2008/04/13

Seto Ohashi Bridge 15K

Today, I participated in a 15K run to celebrate the 20th year of Seto Ohashi Bridge. It was very special for me for my father ran the 10K run for the opening of the bridge in 1988.

Some 4,500 people participated in the 15K and another 6,800 enjoyed the 8K fun run and 5K walk.

After an opening ceremony, the run started out at 9:00 at Yoshima, a little island that hosts a service area and information center in the middle of the approx. 13 km-long total length of the bridges.


Above: a photo of Yoshima Plaza and the series of suspension bridges seen from the bridge deck towards Shikoku Island (looking south)


Above: a photo of series of cable stayed bridges towards Honshu (main) Island viewed from Yoshima (looking north)

The hardest part of the run was at the very first part of the run. We had to run up the ramp from Yoshima to the deck part of the bridges - that is 60m in height.


Above: runners waiting for the race - "the ramp" to the bridge decks is seen in the back


After making it up to the deck (about 1km point), then we ran to the 6.4km turn-around point on the Shikoku side.

From that point on, we had to run against the wind for a while, but most of the way, it was fairly comfortable.


Photo taken approx. at 12 km point - entering the cable stayed bridge area.

In a beautiful spring weather, I could enjoy a wonderful opportunity to run on these amazing bridges.

My time was approx. 72 min. 40 sec. or about 4 min. 50 sec. per km pace.
That wasn't too bad considering the first part - the big climb - certainly slowed me down quite a bit.

4 comments:

dbp said...

Looks like a really nice day for a run. I would think that having to stop along the way to snap pictures would have slowed you down too.

The time you gave should be per/km I think--still a very good time. Your post reminds me that I need to sign-up for the Groton Road Race. This has been the one race (10Km) that I have been running each year.

datadawak said...

You'd better sign up soon for it is less than 2 weeks away. I will have a half marathon on that day as well.

Keep on running!

datadawak said...

Correction! I noticed that I originally posted "my pace was 4 min. 50 sec. per mile" - that is wrong. It should be "per km" (you could probagly guess of my mistake). I've changed it on the blog already, but I am NOT THAT FAST.

dbp said...

Good luck on the half/marathon. Based on your time for this 15K, you should be on-track to do well!