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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Tokyo Marathon 2017 |
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| Namban Rengo post-Tokyo Marathon party |
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