Tokyo Marathon: 3hrs 39mins 33secs
- philsoderberg
- Feb 22, 2015
- 2 min read
This was a strange race for me. Probably because I couldn't treat it like a race - I am part way through he training plan for Boston so this was kind of opportunistically wedged in. I had also not run much in the two weeks before due to feeling a bit rough plus ski week. So I had no idea what would happen to be honest - I didn't want a slow time but I couldn't afford to push too hard.
Race day, was not an inviting one. It was misty, damp and cold. Fortunately it was a short metro ride from Our place to the start. His was an experience in itself as you had to enter specific gates for bag search and airport style scanning. Sad that they now need to do that at major races, but that's the world we live in.
Rakesh and I went to our separate gates and it was time to get my act together. Bag drop complete I got into start block and it was cold. I had headband, cap, arm warmers, gloves a fleece and a plastic poncho on!!
The start was pretty - signalled by a ticker tape explosion of white hearts (no idea what the symbolism is???). So off with the poncho but I had to keep my fleece on until mile 1 before I felt warm enough to ditch it.
I had in mind to run it at training pace which would land me somewhere between 3:45 and 4:00 hours. So I headed out with first 10km down hill holding back at an 8:30 pace and no quicker. The crowds were great, really enthusiastic but no idea what they were shouting. At the halfway mark clocked 1:55 but I felt really good so I stepped up the pace to try and do a negative split - I'd never done that before.
The race went past all the major landmarks in Tokyo: the Imperial Palace, the Meijo Shrine, the Sensjo Shrine, Tokyo Tower, the Sky Tree tower, the Kubuki theatre. Pushed on my the bands (one playing "Let it Go") i made really good progress. There a few bridges at the end as we came in to the harbour area and even those I managed fine. Then I realised I was going to be really close to a 3:40 so I went all out for the last mile and as I turned into the last 200m I knew I was safely in. 03:39:33. Happy days now on to Boston.
