Race Report - 37th Tsukuba marathon | 第37回つくばマラソン | 2018.11.26

After Hasetsune cup at the beginning of october I started road race training again. This winter I wanted to beat my old 10k PB, so I did mainly short training. It paid off as I got 10k PB last week at Toda. So for Tsukuba marathon, I was relatively confident with the speed, but not with the endurance as I didn't do the most important specific training: long and relatively fast. I was not expecting to make a new PB here, so I didn't feel much pressure, except the one for anticipation of hard time, as I never ran a marathon without hard time.

The first 10k was OK. The second 10k was not bad. The third 10k was announcing difficult finish. I could maintain the pace but it was more and more difficult. The 31k was unexpectedly slow 4:32 though I was thinking I had maintained the pace at the price of much efforts. So I thought, OK, this is the beginning of the end. Then Harrisson Uk Stan caught up with me and thanks to him I could maintained a reasonable pace for the 3 next km. Then he left me and my pace went down again. I gave up sub3 for good here, at about 35k. But I didn't give up doing my best and I could keep sub 5min/km pace.

Then after 39k, Tomoki Takahashi that I met at Utsukushigahara trail, passed me, telling me that we could still make it. It took me a moment to realize that he was right, at least for a net time sub3, and I couldn't follow him. But soon after, a woman and a man passed me at a good pace, and I don't know why or how, but I managed to follow them. I did the last 2k at sub3 pace again and finished in 2:59:38, the exact same time as Takahashi san (we started together). Of course I'm very happy with this result. Last year I gave up later, at 40k and I couldn't make sub3. This year, it's the opposite, I could make it thanks to the last 2k (and the first 30k of course...).

Yuki was running the 10k. She still have painful knee, but she can bear if for 10k. So recently she ran three 10k with times of 59:46 at Namban rengo bbq (fun run, taking pictures), 48:10 at Toda last week, and 46:33 today. Good progress ! So right after we came back home, she switched on the computer and registered to another 10k race :)

More pictures here:

GPS data here:

Race Report - Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) Japan 2017

2 weeks ago, I ran the Original Mountain Marathon with my friend Joerg Vetter, a top Swiss orienteer and adventure racer. This is a 2-day mountain event which was first held in 1968 in UK and continues today in UK and other countries. Each team must carry their gear, including food and equipment for an overnight camp. The place change every year, and this year it was held in Nobeyama Kogen area, at the foot of Yatsugatake.

I like orienteering and I like running in the mountain, so of course I like a lot this kind of long orienteering event. However, I never did 2 days race. Well, I did once, but we were sleeping in a building. This time it would be in a tent. I was a little anxious about this, because I'm not found of camping, and I have a very bad memory of a cold cold cold night during my military service in France. Anyway, when Joerg proposed me to do it, I didn't hesitate a lot, because it was a good opportunity to try something new.

There are 2 types of course: the straight one, where you have to follow a defined course (but you can't miss any post or you will be disqualified), and the score one, where you have to decide by yourself which post you are going to look for. We were in the long score. You have to find as much posts as possible in less then 7h the first day and 6h the second day (there is a shorter one too). The choice of the posts you are going to look for depends on the posts points and their difficulty. If you finish late, you lose 5 points every minute. It needs a good time management which is interesting (this is the same rules as rogaining).

Unfortunatly Joerg was injured, with a plantar fasciitis in his right foot since few weeks. For sure it was not reasonable to do such a race being injured, but I guess he didn't want to let me down, and he endured bravely the pain during 2 days.

Running on the road especially downhill was the most painful, so we avoided roads and took shortcuts in the forest as much as possible, which was a good choice anyway because thanks to Joerg's orienteering skills, we were always arriving right on the post, except one time on the third post of the first day, where we were not well focused yet and we lost about 10min.

I was reading the map too and I could see the gap between me and an elite orienteer. Sometimes, it was only a mather of details, I would have taken a little different course, I would have entered the forest a little before or a little later, but some other times I was getting quite lost. Well, if I was leading, I would have been more focused and probably less desoriented sometimes, but it would have taken much more time. Joerg seemed to always knowing where he was and was never stopping to check the map.

The first day, we underestimated the time to reach the goal and were 10 min late. We got 350 points but lost 50, so the final score was 300 points and our position was 73th among 312. We did 35.3km with 1500m of elevation gain in 7h10min. Those 50 points were very precious because there were so many teams between 300 and 350pts. Arriving in time is really crucial.

Day #1 GPS data here:

Day #1 - Our course on the map

Then came the tough part for me. The night at the camp. OMG, it was so cold ! The second worst night in my life ! :) First, we had to install the tent. Joerg spread a sheet on the ground to put the tent on. It was such a small peace of sheet, I told him "don't tell me this is the size of the tent !". He answered "I don't know, I didn't check."...This was a good joke, that let me without voice for a moment. But the tent was not so small after all. But not too big neither...Sometime being tall is not favourable. During the night, when I was sleeping on the back, my foot were frozen because they were touching the bottom wall of the tent. When I was on my side, the side against the side wall was cold. So I was always changing position. Each time I was changing position I had to set up again the sleeping bag and the pillow I made with a plastic bag and used clothes.

Looks nice on this picture from the orginazation

But here is inside the tent...

I think that my sleeping bag was made for ~2°C, but it was probably -5°C that night. I put my sleeping bag into a survival blanket but this blanket was not breathable. It kept the moisture from my perspiration inside, and in the morning my sleeping bag was soaked. Actually, when I fold it later, it was frozen, like every thing which was left outside, such as my shoes...

But we were lucky. It could have rain (well, it would probably have been snow rather than rain). I don't want to imagine if it had rained (which is quite usual weather for this event, especially in UK).

I will pass on the need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. I'm grateful to my bladder that it happened only once.

OK, now I'm sure you really want to do this event right ? ;) It's OK, it's just me. I'm not an adventurer. I need my little confort. Joerg didn't complain though he didn't even had a mat. I had a good one. An air mattress. I'm not sure I could have survive the night without a mat.

I was so happy when the night was over, especially when we could run again to warm up our frozen bodies.

The second day was beautiful. There was more technical orientation then the previous day. Weather was great, and there were beautiful views of moutains. I couldn't drink for the first 2 hours because the water in the water bag was frozen, but it was OK. Fortunatly I had a 50cl flask half full that I could use if I took off the cap that was frozen too.

This time we were more careful about the time, and we arrived with 8min margin and 330 points. We did 26km and 892m of elevation gain, in 5h52min. Our final rank was 52th among 296 finishers, which is not bad considering that we mainly walk.

Day #2 GPS data here:

Day #2 - Our course on the map:

I like orienteering a lot, and I would like to do more often this type of event, but no more night in tent for me, thanks. I'm very glad I tried it once, but once will be enough :) One day event or night in building would be perfect.

Joerg, thank you very much for inviting me and not giving up despite the pain. I hope you will recover soon. And thanks for the pictures. And of course, a big thank to the organization and the volunteers. Beside my weakness with camping, I liked this event a lot. There is a very good spirit. Everyone is here to have fun and to enjoy. It's more a matter of spending a good weekend with buddies in the mountain than a competition.

Photos album here:

L'échappée belle 2017

Short break before climbing another rock wall. Pictures are from the organization.

I gave up after "only" 62km, 5200m D+ and 16 hours of hiking more than running.

As expected, the tougher race I have ever attempted. And the most beautiful.

The first 6~8h were good, then I gradually fade out. As usual, difficulties to eat, thus no energy, out of breath for hours, even when just walking on flat, no fun for hours, so I decided to stop at the begining of the night.

Up to now, those ultratrails were always tough and I always had longer bad times then good times, but each race was a little better then previous race and I could always find something that let me hope I could improve.

This time I started slower than usual, and I was thinking that this would make it much easier. It was not the case. So now I'm almost sure that I'm not good at this kind of long effort, and I decided to stop running races longer than 10h until end of next year minimum. So no UTMF or UTMB next year. Our brain has an incredible capacity to forget the bad moments, so I promised it to myself during the race. 

Those few years of ultrarunning were incredibly rewarding and I'm very proud of being able to complete 100 miles races, but now let's have fun on shorter race ! :)

Sae (Japanese living in France) and Jérome (French living in Japan)

Shogo Mochizuki in the wall.

Other pictures here (from the organization)

70th Fuji Mountain Race (第70回 富士登山競走)

PB by 14min. Missed sub 3:30 by 40s but got sub 100 ranking by 1 position :)

Correction: actually I failed sub 100 ranking too as there were two women faster then me, so I'm 101th overall ! Good, I have another motivation for next year :)

Photos

Race Report - 7th Utsushigahara Trail Run

第７回　美ヶ原トレイルラン

Date: 2017/07/01

Place: Nagano prefecture, Chiisagata District, Nagawa - Blanche Takayama Sky resort (長野県長和町・ブランシュたかやまスキーリゾート)

Distance and elevation gain: 79.50km / 3980m+

I selected this race because when I asked people about a race with beautiful views, this one popped up. What they did not mention is that it's raining almost each time. Of course, it's in the middle of the rainy season, what should we expect ?

This year was particularly rainy, enough for the organizers to decide to change the course and make it shorter and avoid the high parts. No more beautiful views.

What it should have been...

...and what it was.

The morning of the race, the new course was posted, but there were so many people that I could just catch a glimpse. I saw (I think I saw) "45 km" on the map, and at the same time I heard the speaker saying something like "you can consider that you will run a 45 km race". OK, we will do only the half. Then I don't need so much things to eat. I hided few bars under a canvas sheet near the start line that I would take back after the race. Let's be as light as possible.

I was close to Tomohiro Machida on the start line, winner of the Okukuji 30k one month ago. When I told him it would be a "Speed race", he had the polite smile we have when someone do a poor joke. Well, this was a poor joke.

4am: start. 3.5km uphill on a ski track. I started fast, even for 45km. As usual, I didn't want to be stuck in the single track that we will find up there. It will be only a short portion of downhill track, maybe one or two km, then most of the race will be forest road, with a little more single tracks in the second part. About 90% of the race was runnable.

Every thing was going fine until I arrived to the aid station at 35km. There was a foreign guy here that told me, "Good job, you only have the way back now". I told him "But it's only 10km to go". He gave me a strange look and didn't answer. I left the aid station rapidly, but I had an odd feeling, so I asked another runner what was the total distance. He told me about 75km.

...

.....

Oh my god...

...

What a shock. 40k to go.

Immediate change of gear. Survival mode engaged.

No mater if I'm passed by many people, I want to finish the race without to much suffering. Well, first of all I want to finish the race.

Then I thought about the food. Fortunately I didn't left too much food in the start area, but I was worrying a little. Will I have enough? OK, I will eat more at the aid station. I wished I ate that soba (I think it was soba, I didn't even had a look as I thought it was only 10k left).

Soon after leaving the 35k aid station, there was a more technical section, with steep up and steep down. Did I forgot to mention that it was raining more than half of the time, sometime quite heavily? It was. Fortunately it was not cold and I was in T-shirt all the time. That made the trail very slippery and I felt down in this section. But all the mud on my shirt would be washed away few hours later thanks to the rain ;) I worried that the second part would be much more technical, but it was not the case. We soon went back on the forest road.

Next aid station: nothing left, only water ! That aid station was the start of a 10k loop and we were passing there two times. First time I passed, there was cola, and few things to eat, but second time, as many other runners had passed, everything was out of stock, though many runners had still not reach the first passage of this aid station !

So I decided to ration myself. Finely at the end of the race I will still have few things to eat so I should not have worrying so much.

So I changed gear, but as we were now crossing other runners, I didn't want to look too bad, and I was still trying to run as much as possible though we were now going up most of the time, on a easy slope. Well, normally easy, but not after running 35k at huge overpace. Soon I was alternating walk and run. Then I met Martin Verdier who was coming from the other way with Yuko. We were surprised as we didn't know that we were both running this race. Still a long way to go for both of us, but more for them ! This made me put my situation in perspective. I had no much energy left, but "only" 30k to the finish line.

I was surprised that not so many people passed me. That would come later, especially the last 10k after the last aid station, because it was the time for those having energy left to give it all until the goal.

Well, to make it short, somehow I managed to reach the goal. It was tough, but I had worse time. I had another shock at the last before the last aid station because I though there was only 20k left, but they told 27k ! That was wrong, it was really 20k. Another piece of wrong information at the last aid station. They said that we would not go up again at the top of the ski track, and that it was mainly forest road now. That was wrong. We went to the top. Actually this was surprisingly good for me as I had more facility to walk in step uphills then to run in flat part at that time.

Once again, I was passed few km before the goal by the first women, Yukari Hoshino. She will be representative of Japan at the next sky running world championship as this race was also the Japanese ski running championship (Sky ultra category).

I finished 45th among 723 starters and 11th/258 in 40 yo class in a time of 8h48min42s.

My garmin distance and elevation gain were 74.55km and 2712m respectively.

GPS data here:

I don't know if I could have done a better result knowing the real distance from the beginning, but I guess that the second part would have been more enjoyable, as passing is more fun than being passed.

Anyway, it was interesting. It was a new experience and it ended well, so it was a good day after all :)

I would like to go again to see the real course, but I feel that in this season, it's really gambling with a low success rate !

By the way, after coming back at the race site, I checked the posted map. I could see no sign of "45km". Was it so early that I was dreaming awake ? Well, the 45k was corresponding to something: it was the distance of the 50k race after the change of course. But nothing on the map...Strange. Anyway, the lesson is learned and I will double check next time !

PS: Interesting video that shows why it's not just a good excuse to cancel some section in order to protect the trails, and also how downhill can make big time difference between runners especially at the back of the pack. I think that this was just the beginning of the race (here the 50k race), the first downhill after reaching the top of the ski track (and the last uphill as we were coming back on the same trail).

Some pictures from the organization here:

Compte Rendu de Course - Hasetsune 30k | ハセツネ30k

Hasetsune 30k: C'est fait ! mais pas complètement...En effet, la veille, l'organisation a décidé d'écourter la distance (32k → 17k), la faute à la pluie et la neige des jours précédent qui ont rendus les sentiers difficiles (mais bon, c'est du trail non?) et qui on provoqués des éboulements de rochers sur la route. Cette dernière raison semble très raisonnable, surtout au vue de la photo qu'ils ont posté sur le site, donc on pouvait finalement s'estimer heureux d'avoir pu faire la moitié du parcours quand même !

En tout cas perso j'étais content de pouvoir courir, parce qu'après une semaine d'entraînement modéré, je pétais la forme et j'avais très envie de me défouler. Et me défouler, j'ai pu ! C'était court mais intense :) 

Bon, je vais passer rapidement sur les nombreux détails qui rendent cette course un poil irritante, du genre être obligé de s'inscrire à une assurance de secours en montagne pour participer, règlements loufoques genre tatouages interdits sauf si vous les cachez (les yakouzas peuvent courir incognito), beaucoup de monde donc beaucoup de bouchons, donc obligé de s'installer dans le "sas" 50min avant le départ pour avoir une place relativement correcte et voir plein de monde venir plus tard passer sous les rubalises au nez et à la barbe du staff qui ne dit rien, mais les comprendre un peu parce qu'on est censé se placer soit même selon son niveau, mais si c'est le cas alors il y avait une densité de sub3 au marathon incroyable.

Enfin bref. On s'élance à 8:30, et bien que je n'étais qu'à une trentaine de mètres de la ligne de départ, ça fait quand même beaucoup de monde à doubler ce que je m'évertue de faire pendant les 10 premiers km de route, presque tout en montée. Le plan, c'était "à fond à fond à fond" pendant ces 10k pour ne pas avoir de bouchons au départ du sentier, où je pourrais éventuellement me reposer un peu suite à des ralentissements probables. Manque de bol, à 10km pile, là où l'on part normalement sur le sentier, se tenaient trois gars bloquant le passage. Et oui, nous sommes resté sur la route plus longtemps que prévu. Bon, ça ne change rien, de toute façon, à ce niveau il ne reste déjà plus que 7km, donc la tactique "à fond à fond à fond" était valable dans tous les cas de figure.

Finalement on rejoint le sentier un kilomètre plus loin et là, contrairement à mes estimations, pas de ralentissements, ou très peu ! Donc pas le temps de se reposer, on repart de plus belle dans une série de courtes montées descentes, puis par la suite, des parties plus courantes et des descentes un peu plus longues et un peu plus raides (il faut bien redescendre tout ce qu'on a monté). C'était mouillé et un peu technique, donc amusant, surtout que j'avais encore des jambes vu que je m'étais quand même entraîné pour 32km, donc je pouvais m'en donner à cœur joie.

Bien sur, il y avait parfois quelques petits ralentissements dus à des coureurs moins à l'aise sur ce type de terrain, mais rien de bien méchant. L'un de ces ralentissement était du à Chiyuki Mochidzuki, deuxième des championnats du monde de 100km en 2004 en 7h38 et double vainqueur des 100k de Saroma. Visiblement les sentiers glissants ne sont pas sa spécialité. C'est ça qui est bien sur les trails: on peut finir devant des gens dont on ne pourrait pas apercevoir un bout de la culotte sur route tellement le niveau est différent (c'est pour ça que j'aimerai bien faire un trail bien technique avec Harrisson ;) , coucou si tu lis ça). Bon, il y a des limites quand même. Kaori Yoshida, 2:28 au marathon et première fille aujourd'hui, va finir très loin devant, en 1h14. Le premier homme, Ruy Ueda termine en 1:04. Moi en 1:23. Bref, c'est a peu près les temps d'un semi-marathon. Mais c'est plus fun :)

Et maintenant, le clou du spectacle. J'avais dis à Yuki la veille que j'allais botter le cul de Shunsuke Okunomiya (vainqueur l'année précédente), parce qu'il n'avait pas été très sympa avec son partenaire Takuya Yamada dans une course en binôme dans les Alpes dont on avait vu un reportage à la télé (il ne l'attendait pas). Et voilà-t-y pas que je finis 9s devant lui ! Je ne sais pas ce qu'il a fichu, il s'est contenté d'un petit footing matinal, ou bien il était blessé, aucune idée. En tout cas je pourrais dire que j'ai battu Okunomiya ! Ha ha, trop fort :) Du coup, je n'ai pas pu lui botter le cul puisqu'il était derrière ;) Bon, je plaisante, je suis sur qu'il est très gentil cet homme là, mais c'est vrai que sur ce reportage, il n'était pas montré sous son meilleur jour.

Bon, passons. Après j'ai récupéré mon T-shirt, mes épinards (du moins une plante qui y ressemble), puis je suis allé sur le bord de la route encourager les coureurs en attendant l'arrivée de Jérome Lastapis. Il est arrivé peu de temps après et grisé par le sprint final, il n'a même pas entendu mes hurlements. Et voilà, seulement 10h du matin et c'était déjà fini. Court mais bon. Pas de regrets pour la moitié non effectuée, surtout que j'avais fait le repérage la semaine précédente, donc je l'aurais au moins fait une fois. Mon seul petit regret, c'est que je n'ai pas pu intégrer le top 100. 105ème sur 1661. Dommage ! Mais l'essentiel est là, je me suis bien amusé et j'ai mon ticket pour sa grande soeur en Octobre, la Hasetsune cup. Espérons qu'on pourra la faire en entier celle-ci !

Deux, trois photos en plus ici:

Et le parcours là:

Marathon de Shizuoka 2017

Dimanche 5 Mars 2017, Ville de Shizuoka, préfecture de Shizuoka, Japon

Temps net: 2:58:27

Temps brut: 2:59:06

Mon record sur marathon, le deuxième sous les 3h en temps net (depuis la ligne de départ), le premier en temps brut (depuis le coup de feu de départ).

Je vais incorporer quelques photos de la villle de Shizuoka, que nous avons visité un peu avec Yuki la veille de la course, histoire d'agrémenter un peu cet article, même si ça n'a rien avoir avec la course elle même.

Une rue de petits restaurants de oden, spécialité du coin, tous fermés à cette heure ci.

J'ai commencé l'entraînement en visant moins de 2:55. Comme d'habitude, cet objectif me paraissait impossible au vu du dernier entraînement à vitesse marathon une semaine avant la course, mais l'impossible est arrivé une fois lors de mon premier sub3 au marathon de Tokyo 2015, donc je gardais un mince espoir.

L'ourson est mort de déshydratation. Quelle honte.

Espoir vite envolé. J'étais dans les temps au 5ème kilomètre en 20:43, mais j'ai beaucoup ralenti les 5km suivant, et je passais les 10km en 42:31 soit déjà une minute de retard sur l'allure du sub 2:55. Pire, je me sentais déjà un peu dans le dur alors que le quart de la course n'était pas encore passé. J'ai commencé à douter de pouvoir même faire un sub3. J'ai décidé de prendre des risques et de changer mon rythme de respiration beaucoup plus tôt que prévu. Je puis passé de inspiration sur 2 pas / expiration sur 3 pas à inspiration sur 2 pas / expiration sur 2 pas. Je n'étais pas sûr de pouvoir tenir comme ça jusque au bout,  mais je n'aurais pas pu garder le rythme sub3 sans cela je crois. Cela m'a permis de ré-accélérer un petit peu et de reprendre de l'avance par rapport au sub3 et par rapport à mon record de 2:59:14.

C'est histoire de rythme de respiration, ce n'est pas quelque chose que j'ai lu dans un livre ou sur internet ou quoi que ce soit, c'est juste que il me semble qu'un marathon, et n'importe quelle course en générale, ça devrait être relativement facile pendant au moins la première moitié, sinon on est à peu près certain de mal finir. Et pour moi, pouvoir rester sur un rythme 2/3, c'est l'assurance que c'est encore relativement facile. Et au marathon de Tokyo, où j'ai fait un léger "negative split" (deuxième semi plus rapide que le premier), je n'avais changé mon rythme qu'au 27ème kilomètre.

Mais peut être que c'est stupide, et que je ferais mieux de commencer en 2/2, car être en 2/2 par contre, n'est pas forcément l'assurance que c'est difficile. Au contraire, c'est plus facile, parce que je fournis plus d'oxygène à mes muscles. Mais je ne l'ai jamais fait pendant la durée d'un marathon et j'ai peur que ce soit le système cardio-vasculaire qui craque avant les jambes dans ce cas. Je l'ai fait sur un semi au maximum, jusqu'à présent. Cette fois plus de 30km. La prochaine fois peut être que j'essaierais de ne pas me restreindre, juste faire comme je le sens. Je me demande comment font les élites. Si quelqu'un a un avis là-dessus, n'hésitez pas à le partager.

En tout cas, j'ai pu garder un bon rythme (non sans efforts), ~4:10/km, jusqu'au 25ème km, puis j'ai commencé à ralentir un peu, 4:14 de 25 à 30km, 4:16 de 30 à 35km, puis 4:22 sur les 7 derniers, en incluant une petite accélération finale, qui m'a permis de battre mon record de 47s seulement !

Il est loin le temps où je mettais 15min dans la vue à ma précédente marque !

J'étais vraiment très content d'avoir pu le faire alors que c'était mal engagé et que la tentation de baisser les bras m'a taquiné l'esprit dés le premier quart de course.

Je suis tout de même un peu déçu, ou disons plutôt dubitatif, de ne pas avoir pu faire mieux. En effet, j'ai pu faire 3:01:39 à Tsukuba en Novembre dernier, alors que j'étais beaucoup moins entraîné, notamment j'étais loin d'avoir retrouvé ma vitesse de base. Je pensais qu'après quelques mois d'entraînement sérieux, les sub3 seraient une formalité. Je retombe sur terre. Et j'essaye de comprendre.

Pas de problèmes de personnel ici. On dépose 100 yens pour le livre de son choix. 

La première chose qui me vient à l'esprit, c'est que la période d'entraînement était un peu trop longue. En effet, cette année, comme l'année dernière, j'ai commencé à sentir une légère fatigue, peut être plus mentale que physique, quelques 3 semaines avant le marathon. Cette année j'ai pu limiter les dégâts, en me reposant un peu plus, mais la prochaine fois, je vais soit raccourcir la période d'entraînement sérieux sur route, en choisissant un marathon plus tôt, soit faire une vrai pause, soit inclure des entraînement plus tranquilles et plus variés, avec plus montagne. J'ai bien essayé de faire un pause, mais j'ai triché, car après 5 jours avec seulement 20km de course à pied, j'ai fait 70km en 3 jours. Tu parles d'une pause.

Je viens de vérifier, et je vois que j'ai commencé à la mi-septembre, juste après l'UTMF tronqué, ce qui fait 6 mois d'entraînements relativement intenses, en tout cas réguliers. Effectivement, c'est long ! Je vais y aller plus cool l'année prochaine.

Je me met peut être un peu trop de pression aussi, parce que justement, j'ai beaucoup travaillé pour faire un résultat sur une course, et j'ai peur de tout gâcher. A Tsukuba je n'avais pas de pression et ça a probablement contribué au bon résultat.

Je vais travailler là-dessus l'année prochaine, y aller plus cool, varier plus, préparation moins longue, moins de pression...on verra ce que ça donne :)

Yuki était inscrite sur le marathon aussi, mais son état ne lui permettait pas de faire les 42km, elle avait donc décidé dés avant le départ de s'arrêter à mi-course, ce qu'elle a fait, non sans un pincement au cœur, car ce n'est jamais agréable d'abandonner une course.

Il a fait très beau et nous avions une vue magnifique sur le mont Fuji, mais sur un marathon, c'est compliqué d'admirer le paysage, donc je n'en ai profité que quelque secondes, quand d'un seul coup je l'ai vu là, devant moi, immense, puis je me suis re-concentré sur moi-même car il me semble que je n'aurais pas pu garder le rythme sans cela. C'était vers le 25ème kilomètre, et c'était déjà une lutte pour ne pas faiblir.

Il a fait même un peu chaud, mais c'était prévu, c'est pourquoi je me suis appliqué à boire à presque tous les ravitaillements, très nombreux, ce qui est certainement l'origine de quelques secondes perdues, mais ce qui m'a peut-être aussi permis de ne pas exploser avant la fin.

Avec les autres nambanners

Toutes les photos ici.