2016 Fuji-Susono 10k

I return to Fuji-Susono after a six year absence, this time running the 10k race rather than the half-marathon.  









Before the race, as always, our team stays at the nearby Gotemba Resort. 




My teammates drink themselves into oblivion that evening, 





enjoy enormous, lavish buffet breakfasts hours before the run, 





and lounge in the warm spring sunshine right up until race-time. 




Meanwhile I am trying to bring a modicum of seriousness to the event since it is one of my only races of the season.  





The infamous long climb from the 1-kilometer to 5-kilometer is far more dramatic when only doing 10k.   In stark contrast to most any other race, the most brutal moments of the event for me are very early on, particularly around 3k...  (elevation profile below looks like a pointy mountain peak) 

....I hit the turnaround in 22 minutes, do the U-turn and then push downhill to finish under 39 minutes. 

....sprinting madly the last 800 meters, paranoid that an age group competitor is looming right behind me  (turns out the guy I saw is a decade younger)








I suppose it was worth the painful effort - look at all the prizes and glory showered on me for my age-group victory: