Tokyo Marathon

Alright, another under 30 mins for the 5Km, this time with Joe. Alex almost made it .. but had another commitment. Next time Alex ?

In Hong Kong next week, not expecting to do any running.

Stephen Owen (stephen.owen@db.com) sent me an email today with the URL for the Tokyo marathon.  Given that I had been thinking about doing a marathon and I love Japan this seemed like a good excuse to travel up to Tokyo. So I signed up

 http://www.tokyo42195.org/index_e.html

 Maybe I can do some skiing too – but that is probably optemistic.

 Oh, and of course, for those of you whom know Richard Owen (richard.owen@barcap.com), Stephen is his brother.

… but mainly biscuit.

Contrary to previous assertions of deity-like running ability, I realised I am in fact, not a lost nephew of Roger Bannister. I am, more than likely, a direct descendant of a blancmange.

Yes, overconfidence all round. Tried to up the distance to 8Km last night, and failed utterly. In fact, I didnt even get 3Km before having to walk. My humble running companion Joe kindly faked a hobble too, to keep me company, and we eventually finished 8Km at a walking pace .. somewhat longer than an hour.

Ho hum. A tired shoe earned anyway ..

Oh yes .. 

positivometer : 0
Km since last blog : 5 + 8 ( just .. )
Total Km : 45

Imperial Palace … flew round it today. Bounded like a demented Goldilocks down the home straight and finished the circuit in a new personal best of 28.5 minutes. At this speed, I definitely noticed fewer octogenarians passing me. Even some of the 70-year olds were struggling to elbow past me.

I am a running god.

I traced our common route, around the perimeter of the Imperial Palace, Tokyo. It came to 5.04Km as I drew it :

( Zoomable version of this is available here )

And to scale, the same route shown on this partial map of Tokyo, home to more than 30 million people ..

It was a fantastic night for a run, cool and clear. I managed to run my best time yet that was 27 min 40 secs 52 h/secs.  Its probably never to be repeated. I guess it was one of those once in a lifetime things.