Tokyo Marathon 2011 - Enjoyed it nice and slow!

Last year I was pushing for a personal record, but this year I couldn't do the needed training, so I decided to take it easy.

I think my time was 4:53:31., which is my second slowest of my five marathons so far, my best being 4:17 last year on the same course in a cold sleet.

Today the weather was beautiful, but I didn't think I was going to get a personal best. My legs felt heavy from before the start, possibly because I did a 7km jog (the weather was too beautiful!) on Friday and also was running around most of Saturday for helping Michael's soccer practice etc.

Anyway, when I hit 20km, it already felt like 30km, and I barely kept joggin through to 29km where Megumi, Michael and Mei were cheering for me.

Thanks for coming all the way to Asakusa to cheer me on!

I decided to not push it in the last parts, and walked most of the distance between the 30km point and 40km point, just getting back into a jog at 40km to get under 5 hours.

My legs were stiff and cramping, but I was able to enjoy the whole distance. As Haruki Marakami writes in his book on running (and it may not be his original):

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Nice costumes, Tokyoites! I especially liked a fully suited Barutan-Seijin and a bunch of GeGeGet no Kitaro ghosts.