First True Japanese Race!

Since living in Japan my husband and I both competed in our base triathlon, and I have also done their duathlon, and several short races 1.5-5k.  FINALLY I signed up for a true Japanese race off-base, and it was quite an experience.  The first interesting ordeal was just signing up!  They had flyers at our gym, but they were all written in Japanese Kanji.  The only things I could really make out were the distances (10k or 1/2 marathon) and the date of the race.  I liked the sound of the 10k as it's a bit more of a challenge than I usually do, but hopefully wouldn't further damage my already meniscus-deprived knees.  Luckily there is a kind Japanese woman that works in our base gym who filled out an entrance form for me.  Then I got to drive it with my yen to the post office and hope they knew what to do with it.  Here you pay for the race at the post office along with your postage instead of just mailing in a form with a credit card number (or online) like you could in the states.  You can apparently get an account to sign up for races online, but it sounded like too much of a hassle at this point.  Anyway, the post office got it right, and my race number showed up in my mailbox about a week before the race with course info.

The day of the race we showed up early to avoid any parking difficulties and leave time for any communication struggles.  It was fun to see tents and tents of Japanese food and items for sale along with silly mascots wandering around, and some athletes in silly costumes...

Before the start of the race they introduced several people wearing suits, who we assumed helped organize it.  Then they led group warm-ups and stretching...

 

Even the race staff got into it

The 1/2 marathon started first.   I had several friends participating in it.  Here's the start and a couple of them running by around their 5th mile or so...

My friend in the pink WON the womens 1/2 Marathon.
She is an amazing ultra-marathoner

Another wonderful American friend in the group

Kids had fun playing while we were waiting for my start...

Finally we got to start the 10k about an hour later.  It was interesting just joining in the crowd trying to figure out what officials were saying.  I did figure out signs they had, "40+" and "50+" etc. people were holding in the crowd, meant stand there to start if you're over that estimated race pace.  This turned out to be wonderful as people weren't tripping over slower people at the start and more accurate race times.

And sorry, there's no photos of me racing (though there probably is somewhere since there were race photographers all over).  I was happy to finish my 10k at under an 8' mile pace.  As only my 3rd 10k ever, that was plenty fast for me. :)  Here is me with several of the other American finishers for the 5k, 10k, and 1/2 Marathon...

A great experience for sure!