こんばんは…サンフランシスコは月曜の夜6時8分です…
Hide Utsugi – Tax’s Mad Runner Pushes Himself to Meet New Challenges!
Hide Utsugi is on a mission! The humble Assistant Tax Manager wants to run a 100-mile ultra-marathon! Hide joined the Tax Department in June 2006. He is quiet, and a hard worker, and brought to the Department a real passion for the Oakland A’s. He was not in bad shape when he joined the Company, but you wouldn’t have confused him with a long-distance runner!
Hide’s A’s passion morphed into a passion for the San Jose Earthquakes. Sure, soccer requires a higher cardio fitness level than baseball, but Hide was sitting in the stands, not out on the field! The first indication that I had that Hide was more sporty than he looked, was when he started commuting by BART and bicycle from his home in South San Francisco. He used a compact fold-up bike, small enough to fit in his cube, and get past security!
One day Hide came into the office wearing neon running shoes. He had joined a running club in San Francisco, and was training for a half-marathon. Little did I know that he had been on the track & field team in high school and ran religiously during that time. After graduation, he had mostly stopped, and would only sporadically participate in short distance races like 5K’s and the Bay to Breakers. Over the years, he gained weight and became out of shape then one day found he was unable to finish a 5k race in good time.
Hide then saw an ad about the San Francisco Marathon online. It inspired him to do something, so he joined their training program to get back on track. Later that year he finished his first half-marathon race. This first half-marathon triggered his love of running once again and his running career took off from there.
After he ran several half and full marathons on the road, he began to switch to trail running in the first quarter of last year. Shortly thereafter, he set his sights to become part of the elite group of ultra-marathoners, 0.1% of the population, inspired by two of his most admired athletes. One was a well-known ultra-marathon champion named Scott Jurek, that Hide met through a friend. Scott ran the Appalachian Trail in 2015, finishing at the fastest supported speed on record (2,189+ miles in 46 Days, 8 hours and 7 minutes—over 46 miles/day!)
The second was his favorite Oakland A’s player, Eric Byrnes, who transformed himself into a trail runner after he retired from professional baseball. Eric recently finished the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run within 24 hours. Both men excel in this sport. Hide doesn’t compare himself to them, but they’ve inspired him to also attain what seems impossible to most, and made him determined to challenge himself more.
He set a goal to run the Lake Chabot 50K in November of last year. He was happy to finish and now joined the ‘0.1% club’. He had a family road trip to Antelope Canyon (Page, Arizona) in the spring of 2016. As he experienced the sight of this place, he totally fell in love with it. He also happened to know that Antelope Canyon hosted an ultra-marathon race and set his sights to run the Antelope Canyon 55K for his 2nd ultra-marathon in February this year.
Hide signed up to run Antelope! The time limit for this race is 11 hours. According to last year’s results, a lot of runners finished within 9-10 hours. Being that this was just his second ultra, he modestly aimed to also finish within 10 hours.
Even after analyzing the course extensively in preparation, the reality of the actual trail was unexpected. A big issue was desert sand. Normally, running on sand consumes about 1.6 times the energy required on a paved road, but that statistic fell short running on this desert sand.
He also climbed up and down a lot on bluffs and boulders, a new experience for him. It was not a big issue to climb around a 10 ft. rock, but this changed when he went into Water Holes Slot Canyon after the 13 mile point. He was in shock when he realized that he needed to go vertically straight down a 100 ft. slot canyon! (He has a video of this; it is quite remarkable). When he went through this area, his pace dropped to 20 minutes per mile. He started doubting that he could finish within his planned 9-10 hour range, but knew that he needed to keep moving.
Fortunately the last 10-mile trail loop around the city of Page was stable and benign. He speeded up in this area and finished within 9 hours! Antelope Canyon 55K was the most difficult but thus far the most enjoyable race Hide has done.
What is Hide’s next goal? 50K is still the entry level for ultra-marathons. He still wants to be better than the 0.1%, and to keep running longer, like his heroes Scott Jurek and Eric Byrnes, and challenge himself to a 100-mile ultra-marathon. We wish him well, and are confident that he will meet these ever-increasing goals! We are happy to have this determined, focused individual as part of our team. Just make sure you save some energy for your job Hide!
ここ2週間ぐらいこんなこと書かされて、うちのボスが編集して、近いうちに社報みたいなものに載るらしいです。
でもねぇ〜ディレクターカット版が欲しいwww. 自分の書いたこと3分の1削らなければならなかったから、上手くニュアンスが伝わるかどうか…
ということがありました。私、こういう書き物はホントはしたくないんですよ。なんて言うのかな…俳優になってしまうんです。自分が1度書いたことって一字一句頭に残ってしまうんですよね。それだけだったらいいんですが、頭の中で…いや…人が見ていなかったら身振り手振り付けて、延々と吐き出しているんです。それこそ演説者を演じると言ったらいいでしょうか…小さい頃からの癖でね…側から見たら頭おかしいんじゃないと思われてもおかしくない…(実際にそう思われてるか)…だから俳優モードに入ってしまう書き物は書きたくないんです。じゃあ、ブログは？と思うでしょ？ 長編書いちゃうとブログでも起こってしまう…これ、仕事がはかどらないんですよ。案の定、2週間こんな調子なんで仕事が遅れてしまいました。
さて、話変わって…今日の昼はマクドのバーガーを食べました。
クォーターパウンダーデラックス…なんか日本でクォーターパウンダーがメニューから消えるって聞いたんですけど、なんで止めるのかねぇ…私も何気にオーダーするから、日本でもそういう傾向あるんじゃない？ 隠れヒット商品だと思うけど…