Iejima Half Marathon 2011

Last night while sitting at Danica’s soccer practice Alyssa and I were playing pretend. First she wanted to pretend she was my baby, as she always wants. But then she said “I want to be the mom, see look, I’m running so I’m the mom!” I’ve never been more proud. I’m glad she got to see me running this past weekend as we ran the IE Island Half Marathon again.
This was our third time to run this race and we decided to take the kids and try camping for the weekend. It turned out to be beautiful weather and we had a fantastic time with great friends! I’ll begin with the details on the race, since it was the root of the trip although it only took a few hours of the weekend.

We nearly missed the start of the race because we spent too much time hanging around seeing the island on Saturday and by the time we got back to camp, got ready and coordinated the logistics of it all we left late to head over to the starting line. Then we got caught behind a 3K fun run and couldn’t go around... we finally took a small side street and parked figuring we were close enough. We were dragging the kids down the street, turned a corner and kept going until I finally got nervous wondering how far we really had to walk. So I left Tom with the kids and ran back to the car (my warm up lap). I picked them up and we drove another mile or two before getting caught by the fun run van again. We were so far away, we never would have made it if we’d just kept walking!! Still we couldn’t get as close as we wanted but the race was starting in like 10 minutes so we parked quickly, jumped out and carried/pulled the kids up the big hill, past the people finishing the fun run. We settled the kids quickly, hit the bathroom and looked around for our friend who was going to watch the kids. The race as going to start in about 3 minutes....could we just leave the kids?..would our friend show up? His wife was running it with us, would she make it?.. oh the stress... nothing like a little pre-race adrenaline. Finally we spotting them racing toward us. We hollered thanks as we passed and dashed to join the others at the starting line. With barely enough time to stretch my hamstrings the gun went off and we headed down the hill we had just trudged up....

I have been training hard with running, biking and cross fit and was really excited to go into this race injury free. No knee pain at all, probably due to being stronger and my awesome new shoes Mizuno Waverider 14’s... I love them. Anyway, I kept going back and forth between trying to run it fast and just enjoying it and in the end I did both: I enjoyed running it fast. I’ve been doing my intervals and tempo runs and it paid off. From miles 6-11 I felt like I was flying through a flat/downhill portion of the race. It was an exhilarating feeling. I wanted to sing along at the top of my lungs but managed to retrain myself as I ran. As I approached the final hill up to the finish line I was nervous to look at my time but couldn’t resist a glance. To my amazement it said 1:37. I realized that If I really powered through the hill I could finish in under 1:40. The song Power of Love (you know, the one from Back to the Future) came on and I put my head down and climbed. At the top I saw the kids cheering on the side line so I started yelling and waving as I sprinted in the finish area crossing the line 1:39:11. Average pace 7:28. I was thrilled and felt great! It was a good race for me.

It has proven to be Tom’s nemesis as each year things have not gone well for him and he has yet to show his true potential. He is fit, strong and fast right now and has been training well. For most of his runs he hovered right around 7:30, usually below it and even did one of his 10 mile runs with a pace of 7:24! Insane. He was ready to rock this race but murphy had other plans and on Friday morning as we were packing and prepping to head out to the island he just started coughing and wheezing, his voice became weak and hoarse and it got worse as the day went on. That night he could hardly breath so he couldn’t sleep in the tent and ended up sitting upright in the van all night...ugh...I tried to convince him not run the race but he wanted to at least try. Somehow he managed to still crank it out and finished in 1:47. A very admirable time for tough, late afternoon race even if you aren’t sick!! I don’t know how he managed to do it so fast when his lungs were so sick. He’s disappointed because we know he could do it faster if he were healthy but I am still amazed he did it!!! We look forward to the next half being in the states, on a nice crisp, clear morning where he can really shine! He’ll smoke us all.
As for the rest of the weekend, the camping was fantastic. We left Friday morning and headed up to the northern port, just past Nago where we got on the ferry. It was a smooth ride with no seasickness and we were there in 30 minutes! We drove to the campsite and set up. As we talked around Hayden said “it doesn’t feel like I’m in Japan anymore.” He was right, it felt like we were in a beautiful mountain forest. However, upon further exploring he discovered the beach was also just down the hill! Paradise. These are not good pictures of me and my friend Ali prepping to cook spaghetti (the meal the night before the race) but I included them because in the first shot you can see the tents set up behind us in the shade of the trees. In this second shot you can look past us and see beach through the trees, it was that close!! We don’t have any other pictures of the campsite... I’ll have to see if any of my friends got good shots. We were too busy relaxing to take pictures I guess!

The kids climbed trees, played in the sand, caught crabs and cooked s’mores. We enjoyed great weather and with the exception of poor Tom we all slept pretty well. The next day we hiked around through some caves and tried to steady the pre-race nerves. During the race the kids all played on the playground at the finish line. Then we headed back, showered in the beach shower and went back to the race party to get American Dogs (corn dogs), Yakitori, Taco Rice and Fanta Grape for dinner. That night we made s’mores again and Hayden and his friend Landon stayed up late playing in the fire and getting so dirty they had to bath in the faucet. It was a dream come true for him. As a reward for running my friend Ali made a huge chocolate chip cookie dough CHEESECAKE!! It was a dream come true for me.

We headed home the next morning. On the way back to the port Tom and Hayden walked to the top of a small volcano in the center of the island and enjoyed the view of the entire island surrounding them. We listened to Conference all the way home and enjoyed a peaceful day. What a great trip to a beautiful place!!! I wish were going to be here to run this race again next year!!! (Although I won’t miss the 3:10pm start time!! Ugh!)