Notes
2015 HM 5
2015 Race 7
Rolled into Takikawa around midnight the night before and woke up to pouring rain and wind gusts at 5am. Tail end of a typhoon... Surely it would ease! Didn't really, but the race was on so I went to the convenience store and bought a plastic raincoat, just in case.
Tried hard not to get wet leading up to the race, but once it was on it was ON. Bit weird running with the jacket. Not really sure if I needed it either... Anyway, first time to Takikawa, but...we left the city fairly quick. It's not that big! Probably not that much to see though. The first water station was at 3.7K, which was a little ridiculous. The guy behind me who tipped the remainder of his drink over the backs of my legs was a little ridiculous too. Gotta assume it was unintentional though!
Small hill just after 5K, but it was a fairly, flat course out in the country (lots of massive crates of onions) and beside the river. Hit 5K at 30, 10K at 1:02 and 15K at 1:34. Apart from the rain, it was fairly uneventful...one race official was very enthusiastically supporting the runners though, unfortunately not by name like in Shinhidaka, but we did develop a relationship of sorts as he appeared at three points during the race! Then there was the underpass just after 19K. Most people were walking up it, but I forced myself to run all the way up that. Tough at the end of a race though!
Again, it was hard not to pick up the pace in the last kilometre and I busted past a bunch of people, before running the last stretch hard. Probably shouldn't have done that with my half-marathon plans this autumn...but I just couldn't help it!
Still raining at the end of the race, but it had eased somewhat. Pretty happy to hit the Matsuo Genghis Khan stall for lamb kebabs afterwards, before heading back to Beer River to grill under a bridge!