Skip to main content

Veteran Amateur Great Chihiro Tanaka on the Athens Classic Marathon

http://ameblo.jp/chihiroppy/entry-11402649378.html#cbox

translated by Brett Larner

Long before Yuki Kawauchi came on the scene, Kobe-based amateur Chihiro Tanaka (AthleC AC) was one of the great originals of Japanese marathoning.  The winner of the 1997 Hokkaido Marathon, Tanaka returned from giving birth to her first daughter to run a PB of 2:29:30 for 4th at the 2002 Nagoya International Women's Marathon, for years the Japanese national record for a mother, and another Hokkaido win in 2003.  Now in her 40's and with a second daughter, Tanaka continues to run 5~6 marathons a year reliably at the 2:38~2:42 level.  Her record for 2012 so far includes a 2:38:07 win at February's Senshu International Marathon, her third-staight Senshu win, and a 2:41:14 win at August's City-to-Surf Marathon in Perth, Australia.  On Nov. 11 she ran the Athens Classic Marathon on an invite through Athens' ties with the Nagano Marathon, finishing just out of the official IAAF race report in 7th.  On the 12th Tanaka wrote about her race on her blog.

Yesterday's Athens Classic Marathon....2:47:30.....7th.

Right from the start my legs felt heavy and the pace I was actually running didn't match up with what it felt like I was running, and I had to push on through heat I wasn't used to.  I was exhausted by the time it started undulating around 10 km, and the hills just kept coming until 32 km.....Right at the end of the last climb I hit my limit.

With stiff and feeble legs my movement was getting shaky and I started having muscle spasms over and over, so even though there was a nice 10 km downhill before me I couldn't take advantage of it at all and it took everything I had just to make it to the finish line.  Today my whole body hurts.  I'm worried about what that means for the Kobe Marathon in two weeks, but I think this will end up having been great training for Kobe.  How many people get the luxury of training on an Olympic Marathon course?

By coincidence, this morning I bumped into the vice-chairman of the Japanese Federation, Keisuke Sawaki, and people from the Nagano Marathon office who were all in Athens for an AIMS symposium.  When Sawaki saw me he asked, "Did you run too?"  "Yes....."  "How fast?"  "It took me 47 minutes....."  "Oh, well, that's because that course has more than 200 m elevation change, you know.  It's tough when your muscles don't hold up to the challenge, isn't it?" he said.....I guess I should at least be sort of honored that he recognized me.

Maybe it's more accurate to say getting old is tough.  No doubt about that....As I was running yesterday I kept thinking that five years ago I ran 41 minutes here.  I've held up pretty well but even I can feel it catching with me.  But yeah, I don't want to blame yesterday on age, so in Kobe I'm going to run the absolute best I can.

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
2:38 for a 40-something mother of two is pretty damn good!
Brett Larner said…
Her older daughter Nozomi won the junior 4k at the Gold Coast Marathon this year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcmarathon/6463865187/

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr