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 ;-)

Running out of time

So just 2 weeks to Hirodai and 6 weeks to Fuji STY and I've only just put in my first 40+ mile week. I've yet to run more than 16 miles and the biggest day I've had is just over 1500m ascent. That's a bit light when STY is 82km and 4200m ascent.

I think this is going to get just a little tough.

Not least because they've changed the STY rules. As well as having to carry a portable toilet there is now no drop bag and a 27km gap between the aid stations in the middle of the race.

It's going to be tough. I reckon that I might be coming down the other side of the major climb as the light starts to go - not ideal after 45km

Time to start upping the mileage and running in the hills at night.

So Emma came to visit

And we packed in week for her:

A night out in a busy izikaya

a trip to Hiroshima

Cosplay in Osaka

a night in a ryokan and a lantern festival in Kyoto

dressed her in kimono for a stroll around.

Visited the Sumo

Ate Okanomiyaki

and put her back on a plane.

 She's a very special young lady who has always brought out the best in me.

So I made it to 50

My birthday was an absolute blast.

The Damned were playing in Osaka. Their 35th anniversary tour, what better way for an ageing punk to celebrate? So we set off for an evening of reliving my youth, and I wasn't disappointed. The band were awesome, the audience entertaining, and the music better than I remembered.

It was massively entertaining, afterwards we decided to hunt for 'Club Rock Rock', a club Captain Sensible had announced that he would be frequenting after the show. It took some finding, but find it we did, and sure enough a couple of hours later in came the man himself.

You know, for one of the English Cultural Icons of my generation he was a 'damned' easy man to chat too, and very obliging with photo calls.

The party continued well into the night.

Where we made some new friends.

...and stayed way too late, only just catching the last train home, or in Bob's case - almost home. For some unknown reason he got off the train a stop early, failed to get back on in time, and got stuck a few miles from home. In the end he ended up hitching a ride from some strangers.

The next day Nara was kind enough to lay on a firework display and huge pyrotechnic display as they lit up the hill behind the temples. All for me!

And we're off again

This time to the land of the Eternal Blue Sky

We'll be leaving the Land of the Rising Sun in June and will start in Mongolia in August. It's cold there apparently. Ulan Batur holds the record as the coldest capital city in the world. Average temperature is 0c and currently it's a high of -17c and a low of -35c.

That said I am reliably informed that within 3km of our apartment complex the trails offer some of the best mountainbiking and trail running anywhere in the world. I just hope that is true. It's going to need a lot of new thermal running gear though to get me through the winter.

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?)

It didn't get any cooler

I gave up waiting to feel better, for the weather to break and for the cool of autumn to make running in the hills bearable so I went out anyway.
It was very hot.


It took over an hour to reach the trailhead, where I had to sit in the shade and eat and drink and drink
and drink.
















It took over 2 hours to reach the vending machine between the golf course and Rokko Garden Terrace, where I had to sit in the shade and eat and drink and drink and drink.

I opted not to take the tarmac variation and ran down the side of the main road for a short distance before hitting the trail to Mt Maya. It was a good idea, it felt shorter, faster and was certainly more off road than on it, the views weren't bad either.

I found the trail down the mountain easy enough but ended up taking a small detour to a very big tree, and then having to retrace my steps.

Ah yes steps, there were plenty of those on the way down from Maya, in fact there was precious little else. It was pretty, wooded, ran by a stream and had lots and lots of steps.

I found myself back in town by Oji zoo and should have looked at my phone to get a better idea of where the nearest station was but instead I wandered for a while until I found a train to take me home.

That would be about the slowest times I've posted, anywhere, ever.

In the 5 hours I was out I drank 5.5 litres of fluid, and when I weighed myself I'd lost another 3kg so 8.5kg of fluid loss for the day, no wonder it was hard.
Rokko Island to Oji