Training #4

March 7, 2009

Another training day for Team 1-2-3. Only Jenny and I can participate this training. So Jenny invited Raza and Raj to join us. As we plan to hike for 36kms this time, I decided that we should start earlier than usual. We took Tokaido line, leaving 6.42 a.m. from Shinagawa station to Odawara Station. We should have arrived at 7.58 a.m. I intentionally put "should have" because in fact we arrived at 8.30 a.m. No, there was no accidents nor any unpleasant incidents. It's just Raj and I were busy talking and Jenny and Raza tried to catch up with their sleep so we missed the station. Since I usually take Odakyu, I'm more familiar with Odakyu Odawara Station. Luckily, Raza woke up and mentioned that he heard the announcement for Odawara. Then, I looked at the name of next station and realized that we passed Odawara. We ran out from the train just a few seconds before the door closed.

We hopped back on next train and took a cab to Shiroyama Track and Field, CP 0 or starting point of the race. As usual, I couldn't find where the trail starts. Last year, it was easy. I just followed other participants. Oxfam instruction says that we should take a sharp right turn from the front of the car park. It sounds straight forward. The problem is that we don't see the car park. The only car park we saw is inside of the track and I remember it was not that car park. We were about to ask kids around there. Then, we found the carpark and started our hike at 8.50 a.m.

CP0 to CP1 is not so difficult. We only gained about 400 meters of altitude gain and lost it at the end. Raj and Raza did some researches and their impression is that we are going to hike on pavement. I told them to wait to experience the real Oxfam thrill. On the way, we found a scrapped car, stated in the Oxfam instruction. Jenny led the grop this time and she learned to step in my foot by almost leading us downhills on the wrong way. Luckily Raza stopped her before she took a leap. We continued the course without any incidents and reached CP1 at 11.10 a.m. Total time 2hrs 30 mins and total distance 8.5 kms.

We had a short break and continued to CP2. At 11.30 a.m. we reached the beginning of Yusakamichi Trail (#7 in the instruction). We started to climb up right from the beginning of the trail. It's quite challenging for Raza but he kept going. It's really tough climb. Judge by yourself. We let him lead the team so he can set the pace. We met about 2 teams practicing. Although we were tired, we didn't stop until 1.20 p.m. when we reached Mt. Sengen where we stopped for 10 mins lunch break. We continued to climb up for another 100m altitude gain and made our way down to CP2 at 15.20 p.m. At CP2, we refilled our drink from street-side vending machines and took a quick break. Raza had enough. He decided to leave us for Onsen (Yunessan). Raza probably got an idea from our talk on wine onsen and decided to check it out. He hopped on the bus before we had time to convince him to stay. Total time 2hrs 50 mins and total distance 10 kms.

Raj, Jenny and I started our journey to CP3. CP2-3 is quite easy. No big hills to climb. It took us an hour to reach Lake Ashi, CP3. Before we got to Lake Ashi, we walked through Japanese cedar-lined stone streets, which was part of the old Tokaido Road before heading to the Hakone Check Point, the beginning of CP4. Here are some photos from CP2-3.

We left from CP4 at 15.45 p.m. It's about 12.5 kms from CP3 to CP4. Again, not difficult but long. We just kept talking mostly about strategies on how not to fail our supporters and food as we started to feel hungry. We didn't slow down to snack as our plan is to go to Tougendai to catch on the last bus at 6.30 p.m. Tougendai is about 10 mins walk from CP4. It was dark before we reached CP4 so it's time for us to use a headlamp. Jenny was excited but then she realized that her headlamp was in Raza's bag. Not a problem. When we took headlamps out, we saw that CP4 is not so far from us. We led Raj walk in front and I at the back so Jenny can share the light.

When we arrived at CP4, we couldn't find the entrance as stated in the instruction. It took us a couple of minutes to find it. It was 6.10 p.m. when we arrived today's destination. Total time 2hrs 30 mins.

We don't know where the bus stop is and we had only 20 mins to find out. Luckily, there were some people camping at CP4 so we asked for the direction (of course, in Japanese). When we found the bus terminal, I saw the bus going to Shinjuku. I thought the bus is about to leave so I waved at the bus driver and began to beg him to wait a few minutes as we tried to locate Raza. The bus driver told us that he is not leaving for Shinjuku yet but going to the bus stop to pick up other passengers. Then, Raza called and showed up at the same time. We regrouped at the bus stop and hopped on the bus. I think we just had about 1-2 mins before the bus pulled out from the terminal.

There are other later buses from Tougendai if we miss the one we took but we have to go back to Odawara and catch the train. We rather take one bus straight to Shinjuku. We ate our food/snack on the bus and ready to say "Oyasumi - good night". I think I dozed off a bit. We arrived at Shinjuku at 8.45 p.m. before going separate ways home.

Yatta!!! We did it. Until next week (43 kms)