Tokyo Winter Enduro

Kishi San and I had a phone conversation in September right after I returned from Summer holiday in America. He asked me if I'd like to do the Tokyo Enduro ride/ competition in December. I was high and happy from my time off, not a care in the world so I happily answered "yes" and my fate was sealed.



So, why ask in September? This event, due to it's close proximity to central Tokyo is fantastically popular. It is a relay race of 4 hours. Teams of four take turns around a five kilometer loop of service road that runs around Showa (emperor Hirohito) memorial park. The teams are given a little plot of property on a flat dirt lot, the "staging area". On this property the teams can set up their tent and put all their necessities. The gate opens at 9 and the event starts at 10:30 and ends at 2:30. Time to clean up, get home and still have a relaxing evening. A rarity for most cycling events one can attend from Tokyo. The winning team is the one that can do the most laps in four hours.



The team was comprised of myself, Kishi, Sato and Inaba; all locals on the morning Imerial Palace loop ride. Sato brought a tent and supplies that we shared with Sato's wifes team. We arrived at the parking lot at a reasonable time. It was raining hard and temps in the mid thirties (for those of you keeping track through reading my ranting reports, that 50% rain every time I do a race here) We got together our stuff and went to the staging area. The first thing we discovered is that the staging area is over two miles from the parking lot and required a 25 minute walk. By the time we had arrived, set up the tent became soaked with freezing hands we still had to go back to the lot and get on our gear and collect our bikes. Now we were in danger of missing the start time. By this point due to the relentless freezing rain and hundreds of participants the staging area was a mud pit more worthy of cyclocross. The avenues to enter and exit or reach the restroom were complete pools of icy mud. We navigated our way out and back to the parking to get changed.



We tried to get on our gear with frozen fingers and then cruise our bikes down the parks "cycle course" to our tent. As I was cruising along I could see the racers already out on the service road so I knew we were very late to start and out of any competitive situation. I was looking forward to hunching under the tent. Though I had hoped for a stationary trainer to help keep me warm there was no way we could trudge the thing to our camp. Now I would be happy to just sit in my warm clothes over my cycling suit and sip tea. That was not to be however because Sato's wifes team wanted to have a "picnic" and had set up a large camping table/ bench set under the tent. There was a camping oven and "nabe", Japanese stew, cooking as well as a coffee service area. Her team was dressed up and the whole atmosphere was party fun eat.



This left us to stand in the ice cold rain and wait our turn as we tried to just get out and ride our bikes. Our hands were way to cold to pin numbers so we just pinned one of our numbers to a rain coat and switched off using that coat. The switch off area as well is dirt and had turned to slippery mud. A lot of the riders were sliding out during the hand off as other riders were passing to the left. Many riders were shivering uncontrollably as their teammates placed a velcro strap sensor chip around their legs and sent them off. We played rock paper scissors to see our order of turns and I got last. We also decided that just do as many laps as you pleased. Sato went first and came back after two laps reporting that the course was fun but wet and not really dangerous. Kishi did three and looked okay as well reporting that it was safe but not fast. Inaba did four but his last lap took almost fifteen minutes. The whole time I was standing around in the wet mud, feeling my soaking feet and wondering if I was getting the beginnings of trench foot. Finally it was my turn, they threw the rain coat over me and hooked up the vecro strap to my ankle. I hit the course and the song "7 and 7 is" by Love popped into my head and I instantly felt good.



I drove the bike on to the pavement of the service road and warmed quickly. The course is fun and basically light rollers and flat sections. To avoid the slower riders to my left I went straight through the puddles and grime. After the first lap I was able to get in the drops and soon felt like I was doing my weekly time trail at the warf. To my left some riders were costumed including one in a Godzilla outfit, which caused my mental Jukebox to temporally change to BOC's "Godzilla". I passed everyone that was in front of me as the rain started to let up. Inaba, itching to get back on to the less wet course waved his arms to me from the pits but I was steamrolling and held up some fingers to indicate I wanted more laps. I rolled back to the pits unbeaten and switched off. Inaba had miraculously pinned a number to his thermal jersey so I just peeled off my vecro strap and stumbled back to the tent. Me and my bike were a total frigid mess.



I quickly placed every article of clothing I had on me and awaited the chills while sipping coffee. Inaba finished his laps but then I found that Kishi and Sato were satisfied and ready to leave early. A tad bothered by this point I felt like I could have stayed out on the course longer but there was no way I was ready to go back in compared to getting out of there earlier. So I went along with the plan and we went back to the lot to get changed.



Taking down the tent with filthy frigid hands took twice as long but we finally did it and after a couple of long back and forth walks to the staging area the car was packed and we could get on our way. For all the preparation time and waiting I was able to race a total of forty five minutes. I promised myself to never do a cycling event in Japan again... until next time.