Hakone ekiden, day 2 finale

Just as Motozo predicted in yesterday's blog, Komazawa daigaku prevailed with 5 strong legs in day 2 today to take it's 6th championship at Hakone since 2000. Waseda had a small 1:14 lead going into the first leg of today's race, and it's starter Kato ran a sensational first leg to lift Waseda's lead to over 3 minutes. But from that point it was all downhill for Waseda as Komazawa chipped away at the lead in its 2nd and 3rd legs, reducing the lead to a mere 15 seconds by the 4th leg. It only took the 4th leg runner Sakai a few K to pull even with Waseda, and they ran together for several K. At about 7K he pulled away for good and gave Komazawa over a 1 minute lead, which anchor Ota preserved easily.
Juntendo, Tokai, and Nihon taiiku daigaku were all disqualified and must compete in the fall this year for a spot in next year's race.

Thanks to Satohi chan for organizing Akasaka run today. An excellent 1.3k course to mix up interval workouts if you are bored by the track or palace...

I ran with 3 fast girls Rie, Masako, and Satohi for most of the 6 intervals. Splits were:

1K: 3:50

1K: 3:45

1K: 3:46

1K: 3:45

1K: 3:47

1K: 3:42

This again was the best 6 x 1000 workout in about a year since the tokyo marathon and even tougher than a normal workout as it was 6 1/2 intervals with a 300 meter jog, so very little time to rest at the start. Rie ran particularly well too. We celebrated our monster 13K interval workout with an izakaya and karaoke in yoyogi, which knocked me horizontal...