Lake Kawaguchiko Marathon 2011

Going into marathon week, I was worried about my overall fitness. My calf was still hurting, and because of that, I wasn't running that much. The day before my flight, I went to visit my Japanese chiropractor. He's not a chiropractor in the American sense of cracking backs. This guy pokes around, finds sore muscles, then makes them better. After three weeks of walking on a bad leg, my calf was cured in less than an hour.

The next day, Friday, I flew to Tokyo, then took a two hour bus ride to Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi Prefecture.

On Saturday, the day before the marathon, I ran a 3k forest trail that conveniently was right next to my hotel. It was nice to test out my leg (fine) and see what it was like running in 45 F weather (awesome).

(view from hotel balcony)

I spent that afternoon playing tourist. I started off with a traditional Yamanashi meal called houtou.

(yummy)

Then I went to visit the Ice Cave (氷穴) and the Wind Cave (風穴). These are caves formed by lava from Mt. Fuji a long, long time ago.

The Wind Cave wasn't very windy...

(entrance to the Wind Cave)

(Wind Cave map)

...and the Ice Cave wasn't very icy.

(entrance to the Ice Cave)

(Ice Cave map)

But both were cold and low-ceilinged.

(the Man in the Yellow Coat made a good size-reference model)

After my little adventure, I went home and fell asleep around 9.

Marathon Day
I woke up at 5 and started my pre-run routine, which consists of eating ramen, checking reddit, and using the bathroom. The start time was 8:00, so I caught a shuttle bus and arrived on the scene around 7:15.

(Wearing my Gator gear. A lot of good that did.)

The first thing I noticed was the lack of portable toilets. I counted about 10, which is not enough for 13,000 people. The start line was parallel to a long tourist road full of souvenir shops which also had restrooms. People were lined up there also, but behind the shops were trees, so I started searching for an area that would allow me to climb into there. I found one, and as soon as I had scrambled up to the top, a couple of other people apparently liked my idea and joined me.

Then it was time for the race. I changed, stretched, and ran it in 4:42:39. The course went around Lake Kawaguchi twice. I thought that I would get bored having to run the same roads twice, but I didn't at all. The course was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and overall it was a lot of fun. Way better than Naha.

The Race
My goal was to finish under 5 hours. I kept my pace in check by trying to run every 5k in under 30 minutes. I remember passing the half-way point with a time of 2:06:00, which is a PR for me. Then, I think around the 27k mark, I started slowing down. No cramping, but my body was hurting, mainly the joints (knees, hips, ankles). I hit the 32k mark at around 3:15:00 (another PR), which is about 30 minutes faster than I ran in training. I think the cold weather had a lot to do with it. After that, my body started giving out, so I would run as far as I could (usually about 5-10 min) then walk and stretch for another 5-10 min. I knew I was going to get under 5 hours, but I kept pushing to see how close to the 4:30:00 mark I could get.

Last year at the Naha Marathon, I cramped before I even hit the half-way point. This year, I cramped at the 40k mark, and I know exactly why. My body was hungering for sugar and at some table around 38k, there was a station with tables loaded with chocolates. I couldn't resist and I grabbed a whole handful thinking it wouldn't do anything in the last few km. Well, I was wrong, but I was still able to finish the race at a run.

(the ネットタイム is the important one)

(Sweat salt. Notice my watch time exactly matches my recorded time.)

What I liked about this race was noticing the difference between this year and last year. I am obviously in a lot better shape, and I hope when I do this training again, I will be in even better shape and get to the point where I can keep a 30 min/5k pace the entire time.

Week of Nov. 21 - Nov. 27
11/22: 5k, 27:09
11/26: 3k, 16:47
11/27: 42.2k, 4:42:39 (pace - 6:41)

Total: 50.2k, 5:26:35
Average Pace: 06:30