Fuji Susono Half Marathon 2017

My running club Namban Rengo organise an annual trip to Gotemba to participate in the Fuji Susono Half Marathon and 10K, which is around mid-May. As my birthday is also around this time, I thought it would be good to go away on this overnighter to an onsen resort next to a brewery. Saturday saw a group of nearly 30 Nambaners travel from Tokyo to Gotemba in Shizuoka Prefecture. We took in a quick dip in the onsen waters before giving in to the temptations of some deliciously brewed beer at the resort brewery restaurant. It was clear that the group focus was more on the onsen, food and beer combo rather than athletic excellence, which suited my birthday mood.

The half marathon has a couple of thousand participants. The race began with 300 metres on a running track, before the course left the stadium with a 100 metres flat section to a main road. Then there was a right turn onto an uphill section up to the 5K point. That’s right, 4.4km of uphill running. I took it very easy for the first flat 400 metres of the race, and gradually moved through the field before reaching the 5km point. The course then turned left onto an undulating loop for the next 5km, then re-joined the earlier main road for another 3km of uphill running and then again taking in the same 5km of undulating roads.

The last couple of KM’s was downhill along the main road back to the stadium. I was really struggling with dehydration by this point and was expecting a fair few runners to come hurtling by as I was barely able to pick up my speed, but was surprised that only one runner did. As I entered the stadium and crossed the 300 metres to go line, I realised I could scrape under 1 hours 27 minutes if I ran the last part of the race in under a minute, so I managed to find some reserves from somewhere to inject a little increase in speed to finish in 1 hour 26 minutes 56 secs. This is 10 minutes slower than the half marathon PB I ran in January, but Fuji Susono does involve an awful lot of uphill running.

After I finished, I watched the half and 10K finishers coming in, unwisely getting sunburnt in the process. The 10K race is a straight 5K up hill and 5K downhill affair, on the same course as the half. Returning as a group to the onsen resort after the race, we could ease our aching muscles with a good soak in an open air onsen before reminiscing about the day’s events, aided by the excellent beer of the brewery. 

Tokyo Marathon 2017

Things were not going well with my running by the summer of 2016. I had really lost my way in life, being forced out of my job, was going through a divorce, facing financial ruin, and worst of all I was only running 4 miles once or twice a week.  I did, however, apply for Tokyo Marathon entry, thinking that I probably would not get selected in the ballot but that it might help increase my chances for a future ballot. In September 2016, I got accepted into Tokyo Marathon. It was what I needed. Nothing short of getting a place in Tokyo Marathon could have forced me to turn my life around and start training consistently again.

Finishing straight at Toda Half Marathon in Nov 2016

In September and October, I struggled to get used to running 5-6 days a week again. The first target was to run over 40 miles a week, and it took me a few weeks to do that. I started doing long runs again on a Sunday, going to the Tamagawa River and running along there. The first 2 hour run almost killed me. I did a 10km time trial in November and a half marathon in Toda, Saitama the following week. Somehow, I managed to run 1 hours 19 minutes 54 secs at that half, so that really encouraged me to believe that perhaps I could aim for a good marathon time. I really ran above my fitness that day, drawing on years of previous racing experience to get the pace spot on – and starting the race 100% fresh.

Ekiden action in Yoyogi Park, Jan 2017

By December last year I started running twice a day a couple of times a week, and was averaging 70 miles plus throughout December and January. I could feel during my training runs that my fitness was rapidly improving. The highlight of the Tokyo Marathon training was running a new PB of 1 hour 16 minutes, my first PB since 2011, in the Shinjuku Half Marathon at the end of January. This made me start thinking that I had a realistic chance of running sub-2 hours 45 mins for the marathon.

On the way to a half marathon PB in Shinjuku, Jan 2017

Tokyo Marathon 2017 was my second marathon. I finished in 2 hours 52 minutes. I got to half way in 1 hours 22 minutes and 30km in 1 hour 57 mins. By 35km though I knew I was in big trouble as I turned around at a giant cone to head to the finish line, and I jogged the last 2 km at a painful crawl. So, I missed my target, but I had achieved a bigger goal of falling back in love with running and getting reasonably fit again. And more helpfully, if you finish Tokyo Marathon in under 2 hours 55 minutes, and are a non-permanent resident in Japan, you can avoid the ballot and apply for Semi-elite entry into the next years Tokyo Marathon.

Tokyo Marathon 2017 splits

It took me over 1-hour to hobble the 2km from the Tokyo Marathon finish line in front of Tokyo Station to the bag collection area. My legs almost gave way and I had to grip a wall a couple of times to remain upright during that walk, as my legs were totally spent. Even in the throes of pain, I was already thinking about how I can return and run Tokyo Marathon in 2018 and break that 2 hours 45 minutes barrier. From now and until I achieve that aim, all my running and training is going to be about smashing down that barrier.

Tokyo Marathon 2017

Namban Rengo post-Tokyo Marathon party