I’ve been practicing long runs for three weeks in a row. This time, I chose the “Hakone Ekiden 5th section mountain climb”.
Initially, I thought I would run downhill, but I decided to go for the uphill section because I didn’t want to hurt my knee.
First, a gentle climb to Hakone-Yumoto
First of all, I took the train from my house to Odawara and started from Odawara station around 10:30.
First, I ran to the relay station of the 5th section. It’s about 1km from the station. After that, you will go through the castle town of Odawara and continue to climb gently uphill for about 6km to Hakone-yumoto.
“86km from the edge of Japan”, this nameplate is already familiar.
The distance from Odawara Station to Hakone-Yumoto is about 6km, and it was crowded with many people.
Full-scale ascent at last: From Yumoto to Tonosawa and Ohiradai
The climb up to Yumoto was tough, but the real climb in Hakone was just beginning.
After passing through the bustling Yumoto area and crossing the Asahi Bridge, the tough climb finally begins.
To be precise, it gets tougher after passing Hakanling Cave.
I’ve heard a lot about the severity of this climb, but actually riding it was much tougher than I expected… I was so desperate that I didn’t have time to take many pictures.
At first I thought I would run about 2km and then rest, but gradually the distance I could run became shorter and shorter.
Still, we made good progress up to Toanozawa and Ohira-dai.
From Tonosawa to Ohira-dai is the first difficult ascent. I felt that I lost a lot of strength here.
Miyanoshita, a mixture of candy and whip
On the other hand, from Ohiradai to Miyanoshita was a gentle slope and occasionally flat, so I could run relatively well.
Then we arrived at the bottom of the palace.
It was crowded with a lot of people here too. By the way, it was the first day of a three-day weekend.
After a short walk at the bottom of the palace, we started running again, but this climb from the bottom of the palace was very hard again!
After about 1km, we arrived at the crossing of Miyanoshita, which is often introduced in the relay race. We will not forget to take a commemorative photo.
Kowakyuen, where most of my energy is spent.
Since I was able to take a short break to photograph the crossing, I start running again in Kowloon.
On the way, we found a signboard showing the number of distances to the Hakone Ekiden Museum, the goal point.
I’ve been pretty exhausted so far, and I’m only halfway through…. It’s hard.
But I think the slope from this area to Kowloon was still relatively easy to run.
I did my best to run to this area which is familiar with the relay race.
From Kowakuen to the highest point on Route 1
However, we had exhausted most of our energy by the time we reached Kowloon, so we walked most of the way from Kowloon to the highest point on Route 1.
It was a bit annoying though, because I was walking for the marathon.
From the time we passed Kowakuen, there was still snow along the road. Some of the sidewalks had not been cleared of snow, and it was impossible to run on them.
But it was convenient for me because I have almost no energy left to run (laughs).
Also, I was passed by two runners (a man and a woman, apparently a couple) in this section. It was amazing…. So there were other people running besides me.
I was walking most of the way, but still it was finally 4km to Moto Hakone.
And finally, the highest point came into view. Once we descended from this area
We climbed again to reach 874m, the highest point on Route 1.
It just goes to show you how expensive it is!
It’s been a very long journey so far.
Now to Ashinoko and the goal!
Once we passed the highest point, the rest was downhill. The damage to my legs was quite severe, but I was still able to run.
Lake Ashinoko finally began to appear below.
We got to Moto Hakone.
After passing through the cedar trees on this Tokaido
The road opened up and the finish line came into view at once.
And finally, we arrive at the goal of the 5th section of the Hakone Ekiden!
I completed the 24.4km run in 3 hours and 55 minutes.
The course is full of tough hills, so even if I ran normally, my average speed would have been about 70%, and I think my time was pretty good for a course that requires a lot of walking.
But more than the time and the distance, I think it was the mental aspect that was trained. I gained a lot of confidence.
本番前の本格的な長距離走はひとまずこれで終わり。あとは今日の疲れを完全にとった後、5km-10kmを軽めにランしながら最終調整をして行きたいと思います。
