The Final Run & Handover

Everything comes to an end - while for example most of us were quite glad that the 100km Oxfam walk finally came to an end, I was rather sad that also the time of my assignment had to come to an end. On October 8th we met for my final run into the city. That very same morning a taifun hit Japan and turned this run rather into a swimming contest. What a coincidence! We all got thoroughly wet but it was fun. We then met again after a full day of work to conclude the evening in the famous Kohumbutsu bar - long into the early morning hours.

Sayonara Running - 8. October 2009

I'm now handing this blog over to the remaining and newly reinforced "Firmenläufer" team: Tom, Heiner, Hans-Peter, Ivar, Hans, Thomas W, Thomas B. ... Please continue to write about your runs or other crazy endeavours - farewell, good luck and see everyone again soon.

Thomas

Final Goal

Thomas, Tom, Heiner and Hans-Peter reached the final at Yamanakako at 14:20 pm. They did it in 29 hours and 20 mins.

Congratulation!!!

The team is looking forward reading your comments!

Going strong until CP9

A bright day has started, it is going to be hot, but our four guys are well on their way in Ashigara.




















At CP7:
We are making progress! Just arrived at CP7 (07.40 am) where many of us benefit from a free stretching service.
It's fantastic how everyone in the villages, at the checkpoint and in between cheers the walkers up.
The weather is beautiful again - this will become a hot day!
The ofuro, sleep and beer reenergized everyone - ima minna genki desu!

Ahead of us is the ascent to Fudousan - the mountain of eternal youth - this shall give us strength straight to the finish. We need it - this ascent is probably the steepest of the whole
trail.


Our team at Furou-san at 10:05 am.



A rest at CP8 at 12:05 am. An other 9 km to reach he finish atb Yamanakako.


After a step climb our team is reaching the top of Mt. Mikuni at 1:16 pm. It´s the highest point
of the whole track.

Incredible team and spectacular view from Mt. Myojin (at 1:48 pm).

They almost completed - from now on it's only downhill and 3km left.
Everyone is in a good mood and "enjoying" the last part.

Next morning

Ohayoooooooo !!!

This morning 3:15 am, we received a wake up call by a not so soft and kind, voice. Our dear co-runner's thought's were this time focused on something else to focus on that fact.

We are 1 hour behind schedule - but the mood ranges still from "hmm, genki?" to "genki genki".

Today's distance is less - only about 36km - but still about 2000 m of altitude - not everybody so eager about that anymore!

The night has started .. nap in Matsuga

Will rain come or not? Tom is getting his raincoat and Heiner is still walking along - without!

Walking lights at night ( 7:44 pm).

They reached CP5 at 9:35 pm. From now on another 9 km - maybe 2 hours walk- to get to CP6. There they will rest for 4 hours in the guesthouse Matsuga. It seems that a short power nap is enough for these guys.

..... Uups: a small accident happend: Tom lost his walking stick pariser. Teamwork and O-hashis helped to retrieve it.
Yokatta!

Still great in time!
Around midnight we've arrived happily in our place to stay where we are having an ofuro and a nap (and a beer!).

Good night to everybody!

Life report- between CP3 and CP4

Lake Ashinoko again at 3:18 pm.

So far so good ... We have now probably about 25km behind us and are walking along the beautiful lake Ashino. First team dynamics start to play but they have been resolved amicably so far and we agreed on a pace again.

Next CP is no 4 - in about 11km.

Arriving at CP 4 at 4:10 pm.

We are in the meantime (4:30pm) taking a break at CP4. Heiner is not so fit anymore. They had a stretching service which improves things for him hopefully again ...
The rest of us is still genki.

Rain is looming and it will be dark, soon.

Km 36 now - and the next CP is about 18km and a mountain away. And 27km to the nightbreak.

Life report- between CP0 and CP2-

Beautiful day! Everyone really happy. A lot of crazy people -
.... and ready to go! At 9:00 at the starting point.

There are still 96 km to go.

Short rest at the CP 1. At 10:39 am.

Somewhere between CP 1 and CP 2 the wheather is getting good. It´s hot.

At the CP 2 around 12:42 am.

So far the weather was very beautiful but the clouds are coming fast ...
After 18km and the first 1000m we are still happy (fresh would be an overstatement). Heiner is still talking a lot - that's a good sign ...

Now let's move on

Great view: Ashinoko Lake at 1:46 pm.

Already tired Hans-Peter? No way!

Lake Ashinoko again at 2:23 pm.

Life report -getting ready-

Thursday, May 21st at 8:20 pm

Thomas, Heiner, Tom and Hans-Peter left Tokyo this afternoon. Now they are on their way to the Hakone area and enjoying a big healthy dinner with some draft beers.
They are getting ready for an incredible adventure!











Friday, May 22 nd at 6:00 am

Starting the early morning with some spa features. Tom looks still tired. Why they get up so early?
Hans-Peter was just sending an e-mail:
Ohayoooooooo !!!
This morning 6:00 am, we received a wake up call by a soft and kind, admittedly digital voice. Polite as our dear co-runner taking the call is, he replied with an even softer voice: "you have the most beautiful voice ... really? ... we are so sorry that we can not welcome you and your three friends to our room ... ". He is obviously still ok and geared up for the walk - let's see how he will reply to the wake up call at tonight's stop scheduled for 3:00 am...!

Time Planning

After a series of trainings we have now an agreed time plan for the challenge. This is what our team has committed to go after. Pure walking time (i.e. without the break during the night) shall be below 24 hours!

がんばりましょ!

Trainings Hike, May, 6th

We were in the meantime pretty much used to getting onto the train at 5am in the morning. I had a Starbucks coffee from the convini knowing from the last time that all the coffee shops are still closed. The critical element this time was the rain. The weather forecast predicted a 40% chance of rain and we were wondering if we would get the wet 40% or the dry 60%. To make it short: we got a lot of the wet side of that day! To see it positively: this gave us a great training as we know now how it is with beautiful weather and with rain. We haven't tried snow, yet ....

We (Tom, Hans-Peter and myself) were joined by Kamata-san who we know well from the yearly Renge Onsen ski tour. The plan was to hike from CP7 to the finish - in total about 20km and 1300 meters in altitude. We started at Suruga-Oyama where we tried to see our eager friend from the train station (see training report of April 19th) but he wasn't there. It was raining when we started around 7:30am. We walked up a small valley until we came after about 2 hours to Furoo-san, the mountain of eternal youth. I wonder how young we will feel during the trailwalker event on that mountain after km 80. From that mountain the trail continued as a very beautiful path along the whole ridge towards Fujii-san. Various spots on that ridge must offer very beautiful photo opportunities of the famous mountain. However, this time only our imagination allowed us to see it.

We arrived after about 5.5 hours of a lot of up and down walking at the YMCA Yamanakako. It was raining during 4.5 hours of the total walk and we and our material were thoroughly wet. This allowed us to get a feeling for the hiking on wet terrain and with cold weather. This was at least one positive aspect. The vegetation was beautiful, too, in the rain and the spirit in the team was high.

But to be clear: we sincerely hope that we will have at least for some part of the trail good weather!

Trailwalker Training to Yamanakako (May, 6th 2009)

Kurzbericht Start - CP4 vom 3.5.

Nach dem gestrigen Training mit T.Balk (von Start bis CP4) gebe ich hier einen kurzen Zwischenbericht ueber unsere (ca.) Zeiten.

Start 8:15h
CP1 10:15h

15 min (Fruehstuecks-)Pause am CP1

CP1: 10:30h
CP2 13:00h

30 min (Mittags-)Pause am CP2

CP2 13:30h
CP3 14:15h

15 min (Snack-)Pause am CP3

CP3 14:30h
CP4 16:40h

Alles in allem ein super Tag !! Habe heute keinen (!) Muskelkater...vielleicht dank unseres ersten Trainings ?! oder einfach nur der flacheren Topographie wegen ?

Wie dem auch sei .... hier just fyi meine (fuer mich neuen) 'Erkenntnisse' aus der gestrigen Wanderung:
a) genuegend warme Klamotten fuer den Abend-/Nachtteil mitnehmen
b) einige Locations von Getraenkeautomaten
c) Joggen/leichtes Traben zwischendurch lockert die Muskulatur
d) mein 'persoenlicher' Mengenbedarf an Trinken und Essen...
e) Mineralgel fuehrt (bei mir) zu Durchfall ... :<
f) ein Gefuehl fuer die Distanz ... (Fazit: es wird ein verdammt langer, harter erster Tag !! - wir haben am 22.5. nach CP4 ja noch knapp 30km !!)
g) Training 'lohnt' sich auf alle Faelle !! - wegen der Orientierung sowie der Staerkung der Wandermuskeln (Schwerpunkt: bergab !!!) - haette ich nicht gedacht
h) wenn's geht, waere sicherlich eine 'Nachttour' mit Lampen evtl. lehrreich ?!

Liebe Gruesse
Heiner

Kurzbericht vom 26.4. - von CP1 zu CP2

Wie geplant starteten wir (Karina, MaxTaro + Tom) gestern Morgen um 7:00 und erreichten kurz vor 9:00 Tonosawa (1. Station nach Hakone Yumoto mit der lokalen Hakone „Bergtour-Bahn“). Der „Einstieg“ von der Route No. 1 in den Wandertrail war auch diesmal wieder – dank des ausgezeichneten Karten- und Bildermaterials von Oxfam – problemlos und vom starken Regen des Vortages war auf dem ‚Trail‘ kaum noch etwas zu spueren. Schon nach 2 Stunden erreichten wir Mt. Sengen, wo wir uns eine halbe Stunde Pause goennten. Es passierten uns mehrere Wandergruppen, von denen ich die ansprach, bei denen auch „gaijins“ mitwanderten (bzw. liefen, s.u.).

Schon bei der 1. Gruppe wurde ich fuendig: Ja, man trainiere fuer Oxfam. Zielzeit: 21 Stunden. Dann kam die 2. Gruppe (3 Auslaender, 1 Japaner) den Berg heraufgelaufen - ganz offensichtlich beim trailwalkertraining. Zielzeit: 15 Stunden!!!!!!! (im letzten Jahr hat diese Gruppe anscheinend noch 17 Stunden benoetigt .... ) - nur als info, ohne weitere Kommentare ..... – oder sollten wir unsere Zielzeit doch noch einmal ueberdenken????????

Gegen 12:00 kamen wir 3 dann auch schon im Ashinoyu Flower Centre (CP2) an, wo Naoko mit dem Auto auf uns wartete ...

FAZIT: Die Strecke vom CP1 bis zum CP2 (9km) sollte das Team Firmenlauefer in ca. 2 Stunden bewaeltigen ...

tom

Trailwalker Training 2 (April 26th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the fotos)

Correns donates 100'000 Yen

Correns Corporation in Japan donated the amount of 100'000 Yen to Oxfam to support the Firmenläufer team.

Thank you very much!

Trainings Hike, April 19th, 2009

On a very beautiful day we went for our first training hike. We, the firmenlaeufer team with Tom Nolting, Hans-Peter Musahl, Heiner Pape and myself. We got strong support by the "habituée" Trailwalker Thomas Balk.

Trailwalker Training (April 19th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the gallery)

Taking the train 5:15am on a Sunday morning is hard - especially since all the Starbucks on our way were still closed! Around 7:15am we arrived in Sengoku in the Hakone area - pretty much in the middle between checkpoint 4 and 5 of the trail. Our plan was to hike until checkpoint 7 - Suruga-oyama which means about 36km and 1200m in altitude. This hike brought us soon onto a beautiful mountain ridge from which one could see mount Fujii very easily. It then went steep downhill to a very beautiful place with the Daiyuzan Saiji-ji temple. From there we had to take a forestry road bringing us to a small village called Yagurasawa. After Yagurasawa we came to places with fascinating names such as the "21st century forest" or the "central square" which is everything but "central". Very beautiful forest trails led us finally to Suruga-oyama.

After some negotiation with a young station manager we could finally enter the super special express back to Tokyo to arrive there around 6pm happy, but tired.

Oxfam Fundraising Party, April 17th, 2009

On the 17th in the evening we had our fundraising party and also had the chance to celebrate Hans-Peter's birthday. The party was perfectly hosted by Christine and Hans-Peter. Many contributed with salads and sweets and other very delicious treats. Thomas W. was the barbecue master, Tom participated with a series of Codeo beer kegs and I got an authentic Swiss Raclette oven and cheese directly imported from Switzerland. The party was a big success - and with this goes a big thank you to all the guests: in the course of the evening we raised 150'000 yen for Oxfam! Great!

Oxfam Party (April 17th, 2009)

(click on the picture to view the gallery)

What's "Firmenlauf"

We all live in the Denenchofu - Todoroki area west of Tokyo. It takes us probably about 45 minutes to get to work on a sometimes very crowded train. About twice a week we swap the train with our running gear, put our suits into a backpack, enhance this sometimes with a laptop and run to work. We meet 05:30 in the morning and run through side alleys straight into the city. It is always amazing how little traffic there is on those small streets. From time to time there is a busier street to cross but for the rest you can't believe that you're running in the middle of the biggest metroplitan area of the world. One meets earlybirds on their way to work, night owls on their way home and from time to time a taxi driver who honks his horn probably thinking "baka desune".

We arrive after 70 minutes or so at our goal, a small capsule hotel in Hamamatsu-cho where we go for a shower and a hot bath "japanese style" (http://www.gry.jp/). We take the suit from the backpack, dress us properly and leave for a small breakfast in the area.

We arrive in the offices around 8:30am, still comfortably before the crowd. It feels good to see all those sleepy faces arriving in the office having exercised our heartbeats already.

Depending on the speed of the jog there is also quite a lot of talking either during the run, in the "ofuro" (hot bath) and definitively at breakfast. That's where ideas such as the Oxfam participation get born and that's where this started for us ...