Recovering

There were many long weeks in the build up and last Sunday it all came to an end. I ran the Tokyo Marathon on what was the most miserable weather experience for me while on a run. It was pouring rain and at times the rain changed to snow and freezing rain. The wet and cold wreaked havoc on my knees. I normally never have knee issues, but they were aching and causing my problems by 15 km. I got through the experience though and am very glad I did it.

What got me were the thousands of people lining the entire marathon route cheering us all on. There was an energy and excitement in the air that I had never experienced before. When the pain felt like it was getting too much, the cheers and songs of people put a smile on my face and gave me a little extra kick to my stride.

There were so many people who had obviously made their own sweets, cookies and bread and brought them down to the race course just to give them to the tired runners. The stretch between kilometers 28-35 (the wall) were especially filled with kind people cheering extra hard and giving candy and chocolate to all the runners (especially the ones who looked like they were hitting the wall).

Would I run Tokyo again? Absolutely. I think it is a very worthwhile destination marathon for anyone!



Proud and tired runners just received their finisher towels. Everyone was very quiet and moving slowly.


The race finish was held at Tokyo Big Sight. Little did I know but as the marathon was finishing there was a tsunami warning for the same area as a result of the Chile earthquake.


As you can see, it was very wet at the beginning of the marathon. In fact, it was wet for the majority of it.


I plan to continue training. By Friday I should be ready to hit the road again. My goal is to run a marathon this Fall under 4 hours. Ideally around 3 hours 50 minutes. That's what i am shooting for! Expect my face to look slimmer in future pictures!

I will be posting a 5 part series of videos about my Tokyo Marathon experience on You Tube. Stay tuned.