Tokashiki Half-Marathon

A perennial event for ~18 of us from the Zamami-son islands, this year's Tokashiki half-marathon drew 100 less people than last year.  It also drew the hottest day (I think) of the last couple months of winter. 

I went out approximately at marathon pace (4:30/km) but the intense hills of this course (total ascent: 1440 feet) slowed me up.   There's 2km of overlapping out-and-back near the 13k mark so I was able to count up and find myself in 15th place, a full 15 places higher than I was at the same point last year.  I also had a few people within 200m of me.  My strength is apparently uphills ('apparently' not because I like them but because I pass so many people on hills) so I pushed it a little and caught up to that group at 15k.  I traveled behind them for the next 1.5k, but then there was one last big (1km long?) hill and I swept them all up by the top of it, putting myself in 11th position overall.  I pushed harder than I wanted for the last 3k to preserve that high positioning because I like the idea of finishing high in a race.  It makes me feel cool. 

So I did: 11th overall (out of 388), 10th for men (out of 296).  Time was 1:35.50, which is amusedly a minute slower than last year, when I finished 27th place.  The field was likely weaker this year, but the weather was also much hotter (and I really noticed the paces of those in front of me suffering after 13k).  My pace didn't suffer because I'm awesome and because I'm smack in the middle of training for a full marathon: this little half was like a sprint.