If I stumble, They’re gonna eat me alive

I’m off to Japan tomorrow for the Chiba Ekiden.  START LISTS  just came out.  If the order is correct it looks like I’ll be racing Craig Mottram and Stefano Baldini in the 5km lead-off leg.  I was hoping to race Yuichiro Ueno from Japan.  The last time I raced him I was .04 back, which was also my last 5000m, back in July 2007!  The Japanese team looks to be very strong as they have employed all their studs.  The Kenyan team looks strong but it could be a LOT better, similar to the US team.

It is possible to watch the Chiba Ekiden live over the internet.  I’m not sure how easy it is but the instructions are HERE.

I brought down my mileage last week to 165km and I’ve been feeling the pop back in my legs already.  This week is a huge front-end load (2/3 of my weekly mileage in the first 3 days) with the travel tomorrow and race on Monday I won’t be doing much after this afternoon’s workout.  Looks like the weather is going to be great for a track workout on November 18 (11C and sunny)!

Congrats to the University of Guelph Gryphons XC team who captured both the Women’s and Men’s national university titles.  That’s Five in a row for the women and Four for the men!  Matt Brunsting had a brilliant race to win and set a course record at Fort Henry and will be looking on extending his season at National XC in Guelph on Nov. 28th.  Once again our Speed River squad looks very strong for the national title.

I ended up winning the Athletics Canada Fred Begley Award for outstanding athlete in off-track events for my Canadian Marathon title and 25th place at the World Championships Marathon. 

Sore dewa (goodbye)

2009 International Chiba Ekiden – Team Entries
Japan
Japanese University Select Team
Chiba Prefecture
Australia
Belarus
Canada
China
Finland
Italy
Kenya
Poland
Romania
Russia
Sweden
U.S.A.