Tokyo Marathon 2009!

I have been biking to school everyday (about 50 min each way) since the marathon so I at least get a little exercise and time outside into my daily routine, but I've been putting off the big "get back into it" day. Today was supposed to be that day, but I've been sitting at home reading the net: blogs, news and grad school forums (I should probably start an account on some of them - I feel like a stalker for how much I check in on some of them recently). I had the best intentions to start today, but it was pretty much over when I went outside to hang up some laundry hit the cold.

So speaking of the last week and running... big news: I finished the Tokyo Marathon!!

Tokyo Marathon

In the end, my finish time was about 5 hours and 13 min with a chip time (ie - real time or time from when I actually passed the start line) of about 5 hours and one min. My pace was way slower than I had expected or hoped, but I am happy with the result.

I did all the training - maybe five 35k-ish runs and one 41k long run - and have gotten used to running on my own, but my running shoes (which I LOVED and planned to keep for Tokyo and replace after this race) hit the final tipping point the WEEK of the race and I had to get a new pair 3 days before. Anyone who runs races will tell you that replacing your shoes within two weeks of a marathon is a major sin in the religion of running, but I think my regular shoes would have done more damage (ie- potential injury) than the new ones so I took the risk and hunted down the same brand, style and size that I had before. Finding the shoes themselves was not an easy task (even though they were Asics and are made in Kobe), but I was pretty lucky that the marathon went alright! I had some problems walking down stairs the first day after the race, but no blisters this time and I kept all the toenails for once. The weather forecast was also pretty crappy the day of the run and this was also my first long run in the rain, but it didn't start pouring until after I finished. Lucky!

Details about the Event
I was honestly pretty impressed by how well organized this event was and definitely had some company along the way. This was only the 3rd anniversary of the Tokyo Marathon but there were 30,000 full marathon participants and 5,000 entries for the 10k. The large participation size also meant that approx. 2 MILLION people came out to cheer us on. I was amazed by the fact that there seemed to be almost zero gaps in the wall of people formed by the lining the course's sidelines. The cheering never seemed to cease for the entire 5 hours I was running.

Something else I was impressed by was how the runners were grouped. I had to submit my estimated time when I applied for the race and was then grouped with people that had submitted about the same time. I am guessing the Marathon winners (professional runners) were in group A, I was in group F and those who just hit the (7 hour) time limit were probably group K or so. This ability-bracket system really works well because by the end of the morning, I realized that I actually had been following the same people ("pink twisted-tanktop girl" and "nike running shirt guy" ) for pretty much the entire course from the whole race and saw even more people I started with when I was waiting in line for my goody bag after the finish.

This was my first marathon in Japan where we weren't allowed to bring our own food and place it at food stations (which I was a little nervous about at first - you gotta put some fuel back into your system as you go!), but they had a really steady supply of water and energy drinks along the way and a ton of food (raisins, bananas that they peeled for you & bread) after about 25 kilometers. I did end up going with the Power Bar strategy in the morning and even drank two gel drinks (yuck, yuck, yuck) along the way, but I almost felt too full and couldn't even take any of the bread by the time I got to it!

My Favorites & The Course

In hindsight, I'm just proud I finished this run and finally did a major city race, but I would say the best part of this marathon was just getting to run around a car-free Tokyo, exploring many of the big sites on foot. If you are familiar with Tokyo, the course basically started in Shinjuku (at the government buildings & near the Keio Plaza Hotel), took us around the Palace, past the Tokyo Tower and had us make a big loop around Shinegawa. Then we headed up through Ginza (again - no cars - wow!) to Asakusa Shrine, ran back down almost parallel to the river and came all the way back down to the Tokyo Bay (the Big Site convention center) for the finish. I was luckily staying at the Washington next to the finish line, which was truly great for just finding Dave (who was there to cheer me on - so sweet!) and getting out of the crazy crowds fast... not to mention being able to get out of my running shoes and into that hot shower quickly!

The worst part of the whole experience had nothing to do with running, but was probably just spending 10 hours on trains getting home from Tokyo! Dave came with me and we used the "Seishun 18 Kippu" pass. It wasn't as bad on the way up because we met my neighbor Deyi & her friend Ken in Hamamatsu for lunch and then stopped in Shizuoka for a night, but - even with my computer (and movies) - it's amazing how wasted those long journeys leave you.

I should go but more soon. Here some pictures from the race for now...

When you entered the race area (restricted for runners only), there were giant signs directing you where to go. The streets were totally packed, not to mention filled with massive lines for the porta potties, and there were a lot of stands offering sports drinks and water.

Once I got in, I headed straight to the medical center (inside one of the buildings) to get my knees taped and was then off to find my baggage truck and starting block.

Here is a picture of one of the baggage trucks. They gave us all bags labeled with our number, so we could leave things at the starting lines and then pick them up at the finish. Excellent idea! I was really happy I didn't need to come back to Shinjuku after the race to find my stuff in a locker or leave stuff with Dave before I was ready to get rid of it...

I took this picture when we were waiting to start the race. Those are the government buildings around us and you can see the big TV screen in the back. It was so packed - we could hardly walk and it took over 10 minutes to even get to the starting line because there were so many people (hence the fact that most race participants had to watch the opening ceremony and start from the giant screens).

Finally approaching the starting line! The race had already started by this point, but we were still moving pretty slowly... there were just a LOT of us crammed into that one little space but everyone seemed pretty jazzed up and ready to go!

Five hours later... I arrived at the finish line! I did it!! I was really surprised when the people sitting in the bleachers that lined the street leading up to the finish line started cheering for me as I picked up the pace and started to sprint the last little leg. Huge rush! I also jumped up and clicked my heels together as I passed the finish line, as is the tradition, but I have since seen a video of that little manuever and it was defnitely far less graceful than I thought it was at the time (then again - I had just run 42k and was a little tired, so whatcha gonna do?).

If you want to see more pictures of me running during the race and the video from the finish line, you can enter my race bib number (51446) on the Tokyo Marathon website :-p I just won't give you the link to get there to save a little face...haha.

These are the lines of runners, trying to leave the area after the finish line! Craziness! After getting our medals, we had to turn in our timing chips, collect our participation towel and goody bag (mostly filled with fuit, water & muscle spray) and were then herded into the baggage pick-up and "family reunification" areas. Like I said - I was really glad my hotel was across the street (you can actually see the tower on the right of this pic!) and I could get out of this area as soon as possible. Whoosh!

Tokyo Marathon 2009 Time Checkpoints (race was 9:10 - 16:10):
Iidabashi Central Plaza / Approx. 5.6km / 10:30 / 10km
Uchisaiwaicho / Approx. 10.5km / 11:04 / 15km
Shinagawa Turning Point (Takanawa 3-23) / Approx. 15.5km / 11:49 / 20km
Uchisaiwaicho Intersection / Approx. 20.4km / 12:33 / 25km
Higashi Nihombashi / Approx. 25.1km / 13:16 / 30km
Asakusabashi / Approx. 30.0km / 14:00 / 35km
Mannenbashi-Nishi / Approx. 34.6km / 14:42 / 38km
Toyosu Station / Approx. 38.1km / 15:31
Finish - Tokyo Big Sight / 42.195km / 16:10

Finally, here is a map of the course: