5K

For the first time in a long time I participated in a 'chip time' 5K, my first timed run in Japan.  This race was actually a 25K relay, over 750 teams of five people each, each person responsible for 5K.  

The relay was held in a large park east of Nagoya called Mori-koro, the site of the 2005 World Expo.  Many Japanese companies sponsor internal sports competition where coworkers train throughout the year to compete against each other, running and baseball are popular.  In this case, most of the 750+ teams were from a single large corporation in Japan and the large company invited us to join.  This was the first time I took part in an event like this, and I guess they did  not fear the extra competition.  And they were right, we were slow, my official chip was  26:23 and our team time was 2:04:01.... but good enough to finish in the top 89%.  I was last to run for our team, when I was passed that baton, other team's 5th runners were all ready passing the finish line.

Above is the route through Mori-koro park, great route through a paved forest path.  I also started to run with the Nike+ chip in my shoe, fun, but almost too much data.  I hope use of the chip will provide some motivation to improve my 5K time.