Tokyo Marathon!

やった！
I ran my first marathon in Tokyo on Sunday!!
I headed up to Tokyo with my boyfriend、Yosh (who was there to support) and a friend who was running. We arrived in the early afternoon, went to the Tokyo Marathon Expo to register:

and then back to Shinjuku to check in to our hotel. After a brief rest, we went to Shibuya to meet a bunch of friends for dinner. Originally I had hoped for a low-key, early night on Saturday, but my friends ended up doing the planning. There were maybe 20 of us: my friends who had travelled up to Tokyo the day before us as well as friends who live in Tokyo. Dinner was delicious: tapas, pizza and pasta, and it was great to see everyone. We managed to sneak out around 9:30 and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I was too nervous to get much sleep, and was pretty sleepy when I got up at 6:15.
Breakfast was the buffet (western and Japanese style) at the hotel, and then we left for the Start, which was only a few minutes walk away.



After loading my bag onto a truck that would deliver it to the finish line and saying goodbye to Yosh, I headed into the runners only area to wait for the start. I got in line for the bathroom (a 30+ minute wait) and then walked to my corral.

The runners were split into blocks, with A-block at the start line, and I was in G-block. The gun went off at 9:10, and it took about 10 minutes to get to the start line. I couldn't believe how many people there were (35,000)!! The first 1km or so was very crowded and I couldn't run the pace I wanted, but eventually it thinned out a bit. I saw Yosh at the 1km mark, but he didn't see me. He got some great pics of the wheelchair racers:

and the elites:

I guess I drank too much water and coffee in the morning, because I had to use the bathroom again, and stopped at the first stop. And waited about 10 minutes in line :( The first 5k ended up being really slow (53:52), which was pretty disappointing to see, but if I took off the waiting and time to get to the start, I was pretty much on pace.
I ran the whole thing pretty slow. Since it was my first and also since my knee has been a problem, my goal was just to finish, without walking (except through water/food stops) and not be last. My knee did start to hurt right at the beginning, but it wasn't that bad. It slowed me down near the end, but never felt bad enough to make me think I should stop. My boyfriend tracked me on the website with his cell phone, and managed to find me 4 more times along the course.







Three of those times, I stopped for an "energy kiss": much more effective than the Gu I was eating for energy ;)
The course was very flat, and there was so much crowd support. It was so much fun. The last 10k was pretty hard. My knees and hips were starting to really hurt, but I saw some friends at about 34k, and with about 2k to go, my boyfriend found me again and ran with me on the sidewalk for awhile. I crossed the finish line 1t 5:57:19. I had hoped for 5:30, but since at least 20 minutes was due to extraneous factors in the first 5k, I can't complain. I was so happy that I almost cried across the finish line, but I knew there was a video camera, so I held it in until I received my finishers medal.

I met up with my friend (he finished in 5:13) and Yosh and started the long subway journey back to the hotel. I had a pretty hard time walking up and down stairs after :( And then, after a nap and shower we ate Mexican food!!!! It was so perfect.
I can't wait to do it again next year! I hope i get in!!