Tokyo Marathon

Well … What can I say?  I’ll keep it short and simple …

Did it … Finished it … and will never, ever, EVER do it again !!

I won’t even get into the weather conditions, cramps, blisters, etc. …. I just ask that this subject never be brought up again.

Having now vented … and put in some horrific time … I am genuinely happy that I finished this nightmare and I can now put it behind me!  (well, maybe not quite yet, since it’s Wednesday, and I’m still walking with crazy pains)

In closing, I still feel as though I need to leave some thoughts for Paul … and so, I will quote Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction.

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the Valley of Darkness; for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder of lost children. And, I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers! And, you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!   (Ezekiel 25:17)

The bold section is just a small indication of how I will feel if you ever suggest anything like this to me again! 

Watch it on YouTube: Julius in Pulp Fiction

.. to Joe, Andy, Reza and Dave and to the other 34,996 lunaticsathletes !

Well, with the 2009 Tokyo Marathon just around the corner, I just happened to walk into the new Asics store in Harajuku to have a look around and decided to grab a new pair of their Gel running shoes … the Gel Kayano 15. 

The place was fairly quiet and the vendor offered to do one of those detailed computerized profiles of my feet … so I said why not?  Well, the scan and the results were quite impressive, and for all serious runners (no, I’m not one of them!), I definitely recommend that you do it.  Needless to say, make sure you get the vendors to walk you through each aspect of the results.

Below is the report for my feet (click on image to enlarge).  All in all, a fairly good pair, no weird anomalies except for one big toe which apparently decides to lean a bit !

Seiko, official timer of the Tokyo Marathon, have announced new watches in their “Super Runners” series to commemorate the 2009 race. All have timers up to 99 hours so should be able to cope with even my marathon pace. Priced from 12,000 to 20,000 yen officially, but expect to see them discounted as usual at your local electronics emporia.

Personally I was burned on my first ’sports watch’ purchase, acquiring a seemingly all-singing Casio G-Shock which I subsequently realised would a.) not time beyond 1 hour and b.) the digital stopwatch was unreadable except in bright daylight, even with its own built in-light. So I made a giant leap forward in timing technology and bought a 1960’s designed watch proven to be capable of timing the odd important event.

I wore it for the rain-sodden 2007 Marathon and it performed perfectly unlike its owner.

Here is the BBC video coverage of this year’s Great Ethiopian Run which had over 32,000 people running through Addis Ababa.  By now the largest street-run event in Africa, it was founded eith years ago by Haile Gebrselassie, the great Ethiopian long distance runner who has broken 26 world records and has won numerous World Championship and Olympic titles

Each year, a sigle color from the Ethipian flag is chosen as the official race color.  This year, the  color was RED.  I have also included a couple of photos from previous years: Green (2006) and Yellow (2005) just so you can enjoy the stunning visual sights.  (Reminds me of this year’s Nike Human Race at Mt. Fuji !!)

• Men’s Winner: Chala Dechasa (28:55)
• Women’s Winner: Wude Ayalew (33.31)

I believe we have a little less than 16 weeks to the big day. Its time to dust off the training plans I would say. Not to mention time to start planning your races for next year.

The Outdoor Japan web site lists a lot of interesting races – under races and events:

http://www.outdoorjapan.com/contents/home?language=english

Good luck everyone and in the words of Wolfey “hope you get your PR” !!!