There is Mt.Rokko in the Hyogo Kansai area of Japan and trailrunning races are held on Mt.Rokko every March and October.The official distance is 112km, but when I actually ran it was shorter than 100km.About 1,400 runners entered this race in all categories.I ran this autumn October race and this race was the longest distance I’ve ever run with the warachi sandal.It was very tough race for me.
We gathered at the starting point after 19:00 at night Takarazuka St and soon started running in the dark trail with headlights illuminating our feet.The trail was very crowded with runners as the steep slope continued for a while from the trailhead.Since it’s October, the temperature is low in the mountains at night and it was around 10 degrees, so my body is hot when I’m running but when I stop at the aid point, it suddenly gets cold.
At around 6 o’clock in the morning, the surrounding area became brighter and I saw the sunrise just before the turning point of the course.My friends supported me during the break at the turning point. I wasn’t sleepy at this time.The distance to this turnaround point was about 43km, and it took about 10hr 30min.The second half of the race was a very difficult situation both physically and mentally.
I was worried about foot damage when I imagined a long distance to the Takarazuka while running.I ran to minimize the impact on my foot in order to reach the goal point, avoiding only DNF on the way.However, after running for more than 20 hours from night, at the end of the race, I lost concentration and cognitive faculty was getting worse.It was getting dark after 17:00, so I used the headlights again on the trail at the end of the race and it was very hard to run on a pitch-black trail, physically and mentally at the limit.And I was able to finish this race in about 23 hours.I thought there was still a need for improvement in order to run long distances efficiently with Warachi Sandals and through the experience of this race, I was able to get some new challenges, so I will give feedback for the next race.
I am very grateful for the support of my colleagues.Perhaps it would have been impossible to finish the race if I had run alone.
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