Race Recap: 2016 Tokyo Marathon, Part ONE

As I sit & reflect upon the 9 days that was Japan for me {or was it 8, or 10…. hard to judge with all of the time changes back & forth to Asia & the United States!}, I am full of a mix of emotions. I was also full of sore muscles—mostly all of that has since recovered; but I am still full of smiles. There will be a separate, more in-depth blog post to recap the trip to Japan in general, because honestly, the race was one of the easier parts of the trip. I know, shocker! For now, I will give my best shot at concisely {not my strong suit….} recapping my 2016 Tokyo Marathon. For readers who plan to run this race in the future, I will include some words of advice, so just look for the TIPs, which will be bold & underlined.

Race morning started with what had become my Japan norm—waking up before my alarm ever went off. Hello, jet lag! By 5:15am, I was scrolling through social media to pass the time until my friend & race companion, Sophia, would awaken. The night before we had loaded our suitcases & prepared out baggage drop bags, so that race morning would be quick & painless. Our pre-race dinner had been of the seafood & pasta variety; at a very nice restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Tokyo {Sophia HIGHLY recommends their Gluten-Free pasta, for all of you with Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance}. We eventually headed out of our 1-night hotel room at the Hardy Barracks at 7am. Following a walk, then a metro ride, then more walking, we eventually reached the entrance gates. During a metro potty stop, we met an Austria girl who was super sweet & very helpful—since not only did she live in Tokyo, but she had also run the marathon 2 years prior. Future Tokyo marathoners, here is a TIP: Use the restrooms in the metro area—the port-a-potties inside the entrance gates have ridiculously long lines, that will probably delay you reaching your starting corral & ultimately make you start in the wrong spot. At the entrance gates, Sophia & I would have to part ways—she went with Austria friend & just like that, I was alone. Cue the massive butterflies in the belly!

I made my way through security, then towards the baggage drop trucks. There are a TON of trucks! Mine was number 34! Someway, somehow, while organizing myself at the baggage truck, amongst more than 35,000 runners, I spotted Sophia & we again got to be together. It’s always so reassuring to be with people you know! TIP: If you wish to reconnect with your friends, pick a baggage truck to re-meet up at; once through the entrance gates, all of the runners are re-mingled together. But Sophia & I’s chatting it up was short-lived, since we had to split up again to head to our corrals {she in C, me in E}. I pushed my way, as nicely as possible, through the crowd, the biggest one I have ever seen, heading towards the other runners with an “E” as the start of their bib number. Strangely enough, my Austria friend then spotted me & we too had more time to hang out—probably close to 30 minutes before the gun went off. Seeing a familiar face & talking to someone who spoke English, definitely eased those butterflies until it was go-time!

The energy in the crowd was electric! It was obvious people were elated & in true Japanese fashion, being oh so kind to one another. Selfies were taken. Music played overhead. Announcements were made in both English & Japanese; maybe even some other languages, I am not sure. The sun began to shine & it progressively got warmer. One thing I learned about Japan is that their weather, despite similar temps to southeast Virginia, is much different— the air is quite brisk & much less humid, but their sun seems to shine more intensely. I was dressed in tights & a tank, with throw-away gloves & a sweatshirt. Tights & tank was a perfectly suited outfit for Tokyo weather! I electively tossed my throwaway items a few minutes before the gun—both due to getting warm & as a volunteer over the barrier line walked past with a trash bag for depositing items. TIP: It is advertised & warned in the Runners Handbook to not toss items of clothes or ponchos at the start, which almost deterred me from bringing a throwaway—please do know that there are plenty of opportunities to toss items, so bundle up pre-race & stay warm as long as you can!

Gun time was precisely at 9:10am, starting with a confetti blast. I was pretty shocked that being essentially five corrals back, being in letter “E”, I could pretty clearly see the confetti blast & the starting line! I had “budgeted”, when telling my hubby in the States who would be tracking me that I would start probably 10 minutes after the gun went off. In actuality, it was less than 5 minutes! Unlike races in the States that I have been a part of, there is no “holding back” the next corral & making them wait—runners are permitted to just keep proceeding through the start line. And just like that, the long awaited race from which I had entered the lottery back in August, it was now underway!

Although I had looked at the race course & elevation map a dozen times, I really had no idea of what I should expect. After doing two hilly marathons for my first & second attempts at the 26.2 distance {you can read about my Richmond & MCM recaps here}, I was stoked that this one was described as “flat”. But I 100% realized that “flat” is a very relative term. For someone in the mountains, “gentle rolling hills” is “flat”. Whereas those same “gentle rolling hills” are bigger than any hill my sea level self runs on a daily basis! I am happy to report however; those accounts of “flat” were about 99% correct! This was easily the least demanding course for a marathon that I had ever run.

Since I had reviewed the elevation map, there were 2 key points to remember: 1) downhills during the first 6K or so, and 2) uphills during the last 6K or so. Sounds painful, right? Well, somehow it worked out just fine & didn’t seem to cause too much trouble! The other 30 or so kilometers were truly pretty much flat—although, we did at one point climb a surprise-mid-race-hill that in the moment, I was not so pleased with! TIP: Familiarize yourself with the mile distances that equal each kilometer marker (every 5K, up to 40K); I personally made a chart & studied it, as there are NO mile markers on the course.

So, back to the race. As we passed through the start line, my Austria friend & I said “goodbye”. She was shooting for a 4:15-ish finish time—so our goals simply didn’t mesh to allow us to run some together. Speaking of goal times, I had no secret admitting—both to friends, on my blog, & in social media—that I wanted to finally break 3:40. According to my recent race times, I really should be more in the 3:34-3:36 range, but internationally & in a major race, that seemed like too lofty of a dream. So, I went for the realistic plan & settled on an 8:20 pace—hoping my HR would cooperate with this goal. Considering that there’d likely be a difference between my Garmin & the official distance, this plan seemed do-able & would put me under my goal time.

“Overage” as I call it, is basically when your Garmin GPS watch doesn’t mesh exactly with the official/accurate course distance. This was a true concern in this race, I would soon learn. Before I go on, it is worth mentioning, the course in ANY major marathon IS accurately measured to 26.2 miles or 42.195 kilometers. It is up to YOU as the runner to run those exact tangents. The more runners there are near you & the more turns you have to take, the harder it will be to run exactly this distance. And just so you know, Tokyo is LOADED with multiple twists & turns {it actually keeps it exciting, knowing you get to see the leaders on their reverse route down your road!}. Not to mention, when you are running in a big city like Tokyo with huge buildings on both sides of you—a GPS watch can go a bit cray-cray from time-to-time. The take-away messages in all this, (TIP) plan your race day strategy & complete your training with the understanding in mind that you WILL run more than the standard marathon distance.

As I went through the first 5K marker, my Garmin reading was 3.23 miles. Okkkkkaaay. Now I can see what I am working with, I thought to myself. By the 10K mark, the difference in the two readings {Garmin vs. official markers} had increased to 0.24 miles. My mind started massively calculating at this point. Might I really run nearly a mile over 26.2, I wondered?! Luckily, the difference began getting smaller & smaller at each 5K point thereafter; & ultimately at the finish, my Garmin read 0.39 miles over the official 26.2 mile mark. I had run the tangents as best as I could from the beginning, but after that first 10K mark, I focused more closely on avoiding ANY unnecessary “deviations” in my running route. One exception in this, was when I passed Sophia, I believe somewhere around mile 7. That girl is a true trooper! She ran & completed the 2016 Tokyo Marathon, in a quite respectable time, despite nagging hip pain & running less than a half marathon distance for her longest training run. She is a true inspiration & example of finishing a goal you set out to do!

Back on the course, I continued to truck along at my 8:20 goal pace. Miles 2-5 had been a bit fast, during the downhill portion of the race, logging 8:02-8:04 pace for those miles. The rest of the time, miles 1-22 were run between 8:11-8:26 pace—mostly 8:18 on average. I crossed the halfway point in just under 1:50. And that is precisely when I knew that 3:40 was just not happening. I was okay with that realization though. Unlike in other races, when the goal time became out of my reach, I did not mentally give up this time. Yay! I still had a Plan B or Plan C to accomplish! Being a RRCA-certified running coach & having read a good deal lately, I knew that it would be unlikely to negative split in the marathon distance, especially considering this courses’ elevation map. I had actually read a recent article that stated “having the 2^nd half of a marathon within 2 minutes of the 1^st half time was a realistic goal & quite good”. This became my new goal—keep the 2^nd half within 2 minutes! Speaking of goals, it’s worth mentioning, my Plan B goal was under 3:45, with my Plan C goal being to simply PR (3:48:28). I had also hoped to be in the top 1,000 women. I would have been devastated to not bring home a PR with all of the hard work & dedication I had put into my Tokyo training. Spoiler Alert: I did PR!

Of course there were moments during those 3+ hours last Sunday when a PR felt out of reach! It’s not all roses & butterflies & if it were, I was clearly not pushing myself hard enough. I definitely had many moments of mental anguish, when the bad angel on one shoulder would tell the good angel on my other shoulder that I should “give up”. Luckily in those moments, it was time to fuel or a water stop would magically appear & help to break up those bad thoughts. I also had moments where I would think “this is pretty easy!”, & then not 5 minutes later, I would think, “holy moly, how am I going to do this for another hour??”. I find those thoughts to be par for the course during a marathon though. The key is, being mentally tough & trusting your training. Whatever way you must, just get to the finish line!

My fuel plan on race day had been just like my “dry run, long run” during training: 4 ProBar Bolt Organic Energy Chews every 4 miles + 1 SaltStick every 60 minutes + water/electrolyte fluid at most every aid station. I stuck to this plan to a “T” & I think it worked(!), well, during the race at least…. post-race complications to be discussed in the next blog post. The only deviation from my plan was when I omitted my mini Belvita bites, which I had been enjoying around mile 16-18; but instead, I added a half banana around mile 20/21. TIP: There are a massive amount of volunteers {who are awesome!!} along the entire route of the race holding plastic garbage bags, allowing you to toss your fueling trash frequently—don’t litter, but also don’t hesitate bringing things with you for fear that you can’t dispose of them; you can!

And then came mile 22—should I say, it arrived with a “bang”?! Literally, in my leg. This was also the 35K mark, which in American terms equals 21.7 miles. At the same time, there was a water/electrolyte fluid stop. As a side note, the Japanese equivalent to Gatorade is called Pocari Sweat…. & I’ll admit, it’s not too shabby tasting! Although, the pure smell of it post-race will probably forever make me vomit…more on that in the next post! Ick. Anywho, at that fluid stop, I came to a brief stop to grab a cup & since I was “slowed down” I proceeded to sip the drink. My legs did not enjoy that—specifically the muscle just above my knee, on the inner aspect. Without warning, the muscle cramped so intensely, I can only compare it to the “Charlie Horses” I would get in the middle of the night when I was pregnant with my twins. Holy crap! My thoughts became: “well, there goes my PR”, “how quickly can I walk 4+ miles”, “it would be devastating to DNF”, “should I stop & stretch”, “maybe I will call Scott—he plays volleyball & has cramped before; he’ll know what I should do!” A minute later, I decided I would walk it out. Stopping to walk only worsened the pain. Alrighty…. I guess I am running! I know I may sound dramatic, but I had never before cramped while running & I had no idea of the usual progression of pain/muscle spasm. Running again definitely helped. So it was decided, I would just run until I physically could not run any longer. I was getting my dang Tokyo Marathon finisher’s towel! What surprised me the most was that eventually the pain improved AND, when I looked at my watch, despite the immense discomfort, my pace never dropped below 9s. In a strange appreciation, I was thankful for the cramp, as it forced me to slow down & I never felt that bonk that I experienced at the Marine Corps Marathon. It also told me that my endurance was there for a better finishing time, especially since my HR dropped a bit when I HAD to slow down. As I had been doing for the duration, I thanked people along the course & waved to every cute kid I saw. Although I was racing, I was trying my best to enjoy the entire experience!

Remember a while ago when I mentioned the course elevation… the cramp also coincided with those final 6K uphills. Luckily, they were just as described by previous finishers—“tough on-ramps, but nothing too bad”. I think the pain of my leg caused me to have amnesia to the elevation changes; & also to my right hip that had been giving me some discomfort for the final 10-ish miles of the race. I specifically remember TWO hills where I told myself “just don’t stop, keep the feet moving forward, as slow as needed!”

Because I had done the Friendship Run the day before, which was essentially a fun international run with a final mile course preview, I knew exactly where this thing would end. As we approached the familiar part of the course, seeing the 40K sign, I knew I had done it. Even if I had to crawl or scoot on my butt, I would reach that finish line—not only in PR fashion, but also well below my 3:45 Plan B goal. Not a 3:40, but after overcoming a leg cramp for more than 4½ miles, I was stoked to be even close to my goal time! And just like that, the finish line loomed. I threw my hands in the air & gladly stomped across that final mat. 3:41:28!!! An exact, TO THE SECOND, 7 minute PR—compared to the MCM 18 weeks earlier. WooHOO!

As quick as I could, I pulled my phone off of my arm, turned off airplane mode, & checked my messages. TIP: use airplane mode during the race to avoid massive data consumption since you are running internationally & to save your battery—if you plan to run with your smart phone. I was in shock from all of the love that I had received mid-race that I burst into tears. I had made myself proud & I felt like my loved ones at home were similarly proud. I have never felt so supported from a running perspective! THANK YOU to all of my friends & family for your support during this Tokyo Marathon journey!! From a race perspective, the crowd support is unparalleled—I have never done a race where there are wall-to-wall people from the start to the finish. Amazing sauce is all I can say about the people of Tokyo & the love of their city & marathon!

Aside from seeing some dear friends, the race was absolutely the highlight of my trip! Maybe even THE highlight {sorry girls, hard to compare apples to oranges!}. Regardless, during the tough parts of the trip, I may have said that I regretted traveling more than 6,000 miles to run a race. However, now that I am home & settled, I am extremely happy to have a check in the box next to my first World Marathon Major. Thank YOU, Tokyo!

Below are a few stats from the race. What I find particularly interesting is how great, in my opinion, that I did overall. What is more impressive—not for me specifically, but of the USA runners—is where my “rankings worsened” for the nationality standings. I didn’t plan on sharing the percentiles, & I don’t do so vainly {anyone who knows me, knows I am a numbers person}, but it gives me great pride in our county’s folks that we generally put up some impressive times! Go USA!

Overall: 5,395 out of 34,665 (<16^th percentile)

Gender: 671 out of 7,569 (<9^th percentile)

Age Group {female only}: 112 out of 1,044 (<11^th percentile)

Nationality Overall {male & female}: 116 out of 563 (<21^st percentile)

Nationality Gender: 33 out of 189 (<20^th percentile)

Nationality Age Group {female only}: 7 out of 26 (<30^th percentile)

The last info to share is my splits. I am proud of how consistent the paces were {despite the cramp!}; & that my race, although not a negative split one, was pretty dang close to evenly split when comparing the first half with the second half! Goal {almost} accomplished of within 2 minutes for the 1^st & 2^nd halves of the race!!

5K – 25:50

10K – 25:42

15K – 26:09

20K – 26:04

25K – 26:08

30K – 26:14

35K – 26:05

40K – 27:33

Final 2.195K to the Finish – 11:43

1^st Half – 1:49:28

2^nd Half – 1:52:00

Garmin Time: 3:41:30 (8:20/mile), for 26.59 miles

Official Time: 3:41:28 (8:27/mile), for 26.2 miles

I am sure I am leaving out key parts or points about this race, but this recap is lonnnnng enough, so I won’t bore you anymore, ha! Thanks for reading!!

Up Next for The Running Blonde: One City Marathon Relay on March 13^th & the Shamrock ½ Marathon on March 20^th!! It’s going to a busy few weeks, but I am so happy to be racing on my HOME turf, with muscles that feel mostly recovered!