Shan in Japan - sports

Self Discovery Race

noreply@blogspirit.com (Shan) — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:15:00 +0900

Just got back from a top weekend out in Nagano - Otaki village. After picking up little sister Eloise from the airport on Friday evening, I dragged the jetlagged girl out of bed at 3am the next day to head out to Nagano.

Swung by Meguro to pick up team mate, Kohei, and proceeded to the Chuo expressway where we gunned the sturdy rental van all the way to Otaki for the 9am start....so we thought.

Arrived at the race site and things were looking very quiet... "The race has already started, they all left about 20 minutes ago", we were told! Crapola!!! Kohei and I threw our gear together and without a warm-up, hastely headed off to catch the rest of the racers..

Prior to this story, it should be known that we had intended to participate in the 'main' event on Sunday. The main event is an 80km course over 12hours or so. However, due to our teammate Fabien pulling out due to injury, we could not participate. As an alternative, the race organizers said we could do the short 'beginners' race on Saturday, which requires only two race members.

So there we were, peddaling like mad to catch the rest of the pack. After about 20 minutes, we managed to catch a few of the stragglers at the end of the pack. Soon the course narrowed into tight single track, so it was hard to overtake the slower racers. It was really beautiful scenery following the river up through the valley. We dumped the bikes and started the trail run. The sections were really short (entire course was about 30kms) and most of the other racers seemed to be walking, so yes - this really was a 'beginners race'!

Kohei and I were fired to get to the front. After the river run section we were back on the bikes and blasted down the hill. It was when we got to the next check point we realised we were now in 4th place. This was too easy we thought. We overtook the rest of the teams and were about 5 minutes in front by the time we got to the kayak section. A quick little paddle around the lake and we were on the home stretch to the finish line.

1st place and a 30 minute late start!! We were very stoked with that effort. Our bubble was slightly popped when the officials decided that due to our checkpoint cards getting wet (well there was a river section where you get wet!?), one of the checkpoint cards could not be separated (kind of turned to mush) therefore we were given a further 10 minute penalty. This officially put us in 3rd place....

Considering we were supposed to do the main race, we didn't mind (by now the beer was flowing and we were in good 'sportsmanship' spirits) stepping down to 3rd place to take the bronze.

Standing on the podium and receiving a medal, as well as some prizes, is great no matter what place you are. That evening we ate lots of food, drank some (more) beer and were fast asleep by 8:30pm.

Sunday was a much more relaxed pace. After a nice 11 hours sleep, we had breakie and took a drive up to Mt. Ontake. On the way we found some great waterfalls - see photos here

Detoured through Matsumoto to see the Castle on the way home. Eloise was snapping shots and peering through the lens of her new camera at every given moment.

Should be updating this soon with more links and photos of the race. This will be my last race for the season and, in Japan for some time. I'm so happy everything went so well.

More photos....

noreply@blogspirit.com (Shan) — Tue, 31 May 2005 14:35:00 +0900

A few more photos have trickled in from the Guam race. (expecting more too)
Shusei Yamada kindly gave us a few more shots I've put on the Guam album.

Guam Speedlink Team

noreply@blogspirit.com (Shan) — Tue, 24 May 2005 12:47:10 +0900

Here is a photo of the Guam Speedlink team courtesy of Shusei Yamada - pro photographer at the race.
From left to right: Tatsuya, Makiko(bright light), Yushi and me.

There are some other photos up on the GEAR site -> click here
You can also see the times and placings of the teams. Speedlink did pretty good, if only we could have finished with all our team members!

GEAR 05

noreply@blogspirit.com (Shan) — Wed, 18 May 2005 19:55:00 +0900

Last week I headed down to Guam for the Guam Extreme Adventure Race (GEAR) on May 14
This race has been held annually for the past five years...hence the name GEAR 05.

A 24 hour race consisting teams of 4 people, covering a distance of well over 100km on mountain bike, kayak and trail running.

My team members were Yushi, Tatsuya and Makiko. We had all briefly met for drinks in Tokyo a few weeks prior to the race, so all pretty much strangers to one another.

So how did the race go?
After nearly sleeping in, we managed to get outselves down to the beach for the 5am start.
Already sweltering heat before the sunrise, I knew this was going to be a killer day.

As this was my first long distance 'adventure' race, I had to keep reminding myself to take it easy and not burn out too early. Because of the slow steady pace, almost feels like your not 'racing'. Teams spread out pretty quickly and you soon lose sight of who is in front and who is behind you.

On the kayaking section, we saw a pod of dolpins swim by. Naturally, as I stopped to grab my camera they disappeared....

Speaking of photos, I had an instant waterproof camera. Most the shots didn't come out so good but here some that managed to make the cut. http://imageevent.com/shanakin/guam

Considering our team hardly new each other, we all got on well under the boiling conditions.
I won't go into the finer details of the race, but by the 7th Checkpoint (9 check points in all) and 15 and half hours later our team had to withdraw from the race;-(

It was getting dark and we didn't make the time cut off for the next stage. Furthermore, Tatsuya sliced his head open on the sharp rocks on the coast section. While attending to him, Makiko also cut her head open with an even worse gash than Tatsuya. My only ailments were blisters on my feet, which probably saved me from the razor volcanic rocks as I opted to swim in the sea where possible so I didn't have to walk on my aching feet.

I was actually feeling pretty good and felt disappointed being told we could not continue the race. Then on second thought, actually I was quite relieved. 'That'll do for me!'

So as Makiko and Tatsuya were whisked off to hospital to be stitched up, Yushi and I rode a shortened course back to the finish line. One of the support crew had icy cold beers for us - what a legend! As we couldn't finish the race with all 4 members, our time was not recorded. Out of 11 teams, only 4 or 5 teams (need to check) completed the entire race.

I have to take my hat off to our support guy - Brad. He did a top job of keeping us fed, hydrated, gear set up and overall motivated. Definitely a major factor in getting us through this race.

We then kicked back and cheered on some of the other finishers. Later headed back to the hotel and fell asleep like a stone.

So why do I do this? It's like drinking and waking up with a hangover saying 'I'll never drink again!'
Doing the race is fun and towards the end when the 'hangover' kicks in you're cursing yourself for doing this gruelling mission. But now it is over, it is definitely a sense of accomplishment. Seeing how far you can push yourself, learning about your limits and surpassing them. Of course, its much healthier than the drinking analogy!