Notes
2015 HM 6
2015 Race 8
The race was based in Kiyosato (not Shari itself) and we made it all the way out there in the pouring rain the night before. Signed in the next morning and the race started at 10am. No other foreigners and not a lot of people in this race...mainly because it's far away and it looks tough! Three hour time limit and a bunch of hills! Fortunately the rain had cleared though.
The race started and it was all good...for 2k. That's when we had the first climb for about a kilometer. My goal in this race was just to finish so I did walk a bit of this first hill. Nothing crazy, but it was kinda long. The course flattened out for a bit and we hit the first water station at 5K. 34 minutes to get there. Hit my first jelly drink and water. Beautiful area around here. Guess I gotta go climb Shari-dake sometime. Starting to sun up pretty good too. Warm as well.
Another climb after this until around 8K (well, a bunch of climbs really, some longer and some shorter) and a sponge table at 7.5K. Tended to run the shorter climbs, but walked parts of the longer ones. Just gotta finish. Crazy course! Was pleased to make it to the sponge table as it was a big downhill section for 5K after that.
Hit the 10K water station at 1:08, which was near the start of the Shari-dake hiking course. Fortunately we didn't have to run on that...although it kinda felt like we were! Drank my second jelly drink and more water.
From there we headed to the 12.5K sponge table and things were about to go up again. This was pretty intense. A hill, a slight drop, then another hill...with the turnaround and the 15K water station on the steeps! Very conscious of the Bibai HM on Wednesday so definitely walked some of this. I did run around the turnaround though. Crazy doing it on a hill! Hit that at 1:42 and then the 15K water station just down from there in 1:43. They had some fruit and chocolate etc and I totally hit that. Don't normally eat solid food in races, but this was a tough one. Pretty warm out now, as well.
From here it was a good downhill and basically a straight line for 6K back to the finish. There was a sponge table at 17.5K and another water station at 20K. Was pretty done by the end, but made it over the line. My goal was just to finish it, but was pleased to get in under 2:30.
Won some vegetables in the draw, free fried potatoes, a race towel and a free onsen. Paid for and ate some black yakisoba, which was kinda weird though.
Despite how gnarly this one was I would quite like to do it again. In fact, the hilly ones are far more interesting than the flat ones!
The question is though, can I get up for Bibai with only two days rest?!