Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there
-Soul Asylum
About a year ago I received a notification from the Tokyo Marathon Foundation that I was one of 50 people globally to win a bib to the 2023 Tokyo Marathon by participating in one of the foundation's virtual half marathons. It was an incredible gift as Tokyo is one of the hardest World Marathon Majors to get into via lottery or really by any other means other than charity or tour group.
It would be a chance to earn my third star as part of the majors' Six Star Finisher program -- I'd received my first star in Chicago in 2010 and my second in Berlin in 2018.
This past training cycle it was all about regaining my focus. After I finished my second Revel Mt. Charleston Marathon last April (in 3:53) I was all out of focus. I kind of sleptwalked through the Philmont Scout Ranch's first ever trail race (I ran in the 19-mile heavy half, at altitudes up to 9,200') and then really struggled in the California International Marathon in December, running it in 4:47 after almost trying to find an Uber off the course at Mile 18 until one of my Hyland's teammates found me and then we walked/ran to the finish.
So for the next three months a fire was lit under me to train better. And for the most part it worked, as this race was the first time in 14 marathons that I felt like I ran strong from start to finish, even passing people in the last mile. The caveat was that I ran it really slowly, finishing in 4:19 but at least now my third star is out of the way and I can look forward to training harder for my fourth star, the TCS New York City Marathon in November.
Getting There
I lived in Japan for nearly four years, first as an exchange student in college and later as an English teacher. But that part of my life was 30 years ago and it's been 20 years since I last visited Japan. I was a little nervous about what of the language, etc. I remembered.
Last year, the marathon's expo was on the days leading up to the race but you could only go on the day you were assigned. So that forced me to fly in nearly a week before the race. After I made my reservations, they announced that anyone could go on any expo day. Still, it was good to fly in and get acclimated to the jet lag (which I pretty much always have).
I stayed in the Remm Hibiya, which basically is classified in Japan as a "business hotel." It had no frills but was fantastic at about $130 a night and was exactly what I needed. It was a 5 minute walk from Hibiya Park and the same distance from two subway lines. It was about a 10-minute line from the Japan Railways line that provides connection to the Tokyo Monorail, which is an easy way to get to and from Haneda International Airport (and only cost about $5).
From there I spent the days leading up to the start of the expo on Thursday traveling around the city, hunting for plush Pokemon for my kids at the various Pokemon Centers around the city and even catching some early blossoms at nearby Yoyogi Park (where I think I even saw the elite runners doing shakeout runs).
The expo
I decided to go to the expo first thing at 10 a.m. on Thursday. I connected from the west side of the city where I visited Yoyogi Park and the kitschy Harajuku neighborhood. The expo is at Tokyo Big Sight and it's a large convention space. When I got there there was a pretty long line and they hadn't even set up the crowd lines so it was a little chaotic.
All week I had to record my temperature in a health app and they checked for this before letting you in the expo. Still it was amazing to see lots of people not having done this at all, especially when we received several emails from the marathon telling us to do this.
After that you had to go to the bib pick-up spot that was assigned to you. My spot, #7, was not crowded but I saw and heard that a lot of foreigners were assigned to spots #16 and #17 and they waited about 90 minutes for their bib.
From there was a crowded expo space that included another long line to pick up the race T-shirt that was optional and you had to order in advance. It was cash only and I was glad I had on hand the $40 or so needed to get it although when I saw the shirt it didn't impress me that much. From there I could have waited in another long line for the sponsor Asics for other Tokyo Marathon shirts. They had what was available high on display near the top of the expo space. I guess my eyesight wasn't good; I was a little tired from walking around Harajuku previously and didn't get into the second (third?) line for those shirts. Later I had FOMO when I saw some of the designs, which were way better than the official optional shirt I purchased.
Scouting out the start
One of the things they mentioned was for you to scout out the start area since based on your corral (which was based on a recent marathon, hence my 3:53 from Mt. Charleston) you could only enter a particular gate. This area is by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku which is on the west side of the city. So on Saturday I made my way there and sure enough it was pretty confusing but I started from the start and backtracked my way all the way to the train station to know exactly which way to go.
Race day
On race morning I must have gotten up like at 3:30 a.m. because of jet lag. Earlier in the week I had been absolutely hitting the wall starving around 10 a.m. so I wanted to make sure I had eaten sufficiently before the start of the race, which was at 9:05 a.m. By 6:30 a.m. I was out and made my way to the red line Ginza station which has direct service to Shinjuku, about 8 stops. You get a 24-hour metro pass from the expo and it was cool to use. I was a little surprised that the train was not as crowded as I thought it would be.
From there I navigated the same way as my Saturday scouting mission but right before I got to the part where I would go from the subway to the surface level they had a volunteer with a sign saying to go back the way you came for Gates 1 and 2. I decided to abandon the way I wanted to go and did this. One issue I had was that it was maybe mid-40s out. The subway car was extremely warm and when I got outside and hit the cold air ... I immediately had to go potty.
I was a little worried because the way the volunteer had us go was some kind of long underpass that was already crammed full of people. Despite Shinjuku being a huge train station there did not appear to be a bathroom near me and I started to worry about my options. I surfaced and thought about trying to make it to one of the luxury hotels. The race information instructed us not to do this and sure enough one of the hotels (which coincidentally was one of the first hotels I ever staying in Japan years ago) was checking hotel cards for entry. So I decided to just try to make my way to Gate 2 and hope for the best.
Luckily, there really weren't lines for Gate 2. You had to show on your health app that you had entered in the information from the two antigen tests they gave you at the expo and after that there were dozens of portapotties with no lines. I was very thankful.
Almost like a video game, from there, I climbed some stairs and saw a bunch of Japanese runners changing shoes, etc. before they got to the gear drop. I decided to do the same and changed in my shoes and got everything ready. I had brought a long sleeve shirt from the Tartan Trot that was too snug on me, a silver mylar space blanket and one of those throwaway Atlanta Track Club painters jackets that they gave out after races. I put the painters jacket in my gear bag and checked it and then got in a long line for another portapotty (I should have gone back to the other portapotties but didn't have anything else to do) which took about 50 minutes waiting.
So with just a few minutes to spare I was in the corral. There were a few dozen foreign dudes urinating on the side of buildings before the start, something that was in the race instructions for people not to do. I was pretty cold and shivering and was wondering if I should have brought more clothes. We started to walk up to the start and I ditched the space blanket and long sleeve shirt. I was really shivering and was even deciding whether to pick up someone's random clothes cast aside to stay warm.
The race
Two weird things happened right before the race. For some reason the power meter setting on my watch face got replaced with the timer function (so I had 2 of 4 fields telling me how much time had elapsed) without me doing anything to the watch and my iPhone had completely gone dead. So I spent my last few moments before the start trying to reboot my phone so I could listen to my playlist.
When the race started there wasn't really anything like it that I've ever experienced. It looked like a stampede! There were probably eight lanes and they were jammed full of runners! It was extremely cool to be running on the street and see trains whizzing by overhead or in the distance. I laughed when my favorite songs from the 90's started to play -- the same songs I used to listen to on a mini disc player when I lived here.
I thought I was running at an 8:45/mile pace and I felt good. But my watch had reverted to regular GPS mode instead of foot pod calculated measuring and the skyscrapers wreaked absolute havoc on my watch. I was running at a 10 min/mile pace and didn't know it. My watch says I finished the marathon having run 27.9 miles. I thought at some point my pace would correct everything but when I crossed the halfway mark in 2:04 I knew that this would likely not happen and I would not break 4 hours today.
Still, I felt really strong. At each 5K I stopped to take a gel and a SaltStick electrolyte capsule. I usually bring fast chews and that's what I thought I had with me but these were capsules and I thought I had to just stop and swallow one. It worked fine though. It was nice to see that my pace was not really hindered too much by stopping (although at 35K I really wondered what I was doing out there).
The marathon course looks like a spider's leg. You have about 4 out and backs along it and it goes clockwise from the metro headquarters to the Imperial Palace on the east side of the city. I stayed maybe about a half mile from the finish sort of like I did in Berlin and I felt it was a huge advantage in the end to recognize landmarks so late in the race.
The first 5 miles of the race are downhill like everybody says and it is basically downhill although there are some long CIM-style inclines, one that is around the 31K mark of the course. But I plodded along and felt really good the whole way.
Near the end, maybe 34K I was a little concerned when the 4:30 pace group passed me (and I never caught the group although I did catch a pacer with a few hundred meters to go) but with my calculations I thought there was no way I would finish in 4:30 nor would the pace group. It left me thinking though that they must have dropped a bunch of prospective 4:30 runners since the last thing you want when you're shooting for a certain time is to have your pacers run 15 minutes faster than your mark.
The last kilometer is all on some kind of square cobblestone. That distance is about the distance from where you turn onto 10th Street in the Peachtree Road Race to the finish. I felt super good at this point and even did not stop to take my last capsule at 40K, feeling I would deal with any leg cramps if I had any at that point.
As soon as the turn started I started to kick. I ran as fast as I could and passed dozens of people. The one thing about Nike's super shoes are that if you have the leg strength left, they absolutely have the gears. I floated along the stones and didn't even think about them on the way to the finish. It was the first time I'd ever finished a marathon in this way and I can definitely see the allure.
The 27th mile
After the race I got to experience what I'd only heard about -- the so-called 27th mile. When you finish you are diverted based on your bib color which corresponds to your gear check location. Mine was in Japan's Otemachi district, basically their Wall Street. And I walked no less than eight city blocks to get to my gear bag. It was not something I wanted to do at that point and it was unfortunately in the wrong direction from my hotel. Ever since running in the Chicago Marathon in 2010 and developing painful leg cramps I'd always wanted to stay close to the finish.
I got my gear bag but I was not done. From there I was directed into the ballroom of a skyscraper and there all the guys changed into their street clothes. My guess is so Japanese runners can go back to looking as normal as possible (and I guess maybe less smelly for the subway). But in my mind I didn't want to put clean clothes over my sweaty body, especially since I didn't bring many clothes for the trip. But I did take off my bib and running shirt and replaced it with a fresh shirt. From there I realized I was nearly 2 kilometers way from my hotel (from what was only a half-mile from the finish) and made my slow way back there. The road right before my hotel was still blocked off for the race and so I had to make my way down sets of subway stairs and back up just to return.
The aftermath
I felt pretty good after the race and was happy on how I ran it even if it was much slower than I would have liked. This race was the first time where I really saw the energy that comes from all the people chasing their six stars (maybe since Tokyo is both so hard to get into and so far many save it for last). That energy is contagious and it really reinforced my desire to someday get my last three stars. It really was a whirlwind trip and even for someone like me who has been to Japan many times, one of my top experiences.
I realized when I was there this also could be a victory lap. It had been 20 years since I was last in Japan and very easily could be the last time that I ever set foot in the country. All those memories combined with my new experiences were almost overwhelming.
When I was about to board the plane at the airport, the gate agent who was checking my boarding pass told me in broken English, "Please come back for the marathon last year." I could only laugh since I know how hard it is to get into this marathon. But what if? lol
