Tokyo

Last Sunday, I ran in Tokyo Marathon. It is one of my dream races and I had spent the past 4 months thinking about it everyday. Apparently the training paid off, as I achieved a new personal best of 3:27.

I started off conservatively and tried to get a feel of my legs. Original goal was a 3:45-3:50 finish. However, once the first few km were done at near 5 min/km pace with good feeling, I knew I have to attempt for a 3:30 finish.

After a smooth first half, things got increasingly tough. I told myself to keep going. My energy was gradually depleting. My feet were numb. My quads and hamstrings were hurting. But they were normal marathon pains. I didn’t stop for toilet even though I needed to use one, for fear of losing time and cramping up. Thanks to the bananas and Amino drinks given out, I was able to keep going and finish strong. 28 minutes improvement over my Bangkok Marathon 2009 time. I am thrilled.

splits:

• 5km: 0:26:15
• 10km: 0:50:21 (0:24:06)
• 15km: 1:13:44 (0:23:23)
• 20km: 1:41:45 (0:23:11)
• 25km: 2:05:24 (0:23:39)
• 30km: 2:30:02 (0:24:38)
• 35km: 2:55:08 (0:25:06)
• 40km: 3:20:59 (0:25:51)
• 42.195km: 3:26:51 (0:10:42)

saturday night ramen. my pre-race dinner.

We runners were quite lucky in terms of the weather. For me at least, the cool temp made a huge difference. It was nice 6 C at start and 17 C when I finished. The day after the race, it was raining all day and very chilly.

Another big boost for me was the crowds. They were amazing throughout the course. Their cheers definitely helped keep me going.

3 min from finish line

*update: I finished in the 2,605th place of 24,658 male finishers.

After a short downtime, I will resume my daily runs. But the next marathon probably won’t come for a while. My next race will probably a half marathon somewhere local.

it was a good day.

Besides the race, my wife and I had a wonderful vacation in Tokyo. It was my first vacation abroad since I started working over 5 years ago. It also had been more than 20 years since I last visited Japan. Sayounara and arigato to the beautiful country.

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