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I've recently developed a problem that's completely devasted my running. In short, I would run about 10km three times a week. Give or take 5km. It was a real pleasure. I would run in garbage 12€ shoes, in 1€ socks. Never a problem.

Then I developed 2 mirrored blisters. Inside arch of both feet. Since that fateful day, everytime I hit 4km I develop these mirrored blisters.

I have visited 3 different foot doctors. I have custom running insoles, I have low friction / high breathability asics socks, I have discovered that I am an 'Aerial left', I roll on my big toe, not my full foot, my centre of gravity is slightly too far back, I have had this confirmed three times.

I've bought asics, that didn't help. I've tried adidas, didn't help, I've recently bought the new Hoka with improved stability for over-pronation (which I suspect is the issue) minor improvement at best.

I've had my insoles adjusted three times, by 2 different doctors. I've tried vaseline, antifriction Creme, double socks, no socks, kinotape. I even tried just suffering through it until I started to find blood in my shoes.

Guys, please, I've done everything I can, what can I do to run again. I'll literally try anything. Ive sunk all of my minimum wage savings into this, and recently I gained weight after 3 months off the track. I usually run by the local canal.

Any advice welcome. Help a brother out.

***I understand this is opinion based advice, this won't be taken as medical information.

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How was your running this past month?

• Miles this month/mileage goal for the year
• What progress did you make on your other goals this year? Here’s our 2024 goal thread for reference.
• What did you learn this month? Year? Any reflections?
• How can you start or continue a trend in the right direction next year?
• Any races on the calendar soon?
• What was your favorite run this year?
• Any race reports or pictures you want to share?

It’s the Weekly Rundown! This is the place to post your last week of training. Feel free to include links to wherever you track your runs. (Strava, Smashrun, etc.).

Race Information

• Name: NYRR United NYC Half
• Date: March 17, 2024
• Distance: 13.1 miles
• Location: New York City, NY
• Website: https://www.nyrr.org/races/2024unitedairlinesnychalf
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10978638834
• Time: 1:19:51

Goals

Splits

Training

I raced the Tokyo Marathon two weeks prior to racing the NYRR NYC Half (you can read about my training from that race report here), and I spent the two weeks in between vacationing in Japan and spending time back home recovering from my travels afterwards. When I returned from my travels, I had to get myself ready for the NYC Half and I focused on lots of easy runs plus a small fartlek workout to get things going but not have my body do too much because I was still recovering at the time. In the days leading up to the NYC Half, I was fighting off the effects of the cold I caught while I was in Japan, plus residual jet lag from traveling back home from Japan. Otherwise, I felt like I could still give this race an honest effort.

Before the race, I set up a few goals for myself: 1:16-1:17 for my A goal, sub-1:20 as my B goal, and the NYC auto qualifying standard (sub-1:21) as my C goal. My A goal looked more like a stretch goal but at the time I was feeling ambitious and thought I could aim for it. Should that goal fall short, I was going to try to stay under 1:20 (and in hindsight, that goal was a lot more realistic for me). Above all, I wanted to finish with a time under the NYC auto-qualifying standard (sub-1:21) so I would be eligible for a time qualifier guaranteed entry to the NYRR premier half marathons next year and have the option of deciding on whether to use those entries (or not) when the time comes.

Pre-race

I took the train to NYC early on Saturday morning and went straight to the expo after I arrived in NYC. The expo had a similar setup to the expo last year when I ran the NYC Half. I picked up my bib and t-shirt, quickly browsed through the vendors that were there, and was out of there in an hour. I dropped off my belongings at my hotel, did a shakeout run through Central Park, and went to find a couple of friends who were spectating the St. Patrick’s Day parade. I spent a few hours with them watching the parade, catching up with them, and eventually getting lunch with them and hopping around Irish bars once we were done spectating the parade.

In the evening, I had my usual pre-race pasta dinner, and went to Trader Joes to grab some light pre-race breakfast for myself. Went back to my hotel and did my usual pre-race prep by getting my racing kit and my gear check bag ready before heading to bed around 10 PM. I woke up around 4:30 AM and did my morning routine plus had some light breakfast, and I was out the door by 5:15 AM. It took me almost an hour to get there; I arrived at the designated subway stop, exited and was greeted by bag check trucks right in front of me. It took me five minutes to drop off my bag at bag check, then headed over to security check and got through security check in a few minutes. I was surprised how quick and efficient that was; when I raced NYRR half marathons in the past, the bag check and security check took some time and I found myself scrambling once I got past the security checkpoint.

I did a warm up jog around the start area, and I went to the porta potties a couple of times while waiting for the race to start. I lined up in my corral with about 20 minutes before the start, tossed my throwaway layer, and waited for the race to start. After the usual pre-race introductions and the singing of the national anthem, the gun went off at 7:20 AM and I was across the start line about 20 second later.

Race

Start to 5K

The first 5K featured an uphill-then-downhill out and back stretch on the first mile, rolling hills while navigating through Prospect Park during the second mile, and a downhill stretch heading into downtown Brooklyn on the 3rd mile.

On this stretch, I made sure to go by effort on the uphills and kept the effort consistent on the downhills and reminded myself to not overdo it. I remember this stretch feeling hard but smooth for me, and nothing notable happened to me here. I went through this stretch in 18:40.

5K to 10K

This stretch took me downhill into downtown Brooklyn, then a gradual uphill onto Manhattan Bridge followed by a downhill off the bridge and into Manhattan Chinatown.

Taking advantage of the gradual downhill into downtown Brooklyn, I settled into my race pace and maintained a hard but comfortable effort as much as I could, knowing that the Manhattan Bridge was looming ahead. I reminded myself to back off the pace and go by effort once I started climbing onto the Manhattan Bridge. I began the climb onto Manhattan Bridge sometime before the 4.5 mile mark, and as planned I backed off my paces and went by effort instead. The climb seemed forever, but I was rewarded with a nice view of the Manhattan skyline as I approached the top of the bridge. Once I started to descend Manhattan Bridge into Manhattan Chinatown, I took advantage of the downhill to ease myself back into race pace. We were greeted by loud crowds once we got off the bridge, which was a much-needed boost for me. I took a gel here and washed it down at the water stop shortly before the 10K checkpoint.

I covered this stretch in 18:53. Looking back at it was surprising to me that I covered this stretch a few seconds per mile slower than the pace I ran during the first 5K. Did I go too hard on this stretch? Who knows?

10K to 15K

This stretch had us navigating through the rest of Manhattan Chinatown and onto FDR Drive, which made up most of this stretch. The crowd support in Chinatown was solid, but I knew that the crowd support was going to fade away once we got into FDR Drive.

Navigating onto FDR Drive, we were fully on the northbound lanes of it by the time that we crossed mile 7. Having ran the NYC Half 3 times before, I knew that FDR Drive was mostly flat but also had some minor rollers in there, mostly caused by running on overpasses en route. But I also knew this stretch was probably the last opportunity to run comfortably at race pace; once I turned off FDR Drive and head into Midtown for the final portions of the race, it was going to be uphill from there.

I comfortably maintained race pace here through this stretch and picked up Gatorade from the only water stop on FDR Drive to stay hydrated. Coming through the 15K checkpoint, I covered this stretch in 18:49.

15K to 20K

With the UN Headquarters in full sight, I took the offramp onto 42nd Street and headed straight into Midtown. By this time, however, I was starting to feel fatigue, I was gradually fading away and it became hard to hold onto the pace. It did not help this stretch featured a gradual uphill from the offramp until I reached Central Park. It was going to be tough for me from here on out, and I had to hold on the best that I could.

The crowd support returned on this stretch after the mile 10 marker, and the crowd support was thick when I made a right-hand turn and ran through Times Square (which is one of the favorite parts of this race). As I ran through Times Square, I looked ahead and all I saw was a gradual uphill with Central Park in the distance, and I had my work cut out for me the rest of the way. I mentally began to set waypoints to distract myself from the fatigue and keep myself focused. Get to Central Park South. Get to Central Park and cross the mile 12 marker. The crowd support was quite loud as I made a right hand turn onto Central Park South and ran towards the southeast entrance of Central Park, where I would enter Central Park to finish out the race.

Sometime after mile 11, I looked at my watch and I realized that I was likely going to finish under 1:20 in the half, but barely. It was likely going to take everything I had to squeeze under 1:20 in the half. My B goal took on a greater importance from here on out.

20K to Finish

With less than three quarters of a mile to go, I was doing what I could to hold on for dear life within Central Park. I made a left hand turn onto the 72nd Street Transverse and reminded myself that I was getting close to the finish line. Shortly after, with about 600 meters to go, the 1:20 pacer and his group passed me, and it set off alarm bells in my head. If the 1:20 pacer is passing me, my goal of going under 1:20 is in serious jeopardy. A quick look at the Race Screen App on my watch confirmed as such; my estimated finish time was mere seconds under 1:20. I picked up the pace, dug deep and gave it my all, followed the 1:20 pace group the rest of the way and kept them in my sights all the way to the finish line.

I crossed the finish line in 1:19:51.

Post-race

After crossing the finish line, I quickly found the nearest fence and leaned over to catch my breath and hyperventilate for a moment, and did what I could to calm myself down. Never have I had to fight for my life in the closing meters of a race like this. I found out a few moments later that I finished seconds under 1:20 for the half, which was good enough to secure my auto-NYC qualifier.

After putting myself back together, I walked through the finishing chute collecting my medal as well as my post-race finish bag. I walked all the way to the end of the finish chute and hung around just long enough to run into friends who finished behind me and were walking out of the finishing chute as well. We greeted each other and quickly exchanged pleasantries and asked each other about how our races went. Later, I ran into a couple of friends, and we eventually made our way out of the post-race finish area towards a local bagel shop and while we were munching on some delicious New York City bagels we talked about how our race day went. Once we parted ways, I headed back to my hotel to clean up and pack up my belongings.

After I showered and packed, I checked out of my hotel and went to look for brunch and celebratory drinks. After I had brunch on my own, I spent the rest of the day wandering around NYC and hopped to a couple of bars/breweries, until it was time to take the train to head back home.

Final Thoughts and Lessons Learned

It turns out that there was a silver lining to my NYC Half performance after all. The day after the race, it dawned upon me that my result might be good enough to be eligible for an auto time qualifier entry to the 2025 NYC Marathon, in addition to auto time qualifying into NYRR premier half marathons for next year. I quickly emailed NYRR that morning, and they responded back to me hours later confirming that my performance met the auto-qualifying standard and that I will have an entry to the 2025 NYC Marathon waiting for me sometime next year. On the same day I made that inquiry, news about this year’s non-NYRR time qualifier entries for the NYC Marathon came out (for context, you can read about it here and here), and I was shocked at how steep the cutoffs were. I took a different perspective on my race and performance because of this situation, and especially as a fuller picture developed over the next few days. I realized how fortunate I was to be in this situation (securing an auto time qualifier entry to the NYC Marathon next year), and that I had a lot to be proud of from my race.

The combination of two weeks’ worth of partial recovery and racing on a hard, hilly course like the NYC Half meant that I was not fully 100% going into the race. Not only was I starting off with a disadvantage right off the bat, but I was going to feel the effects of being partially recovered and the hilly course one way or another, which is what happened to me. I didn’t realize it then, but hindsight is 20/20. This was a big lesson learned for me; I should have been smarter with my racing had I understood what I was going against, and I’ll remember this lesson if I ever attempt a similar full marathon/half marathon double with such a short turnaround in the near future.

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.

Talk about anything and everything here!

This thread fills the void that you were craving. Post any and all running media you want to share. This is including but not limited to, pictures and videos you took and other things you found interesting and wanted to share.

BEEP BEEP! It's weekend time! What are you up to?

Ask any general questions you might have

#Is your question one that's complex or might spark a good discussion? Consider posting it in a separate thread!

Ask any general questions you might have

#Is your question one that's complex or might spark a good discussion? Consider posting it in a separate thread!

It’s the Weekly Rundown! This is the place to post your last week of training. Feel free to include links to wherever you track your runs. (Strava, Smashrun, etc.).

Talk about anything and everything here!

This thread fills the void that you were craving. Post any and all running media you want to share. This is including but not limited to, pictures and videos you took and other things you found interesting and wanted to share.

BEEP BEEP! It's weekend time! What are you up to?

Ask any general questions you might have

#Is your question one that's complex or might spark a good discussion? Consider posting it in a separate thread!

Ask any general questions you might have

#Is your question one that's complex or might spark a good discussion? Consider posting it in a separate thread!

It’s the Weekly Rundown! This is the place to post your last week of training. Feel free to include links to wherever you track your runs. (Strava, Smashrun, etc.).

Talk about anything and everything here!

This thread fills the void that you were craving. Post any and all running media you want to share. This is including but not limited to, pictures and videos you took and other things you found interesting and wanted to share.

Race Information

• Name: Tokyo Marathon
• Date: March 3, 2024
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Tokyo, Japan
• Website: https://www.marathon.tokyo/en/
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10878023528
• Time: 2:46:53

Goals

Official Splits

Halfway Splits

Abbott World Marathon Majors Race Report Series

• 2023 TCS London Marathon: A Dream Come True
• 2023 BMW Berlin Marathon: Picking Myself Back On My feet
• 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon: Setting a New PR Two Weeks After a PR at Berlin
• 2023 TCS New York City Marathon: Closing Out On An Incredible Fall Marathon Season

Training

The Tokyo training cycle looked a bit different compared to other marathon training cycles I previously did. I started the training cycle one month after I ran the NYC Marathon and found myself training through the holidays. I was doing many of my training runs and workouts mostly on my own, and it got quite lonely at times. And I did not know anyone personally in my area who was training for Tokyo, which meant I was very much flying solo for the most part.

The first phase (mesocycle) of training was centered around speed work, with the goal of improving my leg turnover. This phase cumulated in a mile time trial, where I attempted to go under 5 minutes in the mile only to come up short by 4 seconds (5:03). But it was good enough for me to set a 13 second PR in the mile; ultimately, this phase was deemed a success.

The second phase focused more on threshold work to prepare me for my one (and only) tune up race of the training cycle, the Austin 3M Half Marathon. At that point, I was running a lot of miles and doing a lot of big workouts, and I was constantly feeling fatigued. Because of fatigue, when I was doing my HM pace workouts, I was off my target pace by anywhere between 5 and 10 seconds per mile. It also didn’t help that it was freezing cold by this period, which impacted how my body felt and impacted my paces as well (legs felt stiff in the cold). Nevertheless, I persisted. When I ran the Austin 3M Half in mid-January, I finished in 1:18 to set a 5 minute half marathon PR, lowering my previous best from the NYRR RBC Brooklyn Half I did last May. That result gave me a good idea of where I stood fitness wise, and I started to get a bit excited as I shifted to the marathon pace sharpening phase.

The third phase involved sharpening my marathon paces. Which meant a lot of long run workouts with a lot of marathon pace miles. The week after the Austin 3M Half, I started my first marathon paced long run workouts (20 miles with 10 miles at MP), and started off strong, averaging 6:12 per mile on the MP miles. This took me by surprise, as I wasn’t expecting to be in such great shape at this point. The long run workouts during the next two weekends confirmed that this was not a fluke for me. On the second weekend, I did alternating 1 mile at MP and 1 mile off, and my average MP for that session was quite similar to the MP that I saw the previous week. On my final long run workout the following week after (21 miles with 15 miles at MP), I averaged 6:10/mi for the MP miles. I was feeling very strong and good on those workouts, and I thought a significant marathon PR was on the horizon for me.

My coach saw that I was in great shape and things were trending in the right direction and decided that I did not need to do another MP session the following weekend. In the final three weeks before race day, I focused on leg turnover and threshold work on my workouts.

My coach and I had a chat right before I flew out to Tokyo and I went through my race plan with him that I put together based on the course profile as well as reading previous race reports from Tokyo. My coach told me that I was in shape to hit my A and B goals, but he also told me to have a backup plan (C goal) just in case things don’t go the way I was expecting on race day. I ended up putting a backup plan (secure a marathon PR of any kind); it turned out to be great advice from my coach, and I would find myself relying on that backup plan during the race.

Pre-race

I caught a flight to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon, and I was able to secure business class at the last minute (booked it with points). This proved to be a clutch decision, as I got 5-6 hours of sleep on the 12 hour flight over (plus lots of great food and drinks). When I landed in Tokyo I felt as fresh as a daisy, which was a completely different feeling compared to when I flew on transatlantic/transpacific flights in the past.

I went to the expo on Thursday morning and there was a long line to get into the expo right before it opened. The line for bib pickup took a while and it took me almost an hour before I was able to pick up my bib. The official merchandise store (ASICS) was also an entirely different matter. I had a few friends who were at the expo and they were messaging me saying that it was a madhouse at the ASICS expo store and people were grabbing merchandise left and right, getting their hands on whatever they could get, especially the marathon jackets. Of course, I had to see it for myself and when I finally got into the store I saw the chaos and mayhem with my very own eyes. Absolutely unbelievable. (FWIW, the official marathon jackets were completely sold out within 2 hours after the expo first opened).

Navigating through the chaos, I was able to secure some merch for myself, but it left me not impressed about how that was handled. (Did I mention that ASICS did not have any official merch in stock at their stores around Tokyo?). The Japanese do not like excess/waste and it was reflected in the amount of official merch they had available on sale. But marathon weekends are big revenue making opportunities, and they basically fumbled the bag. If anyone is thinking about running Tokyo in the future, this is something to keep in mind and one should set reasonable expectations around purchasing official merchandise. After getting myself out of the chaos that was the ASICS expo store, I browsed through the rest of the expo and it was less chaotic and was what one would expect at a marathon expo.

Over the next few days, I did my final pre-race workout around the Imperial Palace loop, plus easy and shakeout runs. In addition, I did a bit of sightseeing around Tokyo, and visited a few well-known sights such as Shibuya Sky, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Skytree, Asakusa Shrine, and teamLab Planets. The night before the race, I had my pre-race dinner with friends, went back to my hotel room, and got my race kit and drop bag ready for the following morning. I slept for about 6 hours, woke up, had a small breakfast and got myself ready for the day. I arranged to meet a running friend at the subway so that we could head over to the start area together, and we were able to successfully find each other on the subway car.

Arriving at the start area, we went to a nearby hotel to hang out and stay warm with plans to head to our corrals about 45 minutes before the race. We headed out to our corrals about 45 minutes before the race. I dropped my bag off, and did a warm up jog in loops in the starting corrals. Hopped onto the porta potty lines only to find that there was a long line for it, and I was nervous that I wasn’t going to make it to the start line in time. It took me until 5 minutes before the start to make it to the porta potties, and once I made it into the porta potties I quickly took care of business and hopped into my corral just before the gun went off for the mass start. Crisis averted.

Once the gun went off, the masses of runners started inching forward, and I crossed the start line a minute after the gun went off. Game on.

Race

Start to 5K

While I was in the corrals, I noticed that it was extremely crowded and based on reading race reports and blog posts about the Tokyo Marathon, I knew that it was going to be packed during the first 5K and I was not going to have room to maneuver during the first 5K. I opted to go out at a slower pace, but above all watch my footing, avoid getting tripped or elbowed, and make it to the 5K checkpoint intact.

The first 5K featured a net downhill stretch about 3K in, and I used that opportunity to speed up and ease myself into my marathon pace. I went through the first 5K in 20 minutes flat, about 30 seconds lower than I had initially planned for. Talk about a slower-than-expected start to the race.

5K to 10K

After dealing with the crowds during the first 5K, it opened up after the 5K checkpoint and I had more room to start running my own race. Easing into my marathon pace after 3K, I continued with that pace and ran a 19:29 5K split during this stretch (and 39:29 during the first 10K). I thought to myself that I shouldn’t panic about my pace just yet, and I was only getting warmed up after dealing with the crowds during the first 5K.

I was passing runners at this point, and I noticed that runners were passing on the right hand side. I followed their lead and passed runners on my right, which I continued to do so during the race whenever I could. Went through the 10K checkpoint with a 19:29 5K split (and a 39:29 10K)

10K to Half

After the 10K point, the out-and-back sections began. On the first out-and-back (between 9km and 12km markers), it was cool getting to see the packs of Japanese elite runners running in the opposite direction. Thanks to the many out-and-back sections of the course, I got to see the elite field at various times during the race.

We headed north towards the Senso-ji (Akasuka) Temple and so far I felt good on this stretch, even if I wasn’t exactly hitting my goal marathon pace; I was splitting sub-19:30 through every 5K. One thing I started to notice was that in stretches with tall buildings around, my GPS started to act up, which was something I’ve dealt with before (notably when racing at Chicago). And this became a recurring issue throughout the race whenever I ran through parts of the course surrounded by tall buildings. I opted to run by feel, lap at every kilometer marker, look at the Race Screen app to figure out where I stood in terms of projected finish line and see whether I was on pace (or not).

We made a u-turn at the entrance to the Senso-ji Temple and there was a photographer there taking pictures, and I made sure to open my arms wide and smile as I passed the photographer and began to head south towards the Kuramae Bridge, which crossed over the Sumida River. After crossing the Sumida River for the first time (and hitting the 20km checkpoint), I reached the halfway point in 1:22:30, which suggested I was on track for a sub-2:45 finish. Alright, maybe I might not be able to hit my A goal today, but I thought maybe I could finish under 2:45 (my B goal) and it’d be a good day for me – and if I was able to hold on.

Half to 30K

This stretch was quite fun. After crossing the halfway point, I got a glimpse of the men’s elite field. Three men in the lead pack passed by us in the opposite direction, and then I got to see Eliud Kipchoge as he zoomed past by me. I had a fanboy moment and cheered him on as he ran past. A runner near me saw Kipchoge pass by and he remarked how cool it was to see the GOAT in this manner. Unfortunately, the body language I saw from Kipchoge looked very similar to the body language he showed when he was running to the finish line at Boston last April; it looked like it wasn’t his day that day, and it turns out he didn’t (he finished in 10th place with a 2:06 result). I also got a glimpse of a few elite females (including Sifan Hassan), which was really cool to witness, and I cheered them on as they ran past us in the opposite direction.

Between the halfway point and the 24K marker, I was able to maintain the pace, but I did notice the numerous river bridges that I had to cross heading south, as I had to cross them again on the way back. When I headed back north on this stretch, for some reason navigating those bridges felt noticeably harder than when I navigated it initially just moments ago. In hindsight, this was the first signs of things to come for me later in the race….

I split 19:16 between 20K and 25K, and 19:47 between the 25K and 30K checkpoints.

30K to 40K

By this point, my stomach started to tighten up and I wasn’t feeling great as a result. I decided to hold off on taking more gels to not upset my stomach further and instead take sips of water and/or Pocari Sweat and give my stomach some breathing room. After getting this far, I didn’t want my race to be completely derailed by an upset stomach if I could help it.

I noticed that I was gradually fading away based on my gradually slowing paces and it became harder to hold onto to the pace I was comfortably running at in the earlier stages of the race. I quickly took stock of my most recent kilometer splits, plus looking at my projected race time on the Race Screen app on my watch and realized that if I could hold on and not fade too badly, I could still squeeze out a small marathon PR and live to fight another day. With my A goal now out of reach and my B goal looking increasingly out of reach for me as well, I decided to switch to my backup plan of getting any PR of some kind. From now on, this was going to be a grueling, grinding fight all the way to the finish line. And I was going to do everything I could to salvage this race for myself.

Between 30K and 32K, there were runners who were running in the opposite direction who were still in the early stages of the race, and some of those runners cheered us as we ran past them. Once we peeled off from them after the 32K marker, I ran through the Ginza neighborhood towards the final out-and-back stretch. The final out-and-back stretch was 7km long and had us pass by the Zojo-ji Temple and Hibiya Park. At the Zojo-ji Temple, Abbott had a significant cheer zone set up there and it was great to see them and hear the cheers from the spectators there as I passed by them twice during this stretch.

I was doing my best to hold on down the stretch. Mentally, I started to set designated points on the route to break things up and keep myself occupied. Get to the 35K checkpoint. Get to the 37K marker. Get to the 40K checkpoint. It was also starting to get warmer (high 40s) and the sun was shining brightly. Which meant I was starting to feel warmer than usual, and at aid stations I poured water on myself to try to cool myself off in addition to taking sips of water or Pocari Sweat.

40K to Finish

After crossing the 40K mark, I mentally focused myself on getting to the 41K mark. Once I reached the 41K mark, I turned onto Marunochi Naka-Dori Avenue, which was a cobblestone paved street and that was when I knew this was the home stretch and that the finish line was not far off.

With the cobblestone surface, I made sure to watch my footing while continuing to maintain momentum. There were a lot of spectators on both sides cheering us on as we made our way to the finish line. At the same time, the street felt like a never-ending stretch, but I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and looked for the 42K marker and the left hand turn to the finish line that was just beyond the 42K marker.

Once I made the left hand turn and saw the finish line, I gave it my all and made a sprint for the finish line. I crossed the finish line in 2:46:53 set a new 2+ minute marathon PR.

What I also did not know at the time was that at the 30K checkpoint, I placed just under the top 800 among all male runners. Between the 40K checkpoint and the finish line I passed enough runners to go up by almost 100 spots and ended up finishing within the top 700 males overall.

Post-race

After I crossed the finish line, I took a moment to catch my breath and to soak in the moment. I looked behind me at the finish line and watched as runners streamed through the finish line and finished their own races. After getting some pictures of myself at the finish line, I slowly made myself through the finisher chute and eventually made my way to the medal distribution area, followed by picking up my post-race poncho (a very colorful one I must add!), and then picked up my post-race food and drink from the post-race food and drink distribution area.

Later that evening, a few friends and I went to a craft beer bar in Shinjuku to celebrate over a few beers, and we ran into a few runners there who were doing the same thing too. We talked about our races and exchanged our own race stories and got to hear from others about how their race day went. It was a great time, so much so that we left the bar just before midnight.

After the Tokyo Marathon, running took a back seat as I solo traveled through Japan and enjoyed my vacation. I visited Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara and took in the sights, and enjoyed the great food that they had there. Given everything I saw and experienced through my travels, it was probably one of the best post-marathon vacations that I ever had, and I’m glad that I did this in the first place.

Final Thoughts

• Initially I was a bit bummed about my results, and especially since the MP workouts suggested that I was in much better shape than what the results showed. Once I came down from my post-race feelings, I took a fresh look at my results and noticed a few bright spots from my race. Placing in the top 1,000 at a major marathon for the second time. Going from starting in the 1900th place range in my gender to placing within the top 700 in my gender at the finish. And placing within the top 50 among all runners from my country who came to race the Tokyo Marathon. While I came out with a smaller marathon PR than what I was expecting, there were other aspects of my results that I was very proud of, especially considering the circumstances I found myself in.
• Besides the chaos at the ASICS store at the expo, my entire experience during Tokyo Marathon weekend was incredible and I enjoyed every single minute of it.
• I underestimated the effects of jet lag (especially one that involves a 14-hour time difference) and how it impacted my performance, among other things. I thought I would be able to handle it, but I was wrong. Partially because of the jet lag, my body had not fully adjusted to the time difference and my stomach was impacted in that it was not being cooperative during the later stages of the race. I was able to squeeze out a small marathon PR, it could have gone much worse for me if I did not have a backup plan in place to deal with such a scenario and if I wasn’t in such great shape to begin with.
• Seeing Eluid Kipchoge run past me in the opposite direction sometime after the halfway point. That was an incredible sight to see. And getting to see elites pass by me at various points in the course was just as incredible to witness as well.
• Lots of Six Star Finishers around me at any given time. This was bonkers. Especially with over 2,600 Six Star Finishers at Tokyo this year.
• This is my fifth major marathon, and I only have Boston left to go until I become a Six Star Finisher. With a safe Boston qualifying time on hand, I likely have a clear path towards completing my Six Star journey by next April after racing and finishing Boston. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on other goals while I wait for my turn at Boston next year. And most importantly, continue to enjoy the process and see where that takes me.

With that said, I will be racing Eugene in late April as my second spring marathon, and I'm looking to set a PR there and hopefully with a result that is reflective of my fitness levels. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing what is in store for me throughout this year, especially in the marathon distance.

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.

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