Road marathon is always my winning race.

RRC member interview

Text: Shun Sato

10th Course A+ Team (Goal: Full marathon sub 2 hours 50 minutes) MVP: Kenta Watanabe

Aiming for a PB

Since the Hokkaido Marathon is a local race, I was only aiming to beat my personal best. I started preparing for it immediately after the Tokyo Marathon in March. I had the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon coming up in June, so my motivation was high.

One to two months before a race, I gauge my condition by running a long distance in about three hours, within my limits, to see how many kilometers I can run, and then I plan my training from there to improve my condition.

Practice is about quality

My monthly running distance from April to June was around 220 to 250 kilometers, which I think was less than those aiming for the sub-Ega. When I'm busy at work, I can't run as much as I want, so I try to be conscious of focusing on quality. I also started running when I travel. I like running in unfamiliar cities, and it helps me change my mood.

The night before the official training session in late July, a member invited me to run around the Yamanote Line overnight, so I went for a spin. That day, I ran at about 5 to 5.5 minutes per kilometer, and one lap around the Yamanote Line is about 40 kilometers, making it a well-designed course perfect for marathon training. I started at 1 a.m. and finished at 6 a.m., then went straight to work and participated in the 1500m time trial at the official training session that night. I'll never forget how exhausted I was at the end.

Running for long periods of time and long distances

That weekend, I took part in a race called the Fuji Mountain Climbing Race (5th Station Course). With just a little over a month until the Hokkaido Marathon, I was worried about injuring my legs because it was all uphill, but I was able to complete the race without any problems.

To cope with the heat, since July, even if I started running before 7am, the temperature was still close to 30 degrees, so I gradually got my body used to it there. I told myself that it would be cooler than this at the Hokkaido Marathon, so if I worked hard now, I would definitely be able to run well in the actual race.

Commitment to Road Marathon

I'm often asked, "Why are you so hung up on the Road Marathon?" and the answer is simply that Hokkaido is my "home." Hokkaido runners run indoors or cautiously on slippery snowy roads during the winter, as snow accumulates there. It's only in April that they can finally run normally. Hokkaido's culture is that races start in April or May and the final race is the Road Marathon at the end of August, which is the complete opposite of Honshu, where races are held in the winter. Ever since I first ran the Road Marathon in my second year of university, this cycle of training from spring and then competing in the big summer race has been ingrained in me, and it hasn't left me to this day.

Supporting the team

I also usually race wearing the uniform of a certain soccer team I support, but the amount of support I receive from the roadside during the Hokkaido Marathon is on a completely different level than in other races. With that support behind me, I was able to beat my personal best time (2 hours 48 minutes 05 seconds), which made me incredibly happy.

Proven by results

I knew that people around me would think it would be difficult to achieve a personal best in the heat. But I was determined to shut them up with a result. Four of the five personal bests I've achieved so far have been at the Hokkaido Marathon. It's true that Beppu-Oita and Osaka/Tokyo are said to be cooler and easier to achieve good times, but for me, the race that matters is the Hokkaido Marathon, even as I get older.

I was reminded that for runners from outside Hokkaido, the Hokkaido Marathon is viewed as a long-distance run for the season, and many also enjoy sightseeing at the same time.

The importance of goals

-Why do you run?

I started to gain weight after quitting soccer in junior high school, and I don't want to go back to that state. I also believe there's nothing weaker than someone who has lost their goal, so this is why I decided to run. After the Hokkaido Marathon, I often wondered why I was running in September and October, but as my next race, Beppu Daiichi, approached, I finally flipped the switch. Running with a goal in mind is fun and motivates me to live. Running is like a life support system for me.