', running 4, 100 mile races in one season. In doing so she became the 5th woman to complete the feat she did it in the company of her father- she has also run with the Tarahumara and was involved in some form or other with the race in the Copper Canyon that launched the Born to Run bandwagon. So having discussed the Sunrise to Sunset race next August with her Sarah and I decided we would go back out to the Tuul river for another jog. We really need to find a way into those hills, the road is very, very unpleasant with dust and cars and dirt. The wind was in our faces all the way back whipping up a dust storm and covering us with a fine layer of dirt. Thank god for good sunglasses and a rugged phone/camera.

Uneven road surface? No kidding!

 It was actually a blessed relief when we got back on the road heading into town.

On the way back just as we were passing the ovoo we heard drums so stopped and went to investigate. Sat on the floor in front of the ovoo and surrounded by a family was a sharman beating a drum up in front of his face while a lady tapped him on the back with some kind of stick and another lady flicked vodka into the air. It was fascinating but sadly the picture does not do it justice.

Sharmanistic ritual the Sharman is kneeling in front of the lady in jeans, he is facing the ovoo and is beating a drum.

You can run out of the city

it just takes a bit of effort.

Running on UB roads is a challenge, not least because that is exactly what you are doing for the most part - running on the roads...or what passes for roads. There are unfixed man hole covers drainage ditches and pot holes the size of a mini to contend with, and then there is the driving. It has been said the Mongolian drivers still culturally view driving in much the same way they view riding horses on the plains, go where you like when you like stop when you want to.

They also have no idea how to maintain traffic flow and will fill every available gap at every intersection regardless of the consequences for others.

Anyway a 2km run from school got me to the Tuul river and a dusty 2km run along a dirt road got me to one of many ridges where I could yomp up and look back at UB, it does not quite show up so well in this clip but it is a sprawling place with no end of construction, construction everywhere - no idea who is going to live in these places of visit these hotels, but there it is, a city of under 2,000,000 people with probably another 250,000 homes in construction, and it's not social housing for the people in the ger communities.

Anyway I digress, the run was good but it was hard - I was not expecting any problems with altitude, we are after all only at 4500ft but it was difficult. I was probably a minute/km slower than my normal pace and whether it was fatigue, dehydration, or the fact that I'm out of shape, I was definitely working harder to maintain that pace

That said I did find a way out - now I just need to locate the trails that actually go out into those hills , they are there and with just a 3-5km jog from the apartment it has to be possible to get out there more. Lets hope I get out there before the weather closes in.

Hirodai Green Trail Weekend

So thanks to Koji and Megumi; Sarah, Linda and I got the opportunity to run the Hirodai Trail Race. In my case that meant 40km and 2600m of vertical ascent (though Garmin as ever reads somewhat shorter and significantly less elevation) 

The weekend was a huge success. We ate giyoza,

registered, watched movie clips from the the Banff film festival, listened to Hiroki Ishikawa talk us through the course, and ate our fill at the welcome party.

 Then in my case I was tucked up in bed by 8:30 pm. The alarm went off at 3:15am and before long we were on the bus to take us to the trail. There were 5 of us running in all. Megumi and Sarah were doing their first ever trail races of this kind. They were doing 17km and 1200m ascent, what a way to start!

Linda, Koji and I were all doing the 40km.

We set off at 7:00 and after a few km of jogging through the park we hit the trail proper, and as warned, all of a sudden there were a lot of people stepping off the trail to take photos. It was beautiful.

20c and Linda is still wearing fleece

We were warned that the trail was easier on the way out and that the we should conserve some energy for when it got tough on the way back. I'm not sure many people took much notice of the warning, or were believing that the climbs would be harder on the way back.
I made it to the lake and the half way point in about 2 and a half hours, it was beautiful down there by the lake. The cherry blossom was just beginning to fall but the trees were just gorgeous, sadly the photos I have do not do it justice.










The last aid station before the big climbing started was hugely entertaining. It was on the edge of the lake under the cherry trees and the aid consisted of lemonade, water, and mochi, which was being pounded on site. I stopped to watch the mochi pounding, some racers took time out of the running to join in. Then I collected some mochi for Megumi who had been disappointed that there was no mochi aid station on the 17 k run.

Once passed that aid the real climbing began. We had been warned repeatedly that it was not one climb but 3 straight after each other and it was. The first one was relatively short and led up through some trees. It was damned steep though, the next was something of a long fire road slog which rather suited my forced march style of climbing and the third was an exposed, steep slog to the summit. All good, all entertaining, all really hard and really, really tiring.

The rest of the 'run' was a blur of uphill slog and downhill jog. I had originally thought that I would be at least 6:30 hrs but when I entered the park in 5:30 I thought I'd better phone Sarah to let her know I was nearly back. She was almost as surprised as I was. I crossed the line at 5:40, hot, tired and happy. Brilliant day out and while I finished in good shape I have the sun burn to attest to the fact that it was not entirely pain free.

Sarah and Megumi finished their races in 24th and 26th places respectively in a little over 2:20, which is damned impressive. We then sat about chatting eating, chatting drinking, cheering in the last competitors and inviting Mr Ishikawa-san to come visit us in Scotland. He will be there in June for the West Highland Way Race.
It was a great day and after another good meal in an Izakaya in Kita Kyushu we headed for the Shinkansen and home, finally arriving home about 9:00pm.  Making it 1 race, two islands, 18 hours awake, 40km of trail, 2400m vertical, a good few beers and a good many laughs all in one day.

Hard to beat.

Hirodai Trail it would seem Garmin have 'updated' their software somehow, I have started getting readings well under, in this case 3 km in distance and nearly 1000m vertical which is astonishingly inaccurate and the second time in a few weeks the vertical has been well out. Maybe it's time for a shiny new Suunto toy.

217/398 men in 5:40 - reassuringly mediocre (sorry mid table), no age grouping which is a shame. I've just entered the over 50's and there weren't that many older men there, I might have made it into the top 50 at least ;-)

Hands down the best race I've ever done anywhere

It was a long drive, google maps said it would take over 8 hours, and we wanted to make sure that we were there in time to find the ryokan in daylight and complete registration. We left Kobe at 5:00am, and quickly settled into a pattern of road trip banter, eating rubbish and drinking caffeinated drinks. Well, Bob and I did, Linda settled into a pattern of no caffeine, healthy snacks and occasional naps, interspersed with road trip banter.

We made it to Kanna with plenty of time to spare and were met at the 'packet pick up' by very helpful greeters who quickly located an English speaker to assist. All done we were in the ryokan by 3:00pm. It was perched on top of the hill overlooking the valley. After a short walk I took to the onsen and sat in the steaming water, gazing out over the valley as the sun began to set. Absolutely beautiful.

The ryokan onsen

The welcome dinner was all prepared by the locals and was tasty, filling and plentiful. As was the free beer and sake. Sake served in bamboo cups from a bamboo 'carafe'. We were made very, very welcome, people regularly came over to check we were ok, had everything we needed, and see if we would like anymore to drink.

Morning of the race leaving the ryokan

"Around 7 hours...I'll be happy with anything around 7 hours" was my answer to the how long do you think it will take question.

The race started on time and ran away from the village on the other side of the river before crossing the river and running back through the town. I was not quite ready for what waited for me in the centre of the town as it seemed that the entire town had turned out to cheer us on. It was as close as I will ever get to a Tour de France climb with the crowds closing in around you, (a small exaggeration perhaps) very, very moving. As was the the local hospital, all the people able to be out of bed, but not dressed and on the street, were on a balcony waving as we turned off the main road and up the hill.

The first climb was tough but I was feeling ok and soon found my rhythm, I was making good time and surprisingly soon found myself at the tori gate at the top of Mount Kirinojo. From there it was back onto the tarmac for a bit and on to the next aid station which I simply ran straight through without stopping. Shortly afterwards we started another steep climb this time above the trees. I had my head down and refused to look up - relentless forward progress is easier to maintain without the distractions of the gradient or how far away the summit might be. But the noise from the the other runners was a surprise.


Every few minutes there was an exclamation, and excited chatter. I kept my head down and trudged on, nearly walking into someone who had slowed to step off the trail. She was facing the wrong way and reaching for a camera. I glanced over my shoulder at the scene in front of her and uttered my own exclamation at the beauty of it. A few steps later I too was off the trail facing the wrong way and reaching for my phone to take a picture.

The running was hard, steep sections of often relatively new trail, mixed with maintained trail and sections of tarmac. Unusually I did not mind the tarmac as it gave me a chance to lift my head and look at the view. Also unusually I found myself doing better on the climbs than the decents.  Some were a joy to run but many were too steep for  me to let the brakes off fully and with some of the longer ones after the 20km mark going on for over 3km my quads were soon burning. One of the steeper decents zig zagged down the side of a the mountain and was a pleasure for the relatively gentle first 2 km of trail, then it was a bit painful for the next couple of km, and then it went nearly vertical straight down a muddy slope with out even a tree to use as a break and anchor. By this time it had been raining for a while and while that wasn't a problem in itself it made the nylon rope almost impossible to hold, the surface became muddy, and staying upright became a real challenge.

The run back down the hill and into the village was stunning, not only were the volunteers out but again most of the town were still there cheering you back into the finish and the last 200 meters was run slapping high 5's all the way back to line where I finished with a time of 7:00 hours.

What made it the best racing experience I've ever had? The people! The welcome dinner was home cooked by the local women,  the streets were lined with people cheering you out, the streets were lined with people cheering you back in, the helpfulness, the joy at seeing us there, the old couple in the middle of nowhere sat on their front porch with their own little aid station for the runners, the number of people who thanked me for coming after I'd finished and was walking back to the car. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, the trail was good and the people were without comparison. I cannot recommend this race enough.

TNF 100 (well 40 actually but whose counting?)

Gunnison and Crested Butte

Both these places were brilliant very close together (about 30 miles) but as different as different could be.

We camped at the Tall Texan on the edge of Gunnison and immediately headed up the road to Crested Butte to get something to eat and to see what was happening during the bike festival weekend.

The place was buzzing with bikes of every shape and size and a whole load of people in fancy dress having just completed a 'chainless' race.

The next couple of day were spent exploring the Black Canyon of Gunnison and running and riding around Hartman Rocks just outside of Gunnison. The Black Canyon was stunning, Hartman Rocks more high desert and more hot wind and dust, but good fun. I liked Gunnison it was a small ranching town with a university and a growing outdoor culture. It just felt very 'right' if a little empty - maybe the college being out gave it that feel.
Garmin on the run ride Bike here  Run Here




Then we moved up to Crested Butte for a few days, it was a wonderful place mixing hippy culture with mountain life. The ranchers, the ski bums that never left, the bike bums that have just arrived, the rafters, kayakers,  everyone, just got on and had a fine old time in a beautiful place.

The riding and running weren't bad either. MTB Run

Fuji Clear Up Weekend

Sarah and I decided to go up and help with the 'trash pick up' event that was planned instead of the UTMF.

It was a long way and we didn't get there until 10:00 pm, the hotel was great for a business hotel the rooms were big, the shower powerful and, with a bit of peering, Fuji was to be seen from the balcony.

We studied the route maps and elevation profile and decided that we would do the final section of the 3 suggested routes.

This began with a steep 3km climb, that just got steeper and steeper. There was no running this section at all. We climbed steadily getting occasional views of Fuji from between the trees.

Eventually we climbed out and joined the main trail traversing the ridge. We thought that we would have a fairly easy time of it from this point on. The scenery was brilliant, the trails outstanding (for the most part) and the weather glorious. There were however some challenges to be overcome.

Steep and loose downhills were not infrequent in those first few km of the traverse. There were also very steep and loose climbs which caused a few problems and trembly knees. Then when we were sure it was all over and the traverse could begin in earnest we came to the ladder.
We climbed it, though not without a few moments hesitation. The exposure was really quite spectacular as it led to a two foot wide ridge trail of loose, pea sized gravel. Thankfully that was the last of the real 'hardships'.
Sarah was more than a little concerned during this section but she handled it superbly and shortly afterwards we caught a few other 'runners'.

The rest of the run went by with that usual mix of run, jog, eat, drink until we began to get a little concerned about water running out. It was then that Mr Kaburaki ran up to us, shook our hands, thanked us for coming and disappeared over the next small climb without seemingly breaking sweat.

The trail down towards Oishi Park was mostly tight steep switchbacks.

And there at the bottom were several of the North Face sponsored athletes and some others, like us, who'd just been out for a great day collecting trash in the mountains.

Tsuyoshi Kaburaki (center in white) and Yuki Tanaka (right in pink) 

Apparently over the 2 days and 5 or 6 stages that the runners were out, 40kg of trash was taken off the trails.

The reception in the evening was fun, there were toasts, speeches, beer and food. 5 of Japan's top runners were there doing a group chat which I'm sure was interesting but sadly incomprehensible. However I did find out that Yuki was not only an accomplished trail runner but she is one of the few women and the only Japanese woman to have ever completed the Paris Dakar race on a motorcycle.
I had a great time at the reception many people made the effort to talk to us and to make us feel welcome.

With a long train journey and some difficult connections to make we opted out of running and collecting trash on the Sunday instead we had a leisurely walk around the lake and made our way home. A great weekend, a beautiful place, outstanding scenery and some terrific people. What more can you ask for?

 Apart from an odd looking fellow in a parker sitting on a floating chair fishing, obviously.

Oh and a supersize stretch limo, who said Japanese cars are small?