Shibuya Ekiden 2014

I capture much of the glory at the annual Shibuya Ekiden.  My team is tied for lead when Brett W hands off to me for the 3rd 2.9-kilometer leg of the 4-man relay. 

I immediately am passed by our arch-rival master's team competition and a high school girl's team.  

I have such a hard time trying to run at a fast pace so early in the morning – the exception being the Chiang Mai Half Marathon (described below) when I overslept and all the adrenaline racing to the starting line got me pumped up.  At Shibuya I was still feeling sluggish and sleepy as of the 8:30am start and I thought about the 5 hour wake-up rule - which suggests waking up at least 5 hours prior to the expected END of your event - so for a mile you would need to wake up at least 4 hours and 55 before the event starts, and for an ultra-marathon you can just wake up and go.  

So 500 meters into my 2.9-kilometer leg of the relay I am well behind the arch-rival and the high school girl.  But at this point I start to wake up, while my competition starts to suffer from their faster start -- soon I pass the high-school girl who is making absolutely horrible noises, and by the halfway mark I pass the archrival who doesn’t look so good either.  When I hand over the sash to our anchor runner, Kuri, our team has a 30 second lead, and Kuri extends it to 52 seconds.  Our team is honored in the elaborate award ceremony and I am hailed as the hero – though my time of 10:07 is the slowest of our team - all 4 of us completing the course within 10 seconds of each other.