My goal for the race was to run it under 4:30:00, with a back-up goal of just beating my Kawaguchiko time (4:42:39).
The race started at 9, so I woke up at 6:30 to eat breakfast. I usually eat a bag of ramen before a long run, but during the Kawaguchiko marathon, I became ravenous around the 30km mark and ate every orange slice and piece of chocolate that was handed to me. To avoid that, I ate
two bags of ramen. That turned out to be the winning formula, because even though I finished around 1:30pm, I wasn't hungry at all.
I arrived at the park where the race began with my sports bag ready to make some final decisions on clothing. I was debating whether or not to wear long sleeves, but then the sun came out and made my decision for me. A lot of people were complaining that it was too cold, but I found it to be the perfect temperature. The clouds came out and I figured I didn't need to apply sunscreen. That turned out to be a mistake, because today my face is red and my kindergartner's laughed at me.
The race began great. I start off faster than most people, so I usually end up running on the sidewalk dodging in and out of spectators while the crowd runs in the road. I did the same here, but the sidewalk was wide with few spectators. I had a whole lane to myself until I caught up with the crowd that was running at my pace.
My strategy for keeping pace was simple: run 5k under 30 minutes. This is easy enough in the beginning, but I knew as I got near the end that my time would start dropping. I tried to think of ways to conserve energy while also taking advantage of the energy I did have early on.
To conserve energy, I decided to walk up the hills I couldn't see the top of. This course had a lot of them, and I think it is one of the main reasons my legs still hurt today. There was a big hill at around the 11km mark, and as I started walking up that, I got passed a lot. It hurt my pride, but I figured it was for the best. Then when I got to the top, I picked up speed and ended up passing a lot of the same people. I excel at downhill running!
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| (hills) |
When I train, I usually give myself a 1.5 to 2 minute walk break every 25 minutes. But because I chose to walk uphill, I decided to do away with those and give myself a walk break for every hill, figuring I should take advantage of the energy I did have early in the race.
I passed the half-way point at around 2:01:00, which gives me hope for running a half marathon in under 2 hours eventually. When I got a similar time at Kawaguchiko, I naively thought I could finish the race in around 4 hours. This time, I knew that wasn't going to happen and instead just focused on keeping my pace of under 30 minutes for every 5k. Since I was at about 2 hours for 21k, I knew I was doing well.
Then I hit the 25k (15.5 mi) mark and I started hurting. This happens every race as my body reaches it's limit and starts to break down. I spent a lot of time thinking about why this was happening. When I train, my long runs gradually climb from 19k to 24k to 27k to 32k, then back down again. I do this, because it's what
Hal says. He also says if one trains for 32k, doing the final 10k isn't a big deal.
He's wrong. It's a big deal.
By training for 32k, 32k becomes my limit and I am able to complete that with little struggle. After 32k, I am going past my limit, which in training is a good thing. It makes me stronger. The problem is, I'm not doing this in my training, and it just causes pain and misery the day of the race. I think for future marathons, I'm going to start making my own training schedule with longer distances.
So at the 25k mark, I started walking a bit more. The muscle behind my right knee started tightening up and I kept wanting to stop and stretch it. I would tell myself to run, but it would hurt to start. I would wobble and limp for the first 10 seconds before my legs warmed up again. I could keep a slow pace for several minutes before tiring out and walking again. I intend to google this problem in hopes of fixing it, because it happens every marathon. It's obviously a strained muscle, but I need to figure out how to strengthen it so it doesn't give out in future races.
At the 32k (19.9 mi) mark, I had a time of 3:16:00. It's already obvious I was slowing down. With a 5k-30min pace, I wanted to pass the 35k mark by 3:30:00, and there was no way I was could run 3k in 14 minutes at that point. I can't even do that fresh. I began calculating the pace I would need to get me to the finish line in under 4:30:00. I figured if I could get to 38k before the 4 hour mark, that would give me 30 minutes to do the final 4k.
Typing that sounds easy to do, but having to do that after having ran 32k is really hard. My body was dead. I was reduced to walking at this point, then every now and then I would find a little energy to shuffle my feet for a minute or two. When I say I was reduced to walking, it wasn't like I was the only one. Everyone breaks down. It's kind of interested seeing people around you collapse. A lot of people just sit on the side of the road and stretch or pass out on the grass. As long as I was moving forward, I knew I was making progress.
I passed the 38k (23.6 mi) mark at around 4:05:00. I knew I wasn't going to get under 4:30:00, but I had faith I could get under 4:40:00, which would beat my Kawaguchiko time. Luckily, at around the 39k (24.2 mi) point, there was a huge hill where the race went down hill. As I said, I excel at downhill running, so I picked up my pace and passed a lot of stragglers.
At the 41k (25.5 mi) mark, my time was about 4:30:00. I had 1k to go in under 10 minutes. It was possible, but not guarenteed. I couldn't run, so I tried walking fast, but even that was hard. That's how far gone my body was: it hurt to walk fast. Then, somewhere behind me, I heard chanting. Loud chanting. It was the Japanese equivalent of "Hut, one, two, three, four." As the sound approached me, I saw that people had formed a square, marching troop-like formation around two Japanese military guys. They were singing their way to the finish line, giving me and others a final energy boost, like some kind of deus ex machina.
I joined the group, and even though it hurt, I kept pace. We passed through the giant gate that was the entrance to the park and approached the stadium for the final lap. When we entered the stadium, the finish line was in site, but we still had to run another 400m around the track. At this point, the troop collapsed around the two chanters as eveyrone decided it was too far. Everyone, but me.
I crossed the finish line with two singing military guys with a chip time of 4:36:17.
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| (The time showed is when the gun went off, not when I crossed the start line) |
Even though this marathon is technically no different than any other, it feels like the hardest one I have done yet. Usually, I limp around after the race, but am fine the next morning. As of Day Three, I'm still limping. I blame the hills. Also, I gave myself a difficult goal. In previous races, I knew I would get to the finish line, but this time, I wanted to get to the finish line in under a certain time. That's a lot of mental fatigue when your body is screaming for you to stop.
For future races, I'm going to focus on strength training to avoid strained muscles and longer runs to get my body in true marathon shape. I'm looking forward to the day when I can keep my 5k-30min pace for an entire marathon.
