Tokyo Marathon outcome: 3:36:28 net time

I never thought I could be at the starting line of the Tokyo Marathon 2012 after getting a cold with strong fever bouts from Thursday night, barely 3 days away. On Friday night the fever was so strong that left me feeling so sick on Saturday morning and could only manage to get out of bed at about 1pm. I was therefore sure if I get another fever bout on Saturday night, I couldn’t make it on Sunday.

Luck was on my side as far as fever was concerned, as on Saturday night there was no fever except for a bit of headache and Nausea. I kept psyching myself up for the race, preparing my stuff. The preparation included things like pinning the tag on my running gear, attaching the chip to my shoe, setting up the fluids that I needed and so on. I didn’t want to entertain the thought that I couldn’t run despite feeling sick.

On the Big day I woke up at 5:30 after about 6 hours sleep. I went to the convenience store and got two onigiris with some tea. I like Onigiris and Jasmine tea during races. They are comfortable on my stomach. When I got to the running area, most of the areas were quite crowded. Long queues at public toilets.  I avoided such crowded places and entered one of the expensive hotel buildings in the vicinity.  Many runners don’t go to such places.  I found vacant toilets at 53 floor, relieved myself and changed.  From the building I just headed to the luggage truck and deposited my stuff.

This time I was put in Block D.   I was supposed to be in block A, but my Rikuren Association membership expired at the beginning of this year.  During the application it was alright I believe, so technically, I lost the special status.  That was really annoying, but good I got the chance.

  I entered the running area few minutes before the gates closed and fortunately there were very few people manning the gates, so no one was telling me where to go.  When I looked around I saw the B block runners just infront of me, I skipped the barrier and melted in the B group: a great relief!  Soon I met a Namban guy and we started a bit of chit-chat, then another Namban guy who had the chance to run 6 consecutive Tokyo Marathons joined us, then he pushed a bit ahead of us as he was shooting for a sub 3hrs.

I was still coughing and feeling sick before the gun, so I opted to go conservatively.  I had my cellphone with me, watching the leaders as I ran the first 7 kilometres, before my battery went dead.  This time I wasn’t in a rush, I learnt from my past mistake. I took enough time at water points, stopping literally in some occasions to make sure I drunk. Also I had my own energy drink in my runner’s pocket.  I planned to take one at about 15km, another one at 25km area,  and the last one at over 35km point.

Everything went well, I didn’t feel hungry at 25km point like in my previous race, nor did I feel any calf muscles pain. I was well fueled so I didn’t pick any Bananas on the offing. However, when approaching 37km mark I started getting blurred vision, when I look ahead I couldn’t focus on anyone infront of me.  So I opted to look up at buildings to get my focus back.   At 37km point I took my last energy drink, but the blurry vision continued so I opted to go slow. At this point I could imagine how Yuki Kawauchi feels before collapsing.   I knew for sure if I push I might collapse, but that was mainly due to the cold that I had and the medications that I took before the race I guess.

In addition, if we look back, I only had a 30.8 km longest run, I was sure the pain might start after 35km point.  Find the splits below:

 

地点名 Point	スプリット （ネットタイム） Split （Net Time）	ラップ Lap	通過時間 Time
5km	00:27:54　(0:26:11)	0:26:11	09:37:54
10km	00:53:03　(0:51:20)	0:25:09	10:03:03
15km	01:18:24　(1:16:41)	0:25:21	10:28:24
20km	01:42:49　(1:41:06)	0:24:25	10:52:49
25km	02:07:17　(2:05:34)	0:24:28	11:17:17
30km	02:32:38　(2:30:55)	0:25:21	11:42:38
35km	02:58:15　(2:56:32)	0:25:37	12:08:15
40km	03:26:37　(3:24:54)	0:28:22	12:36:37
Finish	03:38:11　(3:36:28)	0:11:34	12:48:11

Tokyo Marathon Course Record:Expect it to go down today

Tokyo Marathon course record stands at 2:07:23 by Victor Rothlin way back in 2008 and in women it stands at 2:25:38 by Nasukawa Mizuho in 2009. However given the participation of the former Marathon King, Haile Gebreselasie with a 2:03:59 best time along with Jafred Kipchumba and Michael Kipyego with 2:05 and 2:06 best times last year respectively. In addition, Viktor Rothlin is also invited to defend his course record. Therefore, there is nothing more to expect than a new course record in men’s .

Women’s course record is not so much under threat, but we have to recognize the presence of three ladies, who ran under 2:25 last year. Helena Kirop from Kenya with a 2hrs 23:37 Venice Marathon win, Habtamu Atsede from Ethiopia 2:24: 25 Berlin Marathon 2011, 4th and Jerusalem Kuma from Ethiopia with a 2:24:55 Amsterdam Marathon 2011 2nd.

Let’s see

Very Unfortunate

I have been really psyched up running Tokyo Marathon and was really glad to overcome the Achilles injury. However, I think this time I am not lucky with Tokyo Marathon. Last Thursday night a strange fever, backache and runny nose started, I thought I got a flu only 3 days before Tokyo, so on Friday morning I went to the hospital. I got some medication but they couldn’t find any flu virus.

After the hospital, I went to the Tokyo Marathon Expo. I was very disappointed that they put me in group D this time. Anyway the expo was really great, but not as great as in 2009.  Many stalls don’t give free samples like before, they just give good offers, but not as good as in 2009.

I got my energy supply pack and a running pocket. So if all goes well, I will pit in on time and try to achieve my goal.

Last night (Friday night) till this morning  I had a 38.6 degrees fever, it makes me feel sick( Nausea, headache and dizziness). I can’t figure out what is the real problem but if tonight I don’ t get better, it means no Tokyo Marathon for me.

Friday run

A bit late putting this up.

Last Friday I did a 17.6km run at a sustainable pace just to pump rhythm in my muscles.  The same evening I had an Orthopedist appointment, and the Orthopedist felt there is no need to adjust the insole anymore, and wished me luck. That was a great relief.

Last week, I ordered the latest Takumi Ren Japan line AdiZero through someone from Adidas at half the retail price.  On Saturday, I collected the shoes from my office, but haven’t tested them yet.  I might test them this evening or on Monday if possible.

I am not yet decided what pair of shoes to use during the race, but the Puma Faas 300 is the highest potential candidate.

The good news is, the Tokyo Marathon weather this year might be the best ever!

 

 

A good threshold run

I gave myself a bit of a break after my 30.8K on Saturday.  By Wednesday (Yesterday), I felt good enough to go for a bit of a run.

At the moment mileage is not the main thing anymore as the big day is approaching. The runs I do now are just to sharpen me up and to keep my rhythm going.

The goal wa to do anything above 10k but not over 17.6k.  I was hoping for a 17.6 K, that’s 4 loops of 4.4 under 1hr 15 minutes.  I just felt like I could better my 1 hr 15 minutes I did last Wednesday.

The opening lap wasn’t bad,  I usually go slow at first as the engine needs to get warmed up and the muscles need to soften up a bit.  The first loop went by in about 19minutes 40 seconds.

In the second lap the rhythm was on, and could do it in 18 minutes more or less.

When going onto the third lap, the thought of not pushing myself so hard started playing in my mind.  From my experience, a number of times I ignore such messages, something unpleasant occurs.  Just to be on the safe side, I decided to close the training after 3 loops.

I could manage a 55 minutes 13.3K which was within under 1hr 15 minutes 17.6K goal pace.

I felt like I had a good threshold exercise at the end.

Probably I will do one more run tomorrow.

The first and last Long run before Tokyo Marathon

I have been down with common cold from Thursday. I was thinking of doing a long run this Friday, but my sore throat was so severe.  However, I didn’t want to push the long run next week as my recovery time would be shorter, so today with a bit of cold I decided to take the risk.

I started my run at about 8:40 in the evening.  It wasn’t so cold nor windy, idle situation for a good run apart from my sore throat and a bit of  a cough.  I decided to go for seven 4.4 km loops, but since this was my first 30k training, I was a bit pantsy.  I told myself to go pretty conservatively thinking of the big picture.  It worked well as the first 5 loops went by at a 22 minutes a loop pace.

After the fifth loop, listening to my body, I was confident that I could cover the two more loops at a decent pace.  I picked up the pace to close the two loops at a 20 minutes a loop pace.

Finally  I covered 30.8 kilometres in exactly 2hrs 30 minutes and feeling great!

Looking back: This week was very fruitful. On Monday I did 17.6 K, On Wednesday 17.6 K as well and Today (Sat) 30.8 K.

In total I covered 76Km this week  just after my recovery.

The remaining weeks, I will take things so slow as a taper for the big run.

Today: Second training

Today at about noon, I went out for my second run after a day’s recovery. It felt much better than Monday. I decided to do the same 4.4 loop four times, and was hoping for a 20 minutes a loop pace.

At first I felt stiff due to the chilliness, but after about 2 kilometres my body warmed up.  I hit the first loop in 20 minutes and my rhythm of pre Achilles injury was  coming back.  I am not sure when and where I picked up the pace, but the second lap went fast…18 minutes!  I decided to slow down in the third lap but it was still under 20 (minutes).   The last lap went in 18 minutes like the second one.  Not surprising as last laps are normally fast in many cases. In total I ran in 1 hr 15 minutes for the 4 laps.

I wasn’t thinking bettering my Monday time, but I am glad to cut 5 minutes in my second run with less muscle pain.

Cheers

My first real training after Achilles injury

On Monday  this week on a chilly weather night,  I went out for a run with doubts, as in the previous week I tested the insoles on 3 occasions without much success. Once in the gym and twice on the road, logging about 30 kilometres in all, but it felt like it wasn’t possible to run over 10Km. Every time I approached the 10km point during the testing period, I felt a bit of pain.

This Monday things were different in that,  last Friday I went to the Orthopedist to report  the pain I experienced when approaching 10k mark. The Orthopedist adjusted the left insole and asked me to try it out again.  So I went out after the rain stopped on Monday, the roads were wet so I avoided the long 5k loop route which had a sharp incline as I approach the Sumida city office. I didn’t want to pick up another injury from slipping.

Instead of the 5k loop, I chose a 4.4k loop which is along the 5 k loop course but less riskier. My first lap went by in 20 minutes and I decided to keep that pace as I listened to my body.   After the second lap, I felt good but a bit shaky.   With a bit of concentration I felt strong enough to go another lap.   In the third lap the body got in a kind of rhythm which made it possible for a fourth lap.

I took exactly 1hr 20 minutes for the four laps which equate to 20 minutes a lap or 17.6 kilometres in 1 hr 20 minutes.

My muscles were sore in the end and my Achilles was burning.

Anyway, it was a good start.