The world majors this time attracted a few of us to Japan and the City of Tokyo for Jo, Nikki and I (Chris). I never had an ambition to complete the 6 world majors, however, I guess we have been sucked into the commercialism that ends with a unique group of medals making up the world majors big original 6 and it’s coveted 6-star medal. Nikki and I will complete the task in Tokyo after London, Chicago, Berlin, New York City and Boston. And Jo hopes to complete the six in Berlin later this year. Recently Sydney and Capetown have become additional major stars and I’m sure it will keep growing on and on.
We travelled Japan for over two weeks on very fast trains, but I won’t bore you with our holiday stories, but if you ever have an opportunity to travel Japan, they will welcome you to their beautiful clean country where even the deer will bow to you and wish you well.
We (Jon, Jo, Nikki and I) also entered a 10k/half marathon in a city called Soja near Okayama as a last long run and warm up race, this would also be Jon’s half marathon race in Japan, as he would be our supporter this time in Tokyo for our main event. We all enjoyed running in Soja without any pressure, sharing our love of racing in amongst all the Japanese athletes. Jo has since been contacted after a podium performance in her age group in the 10k in Soja. “Well done, Jo”.
Inevitably the weekend came! Nerves kicked in big time, and I was a man of even less words than normal. A local park run in Futako-tamagawa for the 300th event attended by mainly British on this Saturday before the marathon cheered us all up.
The Japanese have strict rules that helps keep everything organised and the marathon rules needed revision especially the race’s strict cut off points where if you are not keeping up with the minimum pace you will be extracted from the race. The socials had questions about everything from travel, strict timing cut offs, clothes, weather, earthquakes, water packs and how incredibly the race starts from the gun with no waves, although we had our timing chips.
I had an added personal goal with the pressure put on myself of running under 3 hours after completing within this target time in the other 5 world majors. Nikki had been battling an injury that would create a strategic pacing technique to keep well ahead of the cut-offs whilst being careful to not make anything worse. Jo wanted a good run without any targets, something I need to learn. Georgia had joined us for her marathon here too, adding to the party.
Race day.
The weather was going to be very warm with a breeze. Too warm probably but I have a little alien blood especially for this and my plan was to get done before the sun was higher. I was lucky to be close to the front of the race that started with confetti canons fired high to loud music and the elites and the array of high-class athletes from all over the world tackled the slightly downward first miles. This was difficult using our hands to politely keep our distance from tripping each other. It did eventually spread out and I eased into the 6:40’s per mile in a race only marked in kilometres ha ha! The pacemakers were useful as the buildings messed a little with short and long kilometres, however, masses of runners followed the pacers, and I therefore used the 5k timing mats to better effect for hitting around 21.10 per 5k. Jon’s shout is loud and this boost makes the next 5K just disappear. One thing noticeable is the road surface, it’s perfectly smooth in Japan allowing subtle glances only and a chance to look high and thus run with a good running form. A few turn backs made a privileged view of the leaders on top form.
The grind.
Thanks to Traccie Steve Suttle, he had lent me a book written by athlete Charlie Spedding mainly to assist me to be competitive for an England qualifier a few weeks back. I’m not a book reader but I had read enough to gain the positive thinking about being the underdog in a race against the odds, or for me the 2:59:59 clock and I just didn’t want to let myself down. “I know”, I don’t know why I do it to myself, especially after NYC and my medical incident where on returning to the UK the pilot nearly had to take me back to the USA.
Halfway I was 25 seconds up and onto to some serious landmarks such as the 500m high Tokyo sky tower and the Pokémon/Hello Kitty world of animation in electric city. 35k had me tangled up in a looped ribbon connected to a water bottle (I think the elites use these to grab the fuel) this spun around my leg like a child’s jumping game and even after removing it, the sticky thing came back for another spin!
The water stations were manic causing sideways action mainly by runners of a certain nationality, whilst the home nation sometimes offered you an extra one after collecting it for you and our pacers, I returned the respect to represent Thanet.
You can also gorge on some ramen noodles, rice, or dumplings to go with the energy drink strangely named procari-sweat.
My toe was catching my race shoes now but apart from that I felt good mentally even with the now tired limbs I pushed on to the eventual left turn and 100m sprint to gain a slight negative/even split. The race on my chip time was 2:58:55 and the gun time 2:59:29. Then onto the emotional photos of gold medals and 6 star’s medal and welcoming lanes of marshals. My thoughts were with Nikki pacing her way carefully to ensure a medal today and my friends Jo and Georgia, all would be in the midday sun. We had supported a Japanese charity set up to rid of child exploitation, and they had set up a little party for an emotional get together including our race-day supporters Jon and Georgia’s partner Liam who joined us for celebrating, thanks for the shout outs.
Jo completed the marathon in a fast but an enjoyable 3:51
Georgia was pleased with 3:48 after some niggles and training throughout her world travels.
Nikki 4:44 an incredible performance. Just don’t tell the Doc!
Nikki and I have proudly represented our local running club in all 6 of the original world majors, maybe the first to do so. Thank you to Thanet Roadrunners AC, all our members, runners and run leaders for helping us train along the way.
Just for the records;
Berlin 2:54:27
Chicago 2:57:10
New York 2:55:51
Boston 2:58:20
London 2:57:34
Tokyo 2:58:55
My big toenail will be back in the summer.
G’day, I have the Cape’s from the towns I wanted.
