Shonan Gold Energy Cup Ikomaru Park Trail Running 2023

Return to the trails: Race report 10

Mar 27, 2024

Background

I like trail running. It’s not something I do very often but I enjoy it every time I do it. My first experience with trail running turned out to be a pretty intense and involved me getting covered in leeches and running through a typhoon. (See my report on the 7th Aobato Trail Run). As crazy as it was it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life and I want to get out there and get involved with more events like this.

In late 2022/early 2023 I had run a few events and I had an ultramarthon on the cards later in the year. I was looking for another event to run but generally in Japan you have to sign up for events quite far in advance. While browsing some running sites I stumbled across a trail event called the Shonan Gold Energy Cup Ikomaru Park Trail Running 2023. It was an hour drive away, entry was still open, it wasn’t too expensive and it would give me a bit more experience on the trails, so I thought why the hell not and put in an entry.

The trail race I signed up for was a short (1.7km) course around a camp ground in Odawara called Ikomaru Park. Before the event started the local forestry agency was doing some work in the area and the course needed to be diverted a little which made the new course a little shorter (1.4km). There was a 10 loop division and a 5 loop division. Since I am inexperienced with trail running (having only entered one trail event before this), so of course I entered the 10 loop division (5 loops. HA!).

The event was capped at 70 runners so I knew before entering this was’t going to be a huge race, but these small local races have a tendency to attract some pretty capable local runners. I went in with the attitude that because I was inexperienced I was just going to aim to finish the event with a smile. 笑顔で完走 (egao de kansou: finish with a smile) is an expression another runner friend of mine taught me. I set a secondary goal of trying to finish in the top 50% (just because that seems like a good secondary goal).

The race

The day of the race was warm and dry, which was very pleasant considering how cold it had been at the time. I parked up at a space I reserved (about a kilometer or two away from the course) and had a bit of a warm up jog over to Ikomaru park. The campsite there was stunning. There were cabins, a huge barbecue area and an event hall by a beautiful little stream. There were Shonan Gold Energy banners and balloons all around so I knew I was in the right place.

The staff at the event were very friendly. I asked about the check in procedure and was told that there was no need to sign in and I should just collect the bag with my name on it on the tables. It turned out that the tables were a sort of custom aid station because you just left what you would need at those tables since you would be passing them at every loop of the course anyway.

For this race you needed swipe a wrist band over a sensor box just after the goal line until you heard a loud beep before you were able to run on. This didn’t take much time at all and the staff also got a read out on how many laps you had done. In addition to this system there was a table full of elastic bands which you could pick up as you went along to count how many laps you had done.

I had a bit of a chat with the staff before the race started to ask about the course (specifically about whether there were any leeches in the forest…there weren’t) and then the time rolled around for a sort of opening ceremony. It turned out that the CEO of Shonan Gold Energy (an energy drink made out of a species of citrus fruit called Shonan Gold) was there and was running the course as well so he gave a little speech before the particulars of the course were explained. Everyone needed to line up on their numbers and once 10am rolled around they would set off one runner every five seconds until all of the runners were running around the forest.

The course was beautiful. I set off around the back of the meeting hall at the start, past a little stream and hit the first hill. I say hill but what I really mean is a near cliff like structure with foot holds sort of crudely kicked into it. Most of the elevation of the course was in this first hill (although there were up and down points throughout the course) but I didn’t know that at the time and thought that I was going to be in for a bit of a rough ride. (The picture I took didn’t really do it justice. I didn’t take this picture until much later in the course when I started to slow down and couldn’t quite sprint up the thing anymore).

At the top of the hill the course leveled out a bit. The floor of this part of the course had quite a few logs to jump over and plants to navigate around. I’m kind of glad it was relatively dry on that day. I was basically just following the tape at that point.

After the extremely rugged part of the course we hit what seemed to be a frisbee golf course (I’ve never done frisbee golf so I’m just guessing. It was flat and had what looked like nets to catch frisbees). This part was very runnable and had staircases between levels. I was running all of these on my first few laps but on later laps I saw some runners just jumping around them which would cut the corner and save a few seconds. That isn’t cheating, it’s trail running. I eventually got to the point where I could do this quite confidently but it took a few loops.

After passing the frisbee golf course we hit a downhill segment, passed some buildings, and ran past a sign that said ‘SLOW DOWN’ before a sudden drop onto a road. There was a set of stairs which many people took but I chose to take the two meter drop each time.

After that sudden drop onto the road there was quite an intense downhill section. This part was fun but required full concentration as there were a lot of roots to avoid.

We then went around a sort of campground section that had some play areas and tents around…along with a lot of roots to trip over.

Then it was back to the start with the custom aid station, and the check in point. The only thing Ieft at my custom aid station was a bottle of water which I didn’t use at all for the first few laps. So on the first lap, I ran past the tables, picked up an elastic band the finish line, swiped my wristband and ran back into the forest.

I was running hard for the first few laps. I had a chest strap heart rate monitor on which was very responsive to my changes in heart rate so I was aware that my heart rate was in the max zone when I checked my watch (especially at that first hill) and I thought it might be a good idea to try and slow down a bit so I don’t end up passing out. The distance wasn’t so far but the technicality of the terrain and the elevation was really spiking my heart rate. I really need to keep this in mind if I want to do longer trail races in the future because I wouldn’t be able to run like this for hours at a time (right now).

I was pretty confident I knew how many laps I had done until about the 7th lap or 8th lap. At that point I was happy that I had been picking up the elastic bands. While scrambling up the first hill I started lopping the bands from my wrist to my hand to count the number of laps I had officially completed so I was eventually able to orientate myself and get back to my running.

I had been stopping at the table to drink water as I was going along and had a few quick exchanges with the staff as I was going along and elastic bands aside they were also helping me count. There was quite a lot of encouragement when I hit the 9th lap and with that I charged around the course with my remaining energy and crossed the finish line.

Many of the other runners that came in before me were incredibly quick. The guy who won first place came in at 1:12:29.52. I came in at 14th place with a time of 1:31:19.93. So not only did I finish the race with a simile but I also came in the top 50% (being 14/34 overall and 14/31 in the mens division).

I was exhausted after the race and looking at the data after gave me greater understanding of why I was so tired.

Final thoughts

This race was a lot of fun. There are several Shonan Energy Cup trail races in a year all in a similar area. This was the second event of the season but there is one more with no actual distance to the race. You get put on a course similar to this one and see how far you can run in 4 hours. That sounds like a lot of fun but I’m not likely to be able to attend that one due to other commitments. Still, knowing these events exist now is going to fill up some more slots in my diary. I’m looking forward to attending more events like this one.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

If you aren’t subscribed, please sign up to keep up to date.

If social media is more your thing I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

And if you are looking for ways you can support my work please check out the page below:

Support my work!

Osu!

Anthony

Bunburyoudou (文武両道) Substack

Discussion about this post