7th Yokosuka Miura Michikusa Ultramarathon
Race Report 11
7th Yokosuka Miura Michikusa Ultramarathon (第7回横須賀三浦みちくさウルトラマラソン) : 27 May 2023
Background
I started running back in August 2020 and I built up to running my first ultramarathon in October 2021. That ultramarathon was a test run for a new midnight ultramarathon course hosted by the Michikusa group in Kanagawa, Japan. I really enjoyed that event but the fact that it was an overnight event meant that there wasn’t much of a view to enjoy, and the fact that it was the first run of that event meant that there was no finisher medal. Of course I don’t need a nice view and a finishers medal to have fun during an event, but I really wanted to have a similar experience where I could appreciate the views and get something shiny to hang on my wall. That’s where this event comes in.
The Michikusa group organizes a lot of ultramarathon events and on May 27th (2023) the 7th Yokusuka Miura (63km/100km) event was held. I was interested in giving the 100km event a try but logistically I couldn’t get to the starting point from my place for the very early start time (4:45 am start) and there were no hotels available in the area almost immediately after the event was announced. The 63km B group had an 8am start time so this was the perfect opportunity to get over to Miura and secure myself my first ultra race medal. (The A group had a 7am start time with the same cutoff time as the B group, making the A group slightly more forgiving).
The Course
Below is a screenshot of the Google Map. After starting at Miura Kaigan (Miura Coast) the runners headed east towards Kurihama flower park, then back to Miura Kaigan before doing a loop of the peninsula.
Below is an elevation plot of the course. As you can see, the beginning of the course is relatively for the first 15km or so, and then there are a lot of hills to deal with.
Before running this event I plotted the course in Garmin Connect and synced it up with my watch along with all the aid station locations and the elevation plot. I had no idea how this would work before the race started, but after I got going I was glad that I spent the time plotting the information, if only to have the elevation plot available.
This course had a lot of aid stations on the list (plus some additional smaller ones that weren’t on the list):
Aid 1 野比海岸公園 (Nobikaigan Park) 4.2km
Aid 2 野比海岸公園 (Nobikaigan Park) 12.5km
Aid 3 三浦海岸 (Miura Kaigan) 16.6km
Aid 4 剱崎 (Tsurugizaki) 23.7km
Aid 5 宮川公園 (Miyagawa Park) 29.7km
Aid 6 城ヶ島公園 (Jogashima Park) 33.3km
Aid 7 三崎港(海南神社) (Misaki Port (Kainan Shrine)) 36.7km
Aid 8 京急油壺温泉キャンプパーク (Keikyuaburatsuboonsen Camp Park) 40.7km
Aid 9 引橋 (Hikibashi) 44.9km
Aid 10 ソレイユの丘 (Soleil Hill) 51.0km
Aid 11 一騎塚 (Ikkidzuka) 56.8km
Goal Aid 三浦海岸 (Miura Kaigan) 63.0km
The organizer also sent out a file with a menu at each aid station…which was a nice touch. My plan for the aid stations was to shovel whatever food they had into my face, refill my water bottle, drink as much fluid as I thought I needed (followed by one more cup just in case) then start off towards the next checkpoint. Please note that I didn’t have this information memorized or even with me during the event. I had my phone with me and I planned to check the information if I needed it (but that didn’t really come up other than showing my entry number at the reception).
Race Day
I woke up at 4:50, got ready then headed out to the train station. While changing trains in Yokohama I saw a couple of people waving like crazy in my general direction. I wasn’t planning on meeting anyone en route but I eventually figured out they were in fact waving at me and went over. Once they had taken off their masks I realized they were some of my friends from my local parkrun. To my surprise a substantial group of people from the parkrun were going to be running that event. I thought it was going to be me and maybe a couple of other people from the area. (I had planned in advance to run with one other guy from the parkrun who I was planning to meet at the beach).
We headed over to Miura Kaigan, met up with some more familiar faces, collected our stuff then got ready for the run. At check in we needed to show our race numbers (we received them by email) and we also needed to show we had a cup with us during the race because no paper cups would be handed out for drinks.
There was a ceremony before the race started where a shinto priest was called in to pray for the safety of the runners during the event. It seemed like the priest was a very appropriate choice to bless the race too because apparently he is a sub-3 hour marathon runner in addition to being a priest. People are full of surprises.
Just before 8am waves of runners were let out onto the course with my particular group setting off at exactly 8am, which made calculation easy. (I’ll come back to this point later).
As set off running with my friend S-San who I’d previously discussed running this event with. Another friend (D-San) was doing his first ultra so we decided to stick together. S-San is someone I run with a lot at parkrun (he’s often faster than me and weighs about 10kg less than me) and D-San is a regular marathon runner and weighs 20kg less than me. This information is all important…trust me.
Note: I’m arranging this event report by aid station.
Aid 1 & 2野比海岸公園 (Nobikaigan Park) 4.2km + 12.5km
The first leg of the run was along a flat costal area. It was pretty hot already in the morning but there was a nice breeze. The air was thick with salt from the ocean and I felt I could replenish salt simply by breathing. The first aid station at Nobikaigan Park felt a little premature but we stopped anyway to grab a drink and then carry on . Food was laid out there but I didn’t take any (this was a very minor deviation from my original strategy because I’d been running for about 20 minutes and I ate before the race started). From the park we ran up a hill, through a tunnel, past a turnaround point and then started heading back to the Nobikaigan Park. Everything was very relaxed at this point. We ended up passing a lot of runners heading in opposite direction. We would always acknowledge the other runners and by the end of the day I think I’d said “Nice run” several hundred times. After the turnaround point we didn’t head back in the exact same direction but needed to go around the back of a few dock buildings. This was a good chance to test the navigation function of my watch because alarms started going about 45 meters before every turn.
We headed back to the park and aid station, I ate about 5 pieces of pound cake, then we started to head back to the start line (and third aid station) at Miura Kaigan.
Aid 3 三浦海岸 (Miura Kaigan) 16.6km
We left Nobikaigan park and ran down the coast for a while. There were a few volunteers at the traffic lights making sure the runners were safe. (Part of the conditions for this race were that we stopped for traffic lights). Just as we approached one of these crossings the lights went red and one of the volunteers started talking to us. He started off by asking if this was our first time on this course to which I pointed out that I’ve done the overnight 70km course before. I’m not sure if this guy chose this volunteer position to freak people out because he started pointing out that it gets more hilly after you get to the next aid station, that there’s more than a marathon to go, and it’s impressive that people even attempt these kinds of crazy distances. We need more volunteers like that.
After crossing the road we headed back to Miura Kaigan where we started the event. The place was much quieter now and the reception area had been converted into an aid station.
Aid 4 剱崎 (Tsurugizaki) 23.7km
After leaving Miura Kaigan it didn’t take long before we passed the half marathon point and things were still feeling easy. We were still close to the beach, the breeze was nice and spirits were high.
While doing this relatively relaxed run we started talking about our goals for the event. We had 11 hours to do the whole event and we were making good time. I pointed out that even if we started walking now we would still make the 11 hour cutoff time, but S-san correctly pointed out that that would be no fun. I agreed with him but he also added that outside of the aid stations he didn’t want to walk at all. I knew how hilly it was going to get so I took what he said with a pinch of salt and just kept on going.
We all agreed at around this point that we would aim to get back to the finish line by around 3pm.
Around this point a race photographer snapped some pics of us as we went past. Those can be seen below. (This was just approximate based on the time the pictures were taken).
Judging by how we looked in the pictures it must have been before we started hitting the big hills. S-San was absolutely serious and started charging up the hills. D-San and I kept pace with him but every time we hit a hill from that point on we realized that this was going to be the theme for the entire event. It felt good to run the hills considering how much walking I did up the hills in 2021, but the day was getting hotter and I knew this was going to get exhausting. And it wasn’t too bad once we got to the top of the hill because we went back to the relaxed pace after.
We hit the next aid station at Tsurugizaki, fueled up on soup (curry soup for me again), and made sure to drink enough water.
Aid 4.5 Heading to Miyagawa Park (???km)
After leaving Tsurugizaki we started going downhill and back to the coast. It turns out that I’m a good downhill runner. I more or less just needed to relax as we went downhill and gravity did the rest. (I think I have my trail running experience to thank for this). So my weight ‘advantage’ was good for something. I managed to charge ahead and snap a couple of pictures near the cost as I waited for my lighter friends to catch up.
I fondly remembered Miyagawa park from my experience with the 70km ultra in 2021. I arrived there in the middle of the night at that point and the stars were beautiful. One other thing I remembered about that park was that it had some large wind turbines and was at the top of a hill.
We were expecting the next aid station to be at the park but couldn’t see this wind turbine anywhere. What we could see however was a large hill. At the bottom of the hill was an extra aid station. The aid station was just a little table with コーラ (Ko-ra; Cola) written on it. This mini-aid station was really good for morale. We fueled up and charged up the hill.
Aid 5 宮川公園 (Miyagawa Park) 29.7km
As we got to the top of the hill we found ourselves surrounded by cabbages and very little else. We could however see the turbines in the distance. It was pretty obvious where we were going so we just charged at the windmills (Don Quixote would be proud). We weren’t quite at the half way point of the event, but this aid station was pretty much as close as we could get to a halfway point without being in the middle of a cabbage patch. Some people were holding a tape to set up a finish line type photo op so we took a picture then hit up the aid station. (I wasn’t very photogenic here).
I was quite happy with what was offered at this aid station thanks to the availability of iced-coffee. I probably drank about four cups of that before setting off again. At this point it was also getting incredibly hot so I filled my hat with water and slapped it on my head before setting off. It stayed cool for about five minutes and was then completely dry again. That was a nice five minutes though.
Aid 6 城ヶ島公園 (Jogashima Park) 33.3km
The next aid station was on an island south of the Miura peninsula. There were a few confusing spots around here due to traffic signals but we eventually got onto an extremely high bridge that took us to the island. I’d run this area in the dark during my night ultra and I had no idea how high up we were. It was a little vertigo inducing but not a problem.
We ran through through a large park to a lighthouse at the end of the island. The aid station here was very pleasant with a lot of fruit jelly and cups of cakes/cookies. I ate as much as I could stomach and filled up on sports drink before dousing myself with as much water as I could to try and cool off. It was around noon at this point so the day was getting progressively hotter. Again, filling my hat with water didn’t keep me cool for long but I was glad I did it.
Aid 7 三崎港(海南神社) (Misaki Port (Kainan Shrine)) 36.7km
As we left the island and ran back to the peninsula we found ourselves in a port area called Misaki Port. This area was really picturesque but I didn’t really have time to take any pictures based on the speed we were running. My experience with the midnight ultra had me thinking we were going to just keep running down the coast and I nearly went completely in the wrong direction until a volunteer with a big arrow sign pointed us down a little side street. The side street took us past a few charming little shops but at the end of the street was a shrine and probably the most beautiful aid stations I’ve ever seen.
The next aid station was at Kainan Shrine and was serving マグロまき (maguro maki) which was a rice ball filled with steamed tuna. Looking at the aid station it was just a regular food stall with the prices covered over. If I end up in this area again I’ll definitely be going back and getting one of these maguro maki.
I said a prayer at the shrine requesting the deities to allow me to complete the race without injury and then we set off to the next checkpoint.
Aid 8 京急油壺温泉キャンプパーク (Keikyu aburatsubo onsen Camp Park) 40.7km
Since the last aid station was at a shrine there wasn’t really a reasonable way to dump water on ourselves to cool off. The only thing we could do was to drink enough fluid at the aid station and hope for the best.
In the port area we passed a group of guys having a BBQ in front of their shop. They shouted words of encouragement at us and invited us to join them for a beer. As tempting as it would have been to have stopped and chilled for a while (considering we were approaching the marathon distance at this point) we just said thanks and moved on. Just to be safe I told S-San and D-San that what they saw was just a mirage (I used the term “幻” maboroshi in Japanese which is illusion), and to not pay attention to it.
A little later on we ran through a residential area where some of the locals had come out to cheer. Some of the locals brought out hoses to cool off the runners. Others made mini aid stations and were offering watermelon or other snacks to runners. After not being able to cool off properly at the last aid station this was very welcome…especially the hose.
The next aid station was in a sort of camp ground (Keikyu aburatsubo onsen Camp Park). I don’t actually recall what I ate here. I mainly focused on rehydrating. This was another aid station where there was no water to throw on ourselves. At this point I hadn’t needed the restroom for quite some time but I noticed someone else asking if there was one. The volunteer at the aid station pointed out that there was a restroom at a bus terminal down the street. I didn’t need to stop or anything but this made me notice that I’d probably consumed several liters of water over the past few hours that I clearly just evaporated off. I made sure to drink extra before heading out.
Aid 9 引橋 (Hikibashi) 44.9km
Shortly after leaving the camp ground we entered a more hilly area again. We had also just crossed the full marathon territory and were now officially in ultra zone. At this point we all felt pretty good, but I for one was getting a little tired of the hills. Of course we didn’t walk up any of them (S-San wouldn’t allow it) but we did end up stopping at traffic lights a few times. The sun was getting really strong by now so as much as possible we tried to stay in the shade. We were aware however that some turns were coming up and didn’t want to cross over and get stuck on the wrong side of the road.
We reached the next aid station which was at the top of a hill. I was very appreciative of the apple chunks and ended up eating about 10 of those. Just behind the aid station there were a bunch of plastic lawn chairs. As inviting as those looked I knew that they were not something to engage with. Sitting down is easy. Standing up, not so much.
Aid 10 ソレイユの丘 (Soleil Hill) 51.0km
Earlier on in the run I pointed out to my friends that I was aiming to get a PB on my 50km time. I was sure I was going to do so based on the pace we were going but D-San kept casually mentioning that if “something happens” before 50km then that would screw up the PB. Because of this, I started counting out the kilometers as 50km approached. We were running through some more nondescript cabbage fields at the point where we hit 50km.
The next aid station was at what you might call a sort of amusement park called Soleil Hill. This park looked like a lot of fun. There was a ferris wheel, a zip line tower and a lot of nice looking restaurants. When we approached we thought we had missed the entrance because the aid staton was behind a fence. We ended up going in through the main entrance and running up to the aid station. While we were there I pretty much ate a whole tray of pineapple chunks.
We checked the map and noticed that the aid stations looked like they’d just be a stop gaps at the side of the street, so we made sure to use the restroom (just in case) then get ready for the final stretch.
Aid 11 一騎塚 (Ikkidzuka) 56.8km
The next part of the run had us running past a military school and back into a more built up city area. The heat was starting to get to me at this point. I had a headache but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. The thought of stopping kept crossing my mind but what would I do if I stopped? There would be nothing to do other than walk to the next aid station by myself if I stopped so I just kept charging forward. There was another one of those unofficial aid stations on a corner where I drank a few cups of cola but then we kept going and eventually got to the final aid station at Ikkidzuka.
I wasn’t able to face eating anything at this point. We had less than 7km to go and then we would be done, so I mainly focused on rehydrating and cooling down.
At this aid station there was a guy near some water coolers that was spraying runners with a hose and scooping ice water on them. He spoke English and was asking me how I was doing. I took a picture with him and requested some ice water. This guy was the absolute hero of the day. I’ve never been so happy to have ice water dumped on me. This really helped with my headache and woke me up enough to charge towards the finish line.
We left the aid station and were counting down the kilometers as we went along. S-San and I often do parkrun together so it was great when we hit the 5k or “just one parkrun to go” point.
There were a few hills to go at this point and we ended up picking up a straggler as we were going. This guy was in the A group who had a one hour head start on us. He was really close to the finish line but was walking at this point. He seemed motivated to run after he saw us so we happily let him join our group and go down to the coast together. Once we saw the sea we knew there wasn’t much further to go.
Goal!!! 三浦海岸 (Miura Kaigan) 63.0km
We rounded a corner and got stuck at a traffic light. We could more or less see the finish line. There is a McDonalds quite close to where we started so that was a really obvious landmark.
As we started running towards the finish line it became a sort of “every man for himself” scramble. S-San took off running as quick as he could, followed by D-San and I just did my best to keep up. I looked at my watch and I hit a speed of about 4:10/km but I wasn’t able to keep up with those guys (heavyweight!). I was happy I could sprint at that point but it ended up with the finisher order being S-San, followed by D-San, then myself. (Our straggler friend came in a few minutes later).
As I was approaching the finish line S-San managed to snap a few pictures (the one below being the best one)
And then came the official race picture!
At the previous Michikusa event I entered we were mailed the completion certificate after the event. In this one I ran over the sensor, my name was called out, and by the time I ran to the finisher tent I was corralled towards my certificate was printed and ready for me. A medal was put around my neck and I went to take a picture with my running buddies.
After the race we ate some of the food at the goal aid station (we were given some tickets at the beginning of the race to get a bowl of tuna at the end…which was great by the way). I left S-San and D-San at the beach since they were planning on hanging around to meet some of the other parkrun people after the event and go for some drinks but I needed to go back home. It turned out that some of our friends eventually rocked up to the finish line two minutes before the 11 hour cut off. And I thought I was on edge finishing two minutes before our self imposed 3pm cutoff time.
Final results
At the beginning of this post I mentioned that we set off at exactly 8am. As you can see on the finisher picture above the time on the clock is 14:58:33. We made it! I clocked that at about 6 hours 58 minutes 33 seconds.
According to my finisher certificate however I came in at 7 hours, 2 mins and 33 seconds. I’m not quite sure how that was calculated so I’m going to go with my Garmin data for this one (6:58:43).
Overall I came in 18th place and was 3rd in my age category. Some stats on the Michikusa Ultramarathon Facebook page indicated that 277 people entered, 253 started and 222 finished (87.75% completion rate). Also, as expected I hit a PB for my 50k which I did in 5 hours 29 mins and 34 seconds.
Overall, a great result. I also have a shiny new medal to add to my collection.
Final thoughts
This event was fun. Really fun. I’m looking forward to doing another event like this. During the race we passed some signs that indicated how far the people on the 100km course had gone at this point. While running we talked about how hard it would be to do the 100km course. On that particular day I’m not sure if I could have gone to 100km. Some of the main reasons for that are the fact that I was running up all the hills and not truly going at my own pace. It was a hot day and trying to walk some of the hills and stay below zone 4 for whole run may have been easier on my body. I definitely could have gone further than 63km even on that day but in future ultras I would prefer to go at my own pace. In fact, in February 2024 I ran a 50 km ultra with the Michikusa group going the opposite direction around the peninsula at a much more comfortable pace (report here).
If you made it this far, thank you very much for taking the time to read this. This is the longest article I have on my Substack (mostly due to all the pictures). The longer the race, the longer the report it would seem.
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Osu!
Anthony