Spent two years of my life in a foreign land
My Japan portion (18 days) of the trip came to a close when I flew from Fukuoka to Hong Kong (via Shanghai) on Friday. I figured I’d write a blog now to re-cap.
Japan was great! I really like the culture, the fashion, cleanliness and people in Japan. The language barrier started to wear on me though, not so much for getting by but just not having a face to face conversation with anyone for days on end (Skype not included). There is lots of good shopping in Japan but some of the prices are outrageous. There was a Supreme store right by my hotel and I thought I’d go in a pick up a new 5 panel hat. Well when I exchanged the price with the help of an app I realized it was $80!
After a few days of easy running I did a session on Thursday and although it wasn’t as fast as I would normally have wanted to run 1200m repeats it wasn’t too far off. And because it was four days after my 31km effort I think my legs are coming around just fine. I have a track session tomorrow morning here in Hong Kong. I picked my hotel to be close to a track and green space. The track part worked out great (as long as I have access tomorrow morning as easily as I went in today) but the trails around here are on the side of a mountain. I left the hotel this morning and headed to the forest but once I got there it went straight up. Luckily there was a decent path along the waterfront for running.
Here’s a good pic of the track, my hotel and the steepness of the mountain.
My favourite snack in Japan was a dorayaki and I found the best place which made them fresh. Usually a dorayaki is two pancakes with red bean paste in the middle, but these experts cook them with the paste in the middle (and have a second flavour of bean paste).
The banquet after the marathon was sweet. Fresh steaks.
And some dragon fruit.
We went to an English Pub afterwards with a bunch of runners.
The Japanese runners thought I looked like someone famous and had me pose beside a picture.
There are these traditional temples all over the place, often right beside very modern buildings.
Christmas in Fukuoka. There was even an ice skating rink in this park.
After all it was a great big world with lots of places to run to
First off, thanks to everyone who donated to Movember. I raised over $300, so thanks a lot! http://mobro.co/reidcoolsaet
Thankfully I no longer have my ‘stache and people have been treating me better.
I’ve been in Fukuoka for a week now and it’s a much bigger place with much more to see than I thought. I was here back in 2006 for the World XC championships but our hotel was not in the middle of the city and it was one of those trips where everything is organized. Because I’m travelling by myself and on my own schedule I’ve been discovering, wandering and checking out a lot of stuff.
In the past few days I’ve been eating my meals with other english speaking athletes which is a nice change from the first few days on my own here in Fukuoka. After everyone leaves on Monday I’ll be on my own again until I get to Zhuhai, China on December 14th.
The Fukuoka marathon organizers are taking great care of me and everything is run with precision. The weather for tomorrow’s marathon looks like it should be pretty good. Maybe even good enough to tempt me into finishing, not really though, I’m not ready for a full marathon right now. It’s going to be fun to help out a bunch of athletes, get in a good workout and then get back to the finish and watch the end of the race. With so many good athletes here it’s going to be an exciting race to watch. http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp/2012/11/fukuoka-international-marathon-preview.html
I usually write a blog on Sunday or Monday but I’m not sure how much time I’ll have tomorrow and Monday looks really busy between getting a Visa for China, moving hotels and training. Maybe I’ll write a quick race update if I get the chance and put it right here ->
POST-RACE UPDATE: In the morning I left the hotel for a 2km shake-out and realized conditions were perfect. It was about 7C (it got up to 10C for the race) with very little wind (it picked up slightly but I would take those conditions ANY day). I started to entertain thoughts of finishing. About an hour before the race I asked the elite athlete coordinator if I was allowed to finish, he said yes. Then I did my warm-up and I ran 4km, which is more than twice what I do before a marathon so I was not really thinking of finishing. Once the race started I got into nice a rhythm early on and ran pretty consistent splits.
I was pacing Scott Overall, Andrew Lemoncello and Ryan Vail. We wanted 3:05-3:06/km. I hit 31:04 for 10km and then 30:54 for the next 10km. 20km was all I was planning on running but I felt so relaxed I thought I might as well get to halfway. We hit halfway in 65:23, which was a tad slow. And then I decided to stay in until 22km. And then I decided I would take them a little further if there was a headwind around the corner. There wasn’t really a headwind around that corner but I figured I’d help them out a little more.
I thought for sure I’d call it at 25km but then I made a quick calculation and figured if I picked it up a bit I could dip under 2:10:00 and I was feeling great. The problem was (other than not training for a marathon, not tapering and leading the whole way) I had only just started to sip on bottles. At 26km I decided in my head if I hit 30km in 1:32:30 I would shoot for sub 2:10. By then it was just Ryan Vail and myself. At 30km I saw 1:33:00 and realized I would have to run, something like, 3:01/km to get the Canadian record. I turned to Ryan and said I was going to pick up the pace and see if 2:10 was possible. He wished me luck and I told him he’d most likely see me on the side of the road pretty soon. I picked up the pace for 2 minutes and realized 3:01/km was not sustainable. I didn’t think it was worth it to run anything slower than 2:10:55 so I called it a day.
There was a bus waiting back at the 30km mark so I made my way over to the bus with a couple of Kenyan pacers from the lead pack. The bus had to wait until the last runner crossed the 30km mark before it started driving. Here is where Fukuoka is truly an elite race. For starters, the qualifying time is 2:42:00. During the race they take people off the course who are running slower than 2hr 45min marathon pace. At about the 2 hour mark you could see the last runner, with busy civilian traffic behind him. I saw a couple of runners taken off the course and then an official ripped up the 30km timing mat and the traffic just rolled on through, 100m behind the last runner. It was quite a sight. Then I had a looong bus ride back to the stadium.
Let’s hope I didn’t beat up my legs too much for the 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks. They feel decent right now and I even managed a 2km cool-down.
We’ve been finding it a challenge to read menus and order food here. Many of the restaurants have food displays and when we can we’ll just point. The fake food displays are plastic but they look very real.
At night these temporary restaurants pop up on the street. They are tents that are absolutely rammed with people. There is a little gas powered kitchen off of them.
Pretty sure this is not a North American chain.
Pumpkin ice cream is good. Not sure if we have it in NA?
Black cotton swabs (Q-tips).
And they all get put in boxes
I’ll start off the blog with a race re-cap of the Chiba Ekiden. The last time I ran the Chiba Ekiden I lead-off, which gives you a regular race because everyone starts together. Being on the third leg this year was a little different because I didn’t know when Tarah Korir was going to come into the relay exchange zone. After a warm-up all the guys running the 3rd leg are waiting together, staring down the road in anticipation of their teammates. It turned out that Kenya and Japan were well in front, followed by Russia, the Japanese University team, the States and the local Chiba team all within one minutes. After another 35 seconds I got the sash from Tarah with New Zealand four seconds behind me.
In the first couple of minutes I couldn’t tell if I was running too fast or too slow which made me believe I was running my proper pace. Jake Robertson from New Zealand passed me in the first km and I felt he was going too fast for me. Earlier this year I did a 45 minute tempo with Jake in Kenya and he gapped me early on and I rolled him up after 35 minutes, so I figured it was his style to go out hard. And hopefully my style to reel him back in the last few km would again be the case here.
Jake kept pressing hard and extended his gap to over 20 seconds mid-way through the race. He caught the guy from the Chiba team and I could tell I would catch him too. I had already lost a spot to Jake so I felt it was really important to at least give the sash in the same position (7th) as I got it. After I moved ahead of the guy from Chiba I could tell I was gaining on Jake but I was too far back to make a run at him. I kicked hard and passed off the sash to Krista Duchene and then looked down at my watch and saw 29:00. I figured I would squeak under 29 in the official results, which was my time goal in the back of my head.
It turned out Jake ran the fastest leg #3 (28:40) which made me feel better since I was getting my ass kicked by him. I ended up running 28:58 and had the 3rd fastest leg (Jake Riley of the US ran 28:46). I was pleased with my race and figure it bodes well for my half marathon coming up.
When I got back to the stadium the word was we were in a heated battle for 6th place with New Zealand. Lanni came into the stadium one stride in front of the NZ runner and it was on for the last 500m! Lanni put some distance on her with 300m to go and extended her small gap to the finish line. I was very pleased with a 6th place team finish at Chiba Ekiden. It’s Canada’s best placing since the mixed gender race was introduced in 2007 and our fastest time by 55 seconds.
1. Kenya – 2:05:06
2. Japan – 2:05:16
3. U.S.A. – 2:06:36
4. Russia – 2:09:13
5. Japan Univ. Select Team – 2:09:31
6. Canada – 2:11:01
7. New Zealand – 2:11:04
8. Chiba Pref. – 2:12:12
9. Poland – 2:13:02
10. Romania – 2:13:41
1. Jake Robertson (New Zealand) – 28:40
2. Jacob Riley (U.S.A.) – 28:46
3. Reid Coolsaet (Canada) – 28:58
4. Evgeny Rybakov (Russia) – 28:58
5. Shinobu Kubota (Japan) – 29:01
Full Results: http://www.inter-chibaekiden.jp/2012menu.html
Track at Nihon training centre (where we stayed)
Woodchip trail right by our cabins.
Bus ride back to training centre after the competition. Unfortunately the beer tap was not working.
Getting ready for the general election.
The next morning I took a bus with the Romanian and Russian teams to the airport and caught an express train to Shinjuku station in Tokyo. This place is nuts! Tons of people and tons of signs.
Thankfully I had the foresight to email myself detailed directions to my hotel. This is where my Tokyo experience gets authentic… I checked into a capsule hotel for the night because it was cheap (regular $40/night but I found a sale for $22), I figured it would be an interesting experience and I wasn’t staying there long (one night).
When you enter the hotel you take your shoes off and put them in a locker. Then you check-in and they take your shoe locker key and give you a bag locker key. In your bag locker there are towels and pyjamas. There is a public bath on the main floor and the capsules are on upper floors. I left my bags in the locker and took my phone, book and earplugs to my capsule. Each floor has a washroom and about 200 capsules. Since the capsules are stacked on top of each other I would say 12-16 capsules take up about the same amount of space as a regular hotel room.
Neighbours
My room for the night.
It kind of looks like there should be glass on the capsule door but there isn’t, there are blinds that you pull down (you can see a couple of capsules with blinds pulled down on the upper picture). There is a TV and alarm clock in each capsule. I think if you’re over 6 feet tall you’d have some problems.
I felt like a Jedi in these pyjamas.
I had a solid sleep, thanks to a pair of earplugs. It’s not loud but there are people coming and going so it could be annoying without earplugs. Since I’m still adjusting to the time difference I was in bed by 8pm and up at 5:30am and was surprised to see quite a few people on the same schedule. I would recommend a capsule hotel if you like camping in a tent and are just there for one night.
In the morning I met Mr. Ogushi at 7:30 and we took a bus to Haneda airport and flew to Fukuoka. I’ll be here in Fukuoka until December 7th.
Tokyo is massive!
Mt Fuji.
Off to Tokyo.
2012 Asian trip is about to begin.
I thought I was going to have more time in the airport to write a blog but boarding has already commenced and I still have to put on my CEP socks. Maybe I’ll find some time on this 13 hour flight to write something and post it later…
A really nice businessman offered to donate eUpgrade points so I could fly executive class but my group booking was not eligible. What a nice gesture but the damn computers at Air Canada couldn’t get around the booking fare.
Alex’s attempt at a moustache (there may or may not be a beard under his hands)
If we could take the time to lay it on the line
My new housemate has a new blog, check it out The first post is due out any time…
CIS XC was everything I expected and more. The Guelph Gryphons put on dominant performances in both the women’s and men’s races. On top of that Kelly Wiebe won the men’s race by crushing Guy Shultz’s 1997 course record which Ryan McKenzie, Eric Gillis, Jamie Epp and I all had a shot at 10 years ago. Yes, 10 years ago I raced CIS XC on that very same course, that made me feel really old.
Next Monday (19th) I head to Japan for the Chiba Ekiden. The Chiba Ekiden is a 42.2km race split up into 6 sections (5km, 5km, 10km, 5km, 10km, 7.2km) alternating guy/girl each leg. There will be about 16 teams or so from different countries. Except the Japanese will have three teams, their national team, University team and local team. The local team is good but as a country you don’t want to lose to a bunch of locals. The Canadian team consists of Rob Watson, Geoff Martinson, Alex Genest, Krista Duchene, Lanni Marchant, Tara Korir, Rachel Hannah and myself.
But my Asian adventure doesn’t end in Chiba. After Chiba I’ll head to the Fukuoka marathon, site of Jerome Drayton’s 1975 Canadian marathon record. I will be pacing a ‘B’ group in the marathon. Luckily I got my name into the race before they cancelled NYC, otherwise they would have been out of hotel rooms. It sounds like a few elites who were planning on racing NYC are heading to Fukuoka. Simon Bairu, Tim Nelson, Brent Vaughn and 2:10:55 man Scott Overall are all racing.
Two weeks after Fukuoka I’m going to race the Zhuhai half marathon. Zhuhai is in China right beside Macau. Most people I mention this to have never heard of Zhuhai or the race but from last year’s results it looks like a great race for me to be in. All in all I will be in Asia for one month.
My moustache is finally starting to take shape. By the end of the month I think it should have a pretty solid presence in Japan. http://mobro.co/reidcoolsaet
Did it all for that dollar
This November I’m raising funds for prostate cancer and men’s mental health initiatives. It’s pretty simple, I grow a moustache and people encourage the moustache by donating to my Movember page http://mobro.co/reidcoolsaet. This is a blatant attempt to get more donations. Last year I didn’t grow a ‘stache, although I donated to a few friends who were taking part. Had I grown a ‘stache I’m not sure the sales of the Canada 890 would have been as strong.
On Saturday I ran the Road 2 Hope Hamilton 10km as part of the marathon weekend. I was planning on running with my friend, Tim, somewhere in the 38 minute range. I told the organizers I was going to run about 40 minutes not thinking people were going to pace themselves off of me, but that’s exactly what happened. At halfway we split 19:25 and as I looked around me I noticed there was a large pack of guys using me as their pacer. And as I looked around I realized that a couple of the guys in the pack were friends of mine. Patrick chirped to me that I was a lousy pacer and I told the group we were on for a sub 39. We picked up the pace a little and a handful of us came in around 38:40 with a couple of guys hitting PB’s.
Training is coming along nicely and the group is clicking really well. Today might be the last workout for a while with the collegiate guys as they prepare for the CIS XC champs this Saturday in London, ON. Both the girls and guys teams have been running well all season and look poised to clinch a couple more titles.
I told you I’m just like a clock when I tick and I tock
Bupa Great South Run 10 Miler
I thought I had a great plan to run a smart race but it ended up backfiring.
The night before the race we watched last year’s race on a big screen. In that race Leonard Komon opened up with a 4:12 mile with the lead pack somewhere around 4:25 for that opening mile. I knew a sub 4:30 mile was not in my best interest and I also knew that second place last year was 46:40 (4:40 per mile pace). My plan was to run 4:40 per mile until I caught the front pack (which in hindsight wouldn’t have really worked anyways, 4:37 per mile would have worked to catch them by 3 miles). From the gun the race split into two distinct groups and I plopped myself into the second group thinking they would roll the first mile in 4:40. About 1km into the race I realized we were running too slow and I went to the front of the pack and noticed the leaders already had a huge gap. We split 4:49 for the first mile and I was already 20 seconds back! At that point I took off from the second pack and tried to focus on the leaders.
At 5km I was 30 seconds back of the leaders and catching Alistair Cragg who had fallen off the front pack. I went by him and then saw Rui Silva fall off and started working towards him. I passed Rui just after the 10km mark, which I hit 40 seconds back of the leaders (I wasn’t running much slower than the lead pack). What made it even harder for me was that the lead pack of 6 stayed intact this whole time and I was running solo, on a blustery day. I never caught anyone else. The seventh place finisher, Johnny Mellor, had a 15-18 second gap on me the whole way. My final time was 47:50 (2:58/km or 4:47/mi) for 8th place. I ended up 40 seconds back of where I wanted to be by the end of the race, so I kept the pace honest but was just out of it the whole way.
It’s a long way to travel to run a solo time trial and in hindsight I wish I had been more aggressive from the gun. I still think my plan to not break 4:30 off the front was good, but 4:49 was way too slow to give myself a shot of catching the leaders. At least I can feel good about my fitness and I have more races this fall. The event, as a whole, was fantastic. The guys at Great Run took good care of us and made sure everything ran smoothly.
My splits 5km 14:51, 10km 29:33, 15km 44:24
Leaders 5km 14:21, 10km 28:53, 15km 43:28
| Position | Athlete | Country | Performancee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Mokoka | (RSA) | 46:40 |
| 2 | Ayam Lamdassem | (ESP) | 46:44 |
| 3 | Tariku Bekele | (ETH) | 46:45 |
| 4 | Daniele Meucci | (ITA) | 46:50 |
| 5 | Andrew Lemoncello | (GBR) | 47:08 |
| 6 | Abel Kirui | (KEN) | 47:12 |
| 7 | Jonny Mellor | (GBR) | 47:35 |
| 8 | Reid Coolsaet | (CAN) | 47:50 |
Thanks to Pierre Landry for the generous offer of his Air Canada eUpgrade points! I was able to fly executive class on the way over and get in a solid sleep on the overnight flight. I got him a signed bib from two 2012 Olympic medallists, Tariku Bekele and Abel Kirui.
Portsmouth is a cool place, here are some pics I took while I walked around.
Along the course
Spinnaker tower
Something is squeezing my skull
This past week has been a week of “squeezing in runs.” My legs were a little beat up from last Sunday’s 25km pacing duties but I recovered well despite trying to front-end-load my weekly volume. On Tuesday I flew out to San Francisco for a New Balance Minimus 2013 photo shoot. I squeezed in a workout Wednesday morning and then squeezed in a second run after wardrobe and before the evening photo shoot. The next day was a full 12 hour work day on Mt Tam (Tamalpais) in Marin County. When I say work I mean sitting around for 4-5 hours and then running a 30 metre section 20-40 times in a row. Each time we took pics I didn’t think too much of it until I would go over to the computer screens to see the proofs, and each time it blew me away how good the shots looked. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product looks like.
Funny story about the photo shoot. On Wednesday night we were taking pictures right in San Fran and there was quite the production. Overhead lights, coloured lights on the ground, smoke machines, computers galore, trailers etc. Naturally people were interested in what was going on, probably hoping to see a movie star or some action. And then we started running for 20 metres at a time, no one famous, no crazy action. You guessed it, a few heckles and then the crowd dispersed.
View of San francisco from Mt. Tam.
I flew back to Toronto on Friday and drove to Niagara Falls where I squeezed in a run before the Marathon VIP dinner. The next morning I squeezed in another workout before I did my first talk at the expo. On Sunday I squeezed (I’m getting sick of that word now) in a run before meeting up with hundreds of kids for Schools Marathon Challenge. It was a great event, the kids have run 40km over the past 6 weeks at school and on Sunday the did the final 2.2km. The kids finished at the official Niagara Falls Marathon finish line and got medals and t-shirts. The Niagara Falls marathon is a great event on a very scenic course.
View of the American Falls from the hotel room.
After the marathon I drove back to Guelph and met with some recruits and then squeezed in a run before the Lessons From London presentation on campus. Hilary Stellingwerff, Taylor Milne, Eric Gillis, Chris Winter, Alex Genest and I all talked briefly about the London Olympics. The talks went well but by that point I was all talked out. Two talks at the expo, and another at the pasta dinner the day before were plenty for one weekend.
Sleeping in today felt amazing and I need make sure I’m well rested before I leave for England on Wednesday night. I was hoping to upgrade to executive class but I’m 3 eUpgrade points too short. If you’re reading this, have eUpgrade points to spare, have room on your nominee list (now this is becoming a real looong shot) and want to give me a good sleep on the overnight flight I would be eternally grateful, and give you a signed picture. How to transfer Air Canada eUpgrade points.
Today’s workout went really well. We had a great group out there tonight for a light tempo and then 8 x 1200m on the XC course. I averaged 3:23 on that course and feel that sets up the 10 miler on Sunday very well.
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
Pacing is a great way to get in a solid workout. I ran 25km averaging 3:07/km and had a lot of fun soaking in the STWM atmosphere. Chelimo wanted 3:05’s and we were hitting that for about 13km but it was a tough day out there and we ended up running 3:09/km until 25km. Chelimo finished in 8th place with a 2:17:35, the final 10km got pretty tough for him, which is typical for a marathon debut. Getting an honest effort on the roads was good to set up the Great South 10 miler on October 28th, it also beat up my legs a little bit as I’ve been doing all my workouts on the trails this fall. I was really impressed with Krista Duchene’s marathon, to run right around her PB from Rotterdam earlier this year was a fantastic result today.
It sounded like a lot of people out on the course thought I was racing the whole marathon today. There were many urging me on to catch the leaders throughout the race, giving me some awesome encouragement. Sorry folks.
I also updated my upcoming races (look to the right). Bupa Great South 10 Miler on October 28th in Portsmouth, Great Britain and then Chiba Ekiden (National team relay) on November 23rd in Chiba, Japan. After that I may also do a 1/2 marathon in Zhuhai, China on December 16th. Lots of travelling.
Next weekend I’m talking at the Niagara Falls Marathon expo (1pm and 4pm) about marathon training and then at the Pasta Dinner about my Olympic experience. Come check it out if you’re racing NF.
Pacing Chelimo early in the race. Courtesy of Brie Young
So I’ll be working past nine
I’ve been slacking a little in the blog department lately, but for good reason. At the beginning of October I moved back to Guelph. For the past two weeks I’ve been really busy moving, cleaning and setting up the new house. After I paint a bedroom tomorrow I can say that most of the real work will be done. It’s great to be back in Guelph although it never really felt like I left since I’ve continuously trained here a couple of times a week. I’m going to miss the Hammer and I plan on visiting frequently and running Dundas Valley when I can.
This time of the year is great because the whole Speed River/U of G training group is on a similar plan and workouts are a lot of fun with everyone together. My plan for the fall is to race a 10 miler, Chiba Ekiden and perhaps a half marathon. I’m pretty much in 10km mode because that’s the work I need to do to run well over these distances after all the marathon work I’ve put in already this year.
This weekend I’ll be pacing Stephen Chelimo at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The plan is to go through halfway in 64:30 and continue until 25km. If you feel like reading more check out this article. I’m also going to be speaking at the STWM expo on Friday at 1:00pm with Peter Fonseca, Bruce Deacon and Eric Gillis. We’re only scheduled for 30 minutes so don’t come late if you want to catch our discussion about racing the Olympic marathon.
The Kids for Kenya Toilet Run on Sept 29th went well. We raised over $3000 and that will build a latrine and keep a school open in Kenya which will impact many lives! It was the first year so hopefully it gets bigger each year. www.connectingcountries.net
Over and out.
FLOAT ON 