Beau's Blog

A couple weeks ago I ran in my first trail running race. It was the Okumusashi 35km Trail Running Race; an hour outside of the Tokyo city center starting and ending in a town called Hanno. Since early 2021, I’ve been an off and on trail runner. I usually run solo or with a single friend and while I’ve done a handful of runs around a marathon distance, trail running an organized race was totally new to me.

Nearly a thousand people signed up! (35km distance, 2000m elevation; there was also a 105km, 8000m route too!) At first, this meant a ton of energy and motivation. Then after 10 minutes when we made it to single track dirt trails, it mostly meant a test of patience given the slower pace and a tough time passing the person ahead of you. Throughout the event, my experience went back and forth between quite open with only a few people around me to amusement park style lines and there being no doubt about being in the middle of a thousand people on a trail.

One of the other people who did the race was my friend Chadwick. He’s the reason I learned about the event and was the first friend I made in Japan now nearly two months ago. We did a couple training runs together, knew we were similar speeds and so we started the race together. For the first 14km until the first rest stop in Agano, we were cruising! We felt strong with the excitement of race day and in a state of blissful gratitude expecting it to feel hotter. It was clear our pace was unsustainable as both our heart rates were very high. That said, in this section there were also times when cruising was not an option because of the long lines up hills.

At the Agano rest stop, getting sprayed by water hoses felt incredible. The weather was not ideal for running. It was bright and sunny, with temperatures in the 80s and classic Japan strong summer humidity. That said, the course was mostly pretty shady in the trees. Looking back on the event, a few aspects caused some concern.

1. Aggressive Pace: Chadwick and I made it to Agano about 45 minutes faster than a training run we did a couple weeks prior. That run was only from Hanno to Agano yet for the race, Agano was only about 40% of the total distance.
2. Heat: It was significantly hotter & sunnier on race day than any of my training runs. This is on top of my lack of experience with Japanese humidity.
3. Lack of Sleep: I didn’t sleep much the night before. At first, I couldn’t sleep since I was excited about the race. Then, as the hours progressed, I stressed about how little sleep I was going to end up getting. I got roughly 3 hours of sleep.

Regardless, we pushed on. We felt noticeably slower on the 350m ascent out of Agano than we had on prior uphills. At about 19km in, Chadwick wasn’t feeling great, so he decided to take it slower, and we parted ways.

At first, I reveled in pushing faster but the heat/lack of sleep/hours running/etc caught up to me quickly. This is despite the fact that this section was mostly downhill and nicely shaded. Had I been fresh, this section would’ve been absolutely delightful as it’s nearly ideal trail running terrain. Instead, I choose the word “slog” to describe getting to the second rest stop at about 27km.

There were a couple of stops that provided only water and a couple that were full on rest stops with water, a wide variety of food and heavenly volunteers spraying runners. I skipped the water only stops. Don’t worry – I had my trail running pack with a 1.5L reservoir of water (refilled at the rest stops) and four 5 oz grape flavor mineral packs (calcium, magnesium, etc).

I had forgotten my soft flasks at home when leaving home at 6am. Right as the doors closed on the train, I realized I left them in the fridge. My next thought was, “uhh there may be other important things I left at home. Unfortunately, I’m too sleepy to actually be capable of thinking through what they may be” That was STRESSFUL. I did have enough time to get off at the next station, train back home, get the things and still make it to the start before the race began but everything would’ve been last minute and tense. Since I had my 1.5L reservoir with me which seemed to probably be enough and I figured non water items were less important, I didn’t turn around.

The second rest stop was amazing. I got sprayed, or rather, drenched, by cold hose water. The soup and cherry tomatoes also did their part to rejuvenate me. Another key supporter: the humble chair my sweaty shorts rested on. After only a few minutes there, I felt like a new person, totally good to cruise the last 8km.

This feeling lasted less than 5 minutes/1km. That distance was a fast downhill road. Afterwards, there was a 180m uphill followed by rolling singletrack. For the remainder of the race, going up was hard. I felt slower walking up those sections than I ever have on any occasion before. I could not believe how difficult it was to maintain a very slow pace uphill. Fortunately, I felt like myself on the downhills, able to run and flats were somewhere in the middle. For this section, I would pass competitors on the downhills and get passed by the same people on the uphills. I did take several breaks on the side of the trail too. Finally, after more than an hour of this, I made it to the final test – 2.5km of flat road. I generally don’t really like road running but having no more uphills and being so close to the end, I was a happy guy. It also turned out that my pace here was faster than the other people struggling around me, so I got to enjoy a little ego boost passing people.

Finishing was both incredible and a letdown. I appreciated the enthusiastic announcer, the fun ribbon that volunteers would pick up over and over to let runners break through and most of all, the fact that I completed my goal of finishing (I wish I could say I felt proud for all the other runners who finished but honestly, it took some time to get there). On the other hand, it was still uncomfortably hot, there were no people spraying down runners (this would’ve made me so happy) and more than anything, my body physically felt broken and emotionally, I felt alone. I took my time laying in the grass. I saw the other runners and felt both connected knowing we shared a special experience and yet so alone not recognizing a single friendly face.

After an hour or so (who knows, time was hard to keep track of and not a priority), Chadwick made it to the end. We relaxed, shared our experiences, enjoyed a beer and then all was better by the time we slurped down large bowls of ramen at the Hanno Station. Well actually my body may have needed a few days to recover, but I felt like a million bucks chowing down on yummy food with my friend.

My experience by the numbers

• 1 memorable Strava activity
• 2 divine rest stops
• 7 hours (15min) total time
• 35km distance
• 146 average heart rate
• 2000m elevation
• So much sweat

Looking back at the experience, here are some takeaways:

• Running is hard. I don’t (usually) mind that it is hard. It is a rewarding struggle.
• Do more training. My hardest training run was 25km, 1600m  – something closer to the actual event would’ve been better.
• Implement a more foolproof way to bring everything to the race. A handwritten reminder note to grab the water out of the fridge placed on my shoes would’ve reduced stress for sleepy me.
• Get better sleep before the race. Maybe start adjusting my sleep schedule a couple days before.
• I’ll enjoy the race (or at least the end) more if I have a stronger sense of community at the event. I plan to start running with the Tokyo Trailrunners Group soon! Community takes time to build, I’ll do my best to be patient.
• It’s the journey, not the destination. I got more out of the journey (training) than the destination (actual event). I love that this race got me exercising and out into the mountains around Tokyo regularly.
• I want to keep trail running. I want to do more trail running races – although I’m in no hurry to do another one.

Thank you to the event organizers, the event volunteers (especially the ones spraying hoses), everyone who participated, Chadwick, and my body for enabling this experience.