Tokyo Marathon

So I trained all year in 32C no rain only to rock up in Shinjuku raining at 7:30am 5C. Standing around was a bit of a bore and I didn’t find any faces I recognised. Once the start occured, being in K section it was about 20 minutes before I crossed the line. This had me worried as the time limit of 7 hours is from the start so I had already been reduced to 6:40… The going was slow and tough. Not having wet weather gear or trained in the cld showed and the whole time I questioned why I was doing this. The only thing I could think of was that I was doing it so that I did not have to start this again. Agghh.. But by 20km near Shinagawa I had enough, only to be passed (coming the other direction) by Stephen Owen yelling “CHRISTOPH, HOWS IT GOING”. Of course I lied and said great, resolved to press on a little bit more.. Well then getting close to Akasaka I was again passed by Stephen yelling “CHRISTOPH, WANT A PILL?”. Blindly I took the pills which Stephen said were pain killers (I have my doubts!!) , was coinvieintly located near a water station and plodded on. In no time at all 30km of effort was completed and a Japanese Mechanical Engineer, working for the Yokohama City who had run 4 marathons previously came up fro a chat… He eventually accelerated (more on him later). By now it was down hill, only 10km to go, heck an hours worth of running – now if only I could run. A bit of me that had never protested to my training previously was killing me and I waddled on to 1km to the end when the Japanese Mechanical Engineer approached from behind… He didn’t kn ow how I had been faster than him (ha)… Anyway we took off our sodden gear so that, as proper Japanese we would look proper crossing the line then crossed in unison in about 6:30 on the clock with hands raised (as if out for a stroll) – by my rekkoning that makes my time somewhere between 6:10 and 6:30. I did look around alittle for everyone else but no one was around.

Hmm, now should I train for an ultra?