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Published: January 9th 2016
Tokaido explained in Wikipedia: The Tokaido road was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period, connecting Nihonbashi in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Sanjo Ohashi in Kyoto. The standard method of travel was by foot. There were government-sanctioned post stations along the Tokaido for travelers to rest in. These stations consisted of porter stations and horse stables, as well as lodging, food and other places a traveler may visit. The original Tokaido was made up of 53 stations between the termination points of Edo and Kyoto. The 53 stations were taken from the 53 Buddhist saints that Buddhist acolyte Sudhana visited to receive teachings in his quest for enlightenment.
My friend, Shige, launched the inaugural East vs West Tokaido Ultramarathon this year. It sounded damn crazy. We'd be covering 160 miles over 4 days, self-supported including lodging each night. That's 40miles a day on the average for 4 consecutive days. Can we recover fast enough?
The announcement for the event came just when we started thinking about the holiday shutdown. Especially since Xmas and New Year's Day both fall on Friday, we'd have 10 days off. We needed to incorporate long runs in preparation to the
100k in February and this event was impeccable. Yea, it's a bit overboard, I won't lie, but it'll be fun!!
Fri: Day 0 The whole Xmas thing was a blur since the 23rd. After the last day of work, first thing we did was to adjust time. Between trying to sleep and trying not to sleep, it was 4:30am on Xmas morning. SFO wasn't too crowded. Smooth sailing into Vancouver. Next leg to Narita was gonna be much later at 1:50pm...wait, delayed to 4:15?! Nooo! It was already cutting close into the night before the run. I hope we get a decent amount of sleep. We still have to prep for water, breakfast and what-not. Plane arrived sometime after 7p. With a quick pit stop at Seven, we were in the hotel before 10p. Quickly settled in and lights were out by midnight.
Sun: Day 1 Despite beating the 6-am alarm, I felt well-rested. We bought 4 onigiri last night. But neither of us was hungry. I ate 1 and V managed to stuff the rest in his pack. Stomach felt stuffy from the long flight but it should go away as we run. Running goes
through the food and I get hungry eventually...right. Live, run and learn. After six 50+ milers in the books, I hadn't seen sh*t.
Nihonbashi was literally a few blocks walk. It was a brisk morning. Streets were quiet at 7:30am on Sunday. Shortly after, Watanabe, Sanshu and Tateno arrived to start us. So awesome!! Running the empty main road was satisfying. And the thought of the journey to unfold was exciting. All went well to the first station in Shinagawa and the second in Kawasaki. We were careful being conservative with our pace. With fresh legs on paved road, sub-9min-mile was automatic. But it could be dangerous. Lack of solid breakfast caught up to us and we were ready for Onigiri at mile 12 in Kawasaki. See, I got hungry. V and I inhaled the rice ball with full of zealous. Legs started to get heavy by mile 20. Oh no, we're not even half way done. But it's still 20 miles. No surprise there. But perhaps that should have been a surprise…in hindsight.
We took the next long break at Famima at mile 24. At that point, we had to replenish our water bottles. Also, by that
Ready to go!
At Nihonbashitime, I was burping that rice ball like I ate something indigestible. It was the least-invasive umeboshi (pickled plum) kind at that. How do you gag on white rice and umeboshi?! Welcome to ultra running. Maybe anti-acid would have helped. Maybe ginger chews. But I left both of them. Those things have been for the airplane rides, not running. Could I have been dragging the plane ride? I got a pack of umeboshi in hoping to freshen up my tummy. I should get hungry once that rice ball is depleted...right?
After that, electrolyte was making me super thirsty. I had to call an emergency water break at mile 35. Plain water was so refreshing. I took a pack of gel there too. I won't lie, I was concerned that I was running on one rice ball and a few pickles for 35miles. But bar or any solid food wasn't enticing. We took the next long break at mile 40. This was the beginning of the turmoil. We had 2 miles to go to the next check point in Hiratsuka. This stretch seemed forever. To the following check point was the shortest yet at 2 miles. This is when I
started walking. At ~6pm, I felt sudden sleepiness. From there, it was a downward spiral. Zero energy. V is always strong at the end, pulling me forward. Eventually I was dizzy and couldn't hold myself to walk straight. Not even any energy to hold my facial muscles together. My mouth was hanging open. Thank god for the darkness because I must have looked like crap. I took a bite of an energy bar. Deep inside, I knew I was depleted. I mean who wouldn’t be with such little food? But I didn't feel the energy flow in like it usually does. I had no hunger. I just couldn't get a grasp of my weakness. I never felt so horrible. Strangely, I felt a bit better jogging. I felt like vomiting the moment I started walking. But during the final 3 miles to Odawara, walking was the most I could do. It was just brutal. I was barely able to move forward. I knew if I sat down, that'd be the end of it. I had to make it to the lodging one way or another so I didn't stop as long as I was conscious. Either way, I didn't really
care to sit down because I really just needed to lie down.
We arrived at our lodging a little past 7pm. So close to being able to lie down!! I barely filled in the registration form with my frozen hand. The first thing I did in the room? Put my head down! I was ready to ask V to grab food for us because I didn't think I'd make it. V made instant latte for me. Wow! In an instance, my brain became alert! I felt life blowing back into my body. I had strength to eat the rest of the bar and it was all over. At that point, I was definitely joining the dinner grab at Famima (again! :p). Conbini’s are life-savers. They are stocked with decent ready-to-eat food. They even heat them up for you. I got veggie soup, onishime, and choco bun & dorayaki for dessert, mmm.
Mon: Day 2 I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to continue today. I guess I wasn't going down that easy. That worst feeling ever of yesterday was just my brain taking a dump from lack of sugar. I've now rekindled with choco
CP 1
Shinagawa buns which fueled my 20-hr run at STY. I’m good to go. After an energy bar reinforcement, we started our day 2 of ultra running at 7:30am. It seems that Deguchi started shortly after 5am, Shige thought our tracker wasn't on. We just hadn't started yet, lol. We didn't think we'd last more than 12hrs so there was no pressing reason to brave the cold just yet. At 7:30am, it was cold but not too bad. Thin windbreaker was perfect. Route started ascending shortly. After the bridge, it was all over. Road became narrow and windy...sort of like highway 9. There were some pretty steep sections. I was surprised that I was able to take those hills, let alone run period. Incline continued for a good 9 miles, windy but surely.
The uphill finale is 7 consecutive sharp turns up to Miharashi chaya. It wasn't open yet but we scored a view from there. About a mile ahead on slight uphill was Amazake Chaya at ~mile 10. This one was open from 7am! The temperature had dropped significantly today...is what I thought but Hakone is apparently known to be cold. It was the first time feeling my sweat being
Basho monument
The haiku master cold. We jumped into the tea house. There were a few heaters but I was still freezing. Amazake and mochi hit the spot. Still freezing, we just had to suck it up and go. The path continued on downward through stone-lined path, which was almost impossible to run on. Eventually, the road opened up to the touristy spot by the lake. We made a pit stop at Seven for a few buns. It had been so cold I didn't even have to top off my bottle at mile 12. But I spotted Calorie-mate. This should help me stay strong today. I had one more bun for the road too.
Downhill road to Numazu isn't as advantageous as it seems on the course profile. I thought we’d be rewarded with nice smooth downhill to make up the time. Instead, the ancient path took us through more uneven stone-lined path. Instead of burning our legs, we took it easy and enjoyed the non-paved path for once. From Numazu, rest will be flat with shorter sections to our goal for the day. That's when it hit us. My brain was doing good with better supply of sugar but my quads were super
Shopping strip
Hustling n bustling for the New Year tight. I couldn't crank out the pace faster than 10min per mile. It was getting dark and frustrating. But surprisingly, I was fully accepting of the reality.
I was surprisingly not starving in Yoshiwara. Just a bowl of soba was good enough for dinner (of course with dorayaki & Baum, veggie sticks & apples). For tonight's lodging, we tried the Internet cafe. I wouldn't have even known about places like these if Shige didn't suggest it. I looked them up online but I had no idea how it was going to be. First, we registered to be the members. There were few options but 12-hr pack worked the best. In short, there are cubicles with PC and seats/recliner. You pay by time to devour gazillion comic books, DVDs and games! Only in Japan! It's not really for sleeping, especially for light sleepers because the lights are on all night and one snore monster can ruin it all. All you get is walls at my height. If it wasn't for my earplugs and an eye mask, there was no way I would've slept at all. But these places were indispensable for our cause. It's centrally located and readily available.
Tue: Day 3 V's knee was shaky at the end of yesterday. Now it is confirmed to be a no-go. My legs, too, were stiff as hell. It reminded me of the sensation after my past under-trained ultras. I guess I was under-trained for 250km...makes sense. Keeping our A-race in February in mind, DNF was a no-brainer. Maybe because of jetlag or cubicles, we were up before 5 am. That’s ok. The place is running round the clock and we took a full advantage of the drink bar. We got in touch with Shige before 7am and arranged to meet him near the finish before noon. Deguchi was projected to finish the feat then!
It was friggin’ frigid in Fuji-Yoshiwara. Since we had about an hour before the train, we braved the cold and walked 10min to a park literally called "A park with a view of Mt Fuji and the port"...except the observation tower was closed for deterioration. We caught a good view of Mt Fuji on the way back, though, with the orange tree 😊.
Local train ride to Hamamatsu left at 9am. It took good 2hrs on the snail train. We got on the
support car with Shige and Tateno and followed Deguchi until 3pm. All of this was fueled by the drink bar...starving. Support is a tough business. There is never a good chunk of time you can be absent. Besides, Deguchi is out there by himself, finishing up the 160-mile journey!! Still we tried. We may have been able to hit gyoza along the course but the first gyoza place was closed for good and the one next to the finish line had take-outs only…boo. But we didn't wait long. We saw a runner from afar. Deguchi unbelievably picked up his pace and sprinted the last straight line. Man, he still had that left?! Beast.
After everything was done, it was already 4:30pm at Hamamatsu station. We hopped on a line to get into the Hamamatsu gyoza place opening in 30min, can't wait!! Gyoza was super fluffy and loaded with cabbage. Even I could eat a lot of them!! After sending off Deguchi, who had to catch the train and work the next day (already!!), the rest of us went for Round 2! I had hot umeshu and "hoppy" for V. To top that off, we also had raw shirasu, more
gyoza and shiokara/takowasa. We passed out shortly at the same Internet cafe chain as in Yoshiwara. We already had the membership card and we were like pros now, lol. Once again, thank god for ear plugs.
Wed: Day 4 We were up before 4am again. Must be the cubicle. It's time to hit the drink bar, lol. There isn't much at Hamamatsu station but Dotour saved the day. We were on 7:50am Shinkansen to Tokyo. It's impressive how frequent the Shinkansens run. It's not cheap but there must be enough passengers. I forgot how fast and comfortable this was. Super stealth and before I knew it, we were in Yokohama. We were in Tokyo within 1.5hrs!! It wasn't even 10am but I was pretty hungry already. We had an elegant bowl of soba at the station. Shortly after, Watanabe came with all of our luggages (trooper, thank you!). Tokyo station was a mad house with new year rush. We parted with the crew. Hope to see them again soon!
Rest of that day was spent eating, he he. We covered all the way from Totsuka Ginza, Shinbashi for pancake, to Mita for beer & food. It wouldn't
be wrong to say that we're really here for the recovery, he he. I think we did great once again. Matcha lattes, check. Sushi, check. Sake, check. Street food, check. Mom's cooking, check. Ramen, check and check. Although V's knees/achilles and my foot were hurt in the process, we had a quality time experiencing Japan with all our senses. I got to hang out with mom and bro. Thank you Shige for the crazy event and his friends for their support! We hope to be back with vengeance on another crazy runs!
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