Tokyo Marathon 2014

My friend had been urging me for years to run the Tokyo Marathon. So I finally threw my name in their lottery. The chances of getting into the race for a foreigner was extremely high. So it was no surprise that I had gotten in. They had just joined the World Marathon Majors recently so I thought that I'd better run it before it gets too popular. I also heard that they'll be changing their lottery system so that it would no longer favor the foreigners as much.

Less than a month before the race, I received the welcome packet in the mail for registered runners. Besides your runner information, the packet included informational flyers for tourists and other travel information.

Welcome packet

Wednesday 2/19
I booked a relatively cheap nonstop flight with United. The flight was operated by ANA (All Nippon Airways). I'm starting to really like flying out of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The recent renovations have made the place much more worthy of a big metropolis like Los Angeles. Thank goodness the Japanese are so well mannered and very proper. The boarding process was super organized and painless. With a lot of the US domestic flights that I've been on, I'll at least see a few irate entitled passengers bitching about something wrong.

TBIT

During the long flight, I watched a total of 3 movies, Rush, Captain Phillips, and Escape Plan. Finally I got the chance to catch up on some movies. I had to re-watch some of the movies as I kept dozing off. One thing I like about international flights is that alcohol is complimentary and so are the meals. Between the eating, the drinking, and the movie watching, the 11+ hour flight didn't feel all too long or unbearable.

Thursday 2/20
I bumped into one of my friends who was also flying to Tokyo for the marathon as we were getting off of the plane. I wasn't sure at first if she had made her connection at LAX. I was glad that she did. Before we went through customs and immigration I noticed that we were walking through some heat scanners. It looked like you would be quarantined if they had detected that you have a fever. We met up with her boyfriend at the baggage claim. We were looking into our options for getting into Shinjuku. I changed some cash into yen. Based on my research, I decided that it would be best to take the Narita Express (NEX), so I went to look for the office to buy a ticket and my friends were looking into taking the bus or some other rail. Anyways, we got separated. I couldn't find them when I came back to the spot where I was last with them to say goodbye. Also my phone had no internet connection whatsoever in Japan even though I added an international data plan. Oh well, off to go catch my train.

The train was super clean. I mean you can eat off of the floors! What's cool is that they'll rotate all of the chairs so that everyone is facing the direction that the train is travelling. The seats were reserved seating and the car that I was in wasn't even half filled.

NEX to Shinjuku

It was already dark by the time that I got into Shinjuku. The Shinjuku station was super busy and huge! There were directions with enough English that I could figure out where to go. But once I got outside, it was kind of hard to figure things out. Luckily there were maps at the corners of major intersections. The entrance to my hotel, Shinjuku Washington Hotel, was a bit tucked in from the road that I took so I missed it, but I looped around and found the underground entrance. Good thing that I studied enough of the maps and the major landmarks to figure out where I was going.

The check-in process was pretty easy. They even had a separate counter for foreigners. My room was pretty dang tiny. I'm not a big dude and I felt like a giant in this room. My head nearly touched the ceiling whenever I went into the bathroom. The important thing was that the bed was big enough and comfortable. It was also pretty neat to use the bidet. I'm not sure why Americans are so afraid of using them! :)

The bed

Lights controls on the headboard

Fancy toilet

Bidets are the way to go!

Friday 2/21
I walked over to my friend's hotel so that we could go over to the race expo at the Tokyo Big Sight together. This would be my friend's 6th year in the row running this marathon. He always spoke very highly of this marathon and was going to take me to some awesome food places in the next couple of days. It also helped out a lot that he had pre-purchased a local wifi hotspot, so I could use the internet. While on the train to expo, he pointed out to me how we were the only two people wearing jeans. Japanese people are either afraid of the cold or always dress very formally when they're out and about. They don't wear shorts and no blue jeans. Everything they wore was black! Again, I'll have to point out that the trains were very clean and quiet as nobody really talks while riding the subway. Color me impressed as I'm used to riding the filthy subway trains in NYC and other major US cities.

Subway to the expo

We got off at the Kokusaitenjijo Station and met up with a fellow Marathon Maniac and his cousin. It was close to lunch time, so we decided to eat at the station before going to the expo. Even for some "fast" food, it was good food. Ordering was pretty convenient, as you make your selection and payment at a machine. It'll print your order on a small piece of paper which you then hand over to the cook. Before you know it, your meal is ready. I had the soba and curry rice combination.

Soba and curry rice

My buddies David and Eddie

After snapping a few photos outside in front of the Tokyo Big Sight, we went inside. For registered runners, you go through a separate area (Number Card Pick-up) first to pick up your bib, chip, and shirt. Then you go through the expo to try samples, pick up some freebies, and of course buy some merchandise. The official merchandise section was near the beginning and was fairly small. The rest of the expo comprised of other exhibitors and their products. I was looking to buy a jacket, but none of them had the Tokyo Marathon logo or even the date on them. So I ended up buying a black t-shirt. I picked up a BMW towel and a couple cans of alcohol free Asahi Dry Zero. Not sure that I would like to drink beer where you can't catch a buzz. It actually didn't taste quite like beer.

My buddies Eddie and David

Alcohol free beer

My friends wanted to eat after going through the expo, so we walked across to the Wanza Ariake Bay Mall to eat in the food court. We ate at Sukiya, where I had their beef udon. After going our separate ways, I went back to my room to go through the expo haul.

Beef udon

Expo stuff

For a late dinner, I went to the bottom floor of my hotel where there were a few restaurants. I grabbed a seat at the counter of a ramen shop called Osaka Ohsho. I ordered a shoyu ramen with fried rice combo. I bought some drinks from the convenience store, Family Mart, before heading up to my room.

Saturday 2/22
The cleaning crew had left a note that they have mandatory room cleaning after 3 days. I'm a very clean occupant and I normally do not use maid service wherever I go, but the rules are the rules. Since I wasn't leaving until Tuesday, I might as well let them clean today. Then they can clean again when I leave on Tuesday.

Again I met up with my friend and we took the subway over to the Ikebukuro station. We then walked to a nearby ramen shop called Mutekiya. Even though it was already past 1pm, we had to wait in a line that wrapped around the corner. The wait didn't feel too long and we were seated at the bar. I ordered the hontorotokumaru ramen. Forget about the many bowls that I've eaten anywhere in the States, this was by far the best bowl of ramen that I've ever eaten. The broth, the noodles, and especially the hanjuku egg was perfect.

Don't blow your nose while eating ramen!

All done, best bowl of ramen ever!

My friend wanted to go back to the expo. But before heading back he wanted to stop by the famous KitKat store to check it out. There was a huge line, but I was not impressed and not at all inclined to buy anything. It helps to not have a sweet tooth. Then we headed back to the expo to meet up with some of our Southeast Asian Marathon Maniac friends. While going through the official merchandise section, I bumped into my friends that I got separated from at the airport. What a coincidence. This time I bought a pair of shorts. I wished them luck on the race tomorrow and went to go look for my other friends. It was hard to find them as the expo was super crowded. Don't come here on Saturday! There was just way too many people! Once we found each other, we went to go eat in the Wanza Ariake Bay Mall again. This time we ate at Tonkatsu Wako.

Hirekatsu

My friend and I then went over to Tetsu near the Shinagawa station to eat some tsukemen. This was our last carboloading meal before the marathon. Just like most places in Japan, you make your selection at a machine outside of the restaurant and pay for your meal there. The machine prints out your order. Then when you get seated, you pass your order to the cooks. I got a regular tsukemen with a small bowl of rice. Boy was I stuffed since it was our second dinner!

After getting back to my room, I watched a little bit of TV while getting my race gear ready. I was able to find something that was in English, Léon: The Professional with a very young Natalie Portman. "No women, no kids. That's the rules." It was going to be a pretty cold day, so I got the knit cap, arm sleeves, calf sleeves, and gloves ready.

"No women, no kids. That's the rules."

Sunday 2/23
My hotel was right near the starting area so I had the luxury of some extra time in getting ready for the race. When I started heading to the starting area, I noticed security everywhere. It was definitely not as how my friend described it to be. I went through the initial security bag check before getting into the gear check area. It seemed that the initial check was just to feel it to see if it was heavy. Out of sheer coincidence I spotted my Marathon Maniac friend, Eddie. We both walked to the designated corner to meet up with the other Maniacs. He had lost his number sticker for his bag, but luckily with my limited Japanese, I was able to help him secure another means of identifying his bag.

We're all assigned a specific gear check bin. After checking my gear bag at my bin, I went back to the corner but I didn't see any Maniacs there. So I headed up the ramp to the corral J near the park that my friend told me to go to, but it was completely fenced off. He told me that you could relax there and use the restrooms there. I guess the Boston Marathon bombing had changed things. So I headed back down the ramp to get in one of the lines for the standing urinals for men. I think more races should have these. No need for doors, just step right up and piss away!

Going back up the ramp to the corrals was now a clustersmurf! We were packed like sardines shoulder to shoulder and it was moving as fast as molasses on a cold winter's day. It would finally loosen up a bit when I got to the top of the ramp and turned left for corral G.

It was pretty crowded in the corral, and a fellow Marathon Maniac was still able to spot me. It was good to hear and speak English to someone after hearing mostly Japanese for the last several days. They shot a lot of confetti at the start of the race. Since I started in corral G, it was all on the ground by the time I crossed the starting line about 10 minutes later.

Starting corral - starting line is up ahead and left around the corner

The course started at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and it was super packed at the start. You were constantly bumping into other runners. I guess the locals are used to it because it felt like walking through the subway stations. After a couple of kilometers, I passed "Jesus" carrying his cross. I tried to take a picture with my cellphone but mine didn't come out good at all, but my friend took a very nice one. There were many runners in costumes in this race. I saw someone dressed up as a Lego man, Spider-man, Kamen Rider, and a bunch of other TV or movie characters.

From Diane Jones

The next major landmark on the course was the Imperial Palace. The course would then head down to the turnaround point in Shinagawa. We would pass the Tokyo Tower along the way. After running a few marathons in countries where they use the metric system, I'm starting to like running marathons that are measured by kilometers. I think it's easier to keep your pace and get feedback if you happen to not like wearing those encumbering GPS watches. I was running at a fairly even pace until I got to about the halfway point where I went to my usual second half slower pace.

After reaching the halfway point, the course began to head up towards the turnaround point at the Asakusa Kaminarimon Gate. The gate was pretty cool to see in person. I'll have to visit the gate some other time when I'm not in a hurry to finish a race. I was running pretty well until my right foot started hurting at around 35km. Before the foot pain, I thought that I had a good chance at besting my PR from last weekend. I guess with all of these marathons on consecutive weekends, I just can't rely on my legs to be fresh. An interesting observation during the race was that the volunteers passed out a lot of food especially during the later miles which was different from what I've been accustomed to in the US marathons. US marathons normally pass out gels at about 2 aid stations only. I was eating my Shotbloks, but I also took some bananas and red bean cake. They even passed out tomatoes which I did not take. I'll have to give that a try next time. The course ended at the Tokyo Big Sight. It's good to have a big target that you can see from far away.
1-4: 22:06 (5:31)
5: 5:13
6-9: 21:20 (5:19)
10: 5:33
11: 5:25
12: 5:32
13: 5:31
14: 5:34
15: 5:32
16: 5:35
17: 5:56
18: 5:50
19: 5:54
20: 6:03
21: 6:14
22: 6:24
23: 6:37
24: 5:58
25: 6:13
26: 6:25
27: 6:54
28: 6:31
29: 6:22
30: 6:18
31: 6:33
32: 6:27
33: 6:56
34: 6:34
35: 6:48
36: 7:39
37: 6:12
38: 6:26
39: 6:56
40: 6:24
41: 6:39
42: 6:21
42.2: 0:58
Finish: 4:15:57

I liked this course. It was flat but not too flat. There's even a decent incline near the end of the race. There was a lot of out and backs so you could see those ahead of you and behind you. I always like to search for my friends along the course. Just as my friend had mentioned, they kept the course very clean. They had big trash receptacles at every aid station. Hardly anything was thrown to the ground by the Japanese runners.

Finish line!

This race was super organized from mailing you your info packet, the expo, the gear check, the race itself, and post race. The superb organization of this race rivaled that of the New York City Marathon and the Berlin Marathon. It definitely belonged in the Marathon Majors.

I bumped into a guy dressed up as a cockroach. He spoke English, so I talked to him for a little bit. Although he got to the finish line before I did, I did beat him based on chip time. Wouldn't be too cool to have lost to a cockroach! :) Two other Marathon Maniacs finished around the same time that I did, so we hung out with each other and eventually took the subway train together. Going through the finisher chute, they were handing out bottles of the nasty electrolyte drink, Amino Value. I took a few sips before tossing it. Thank goodness they also passed out water. They also passed out a bag of food. I picked up my finisher's towel and medal. Cool stuff! I wish more races would give out finisher's towels! The only other marathon that I know of with finisher's towels is the Malibu Marathon, but unfortunately that race is dead to me. I will not support a race where the race director tells lies to my face and makes empty promises. Anyways, I digress.

Cockroach!

We would then walk into the gear bag pickup inside a huge hall. I picked up my bag and put my handheld bottle away. Then we would snake slowly through the room where everybody changed. There was just a lot of people everywhere. Once we made it out of that area, there was a bit more breathing room. We took a few finisher photos. I put on my jacket before going outside. We all took the same train back to Shinjuku.

Finisher's towel

Monday 2/24
Early in the morning, my friend and I took the train down to the Shibuya station to visit the Hachiko statue. My friend has been taking his picture each year after the marathon with Hachiko wearing his medals. We had to wait until about 6:30am before there was enough daylight to take a good picture. Apparently the Shibuya station is an extremely busy station. There was a guy sweeping up tons of cigarette butts when we got there.

Hachiko

We went back to Shinjuku and visited a few convenience stores (7 Eleven, Lawson, and Family Mart) to look for some snacks. I ate them once I got back to my room. Sometimes I wish that the convenience stores in the US sold these type of snacks. Even though I grew up on American food, I still crave Asian snacks. I guess it's in my blood.

huwa huwa (fluffy) egg cake

Snacks from 7 Eleven: smoked tongue, pepper beef, chestnut dorayaki cake

We then met up again and took the train over to the Harajuku Station because my friend wanted to check out Takeshita Street. I was not impressed as there was nothing there that piqued my interest. We ate some crepes and my friend ate a takoyaki, but the majority of the street was geared towards shopping for girls. We went to the nearby Kyushujangara to eat a bowl of ramen for lunch. I had item 1A on the menu. It was very good, but on the greasier side. I haven't been disappointed by any of the ramen that I had eaten during the entire trip. As you can see, I left nothing in the bowl! :)

Takeshita Street

We stopped by the Asics store to see if we were able to buy one of the jackets that were given to the volunteers. When we were about to ask one of the employees, there was someone else inquiring the same thing. Those jackets were really nice, but unfortunately they were not for sale. :(

On my way back to my hotel I stopped by Kamo, a soccer store, to buy some soccer scarves for a couple of my coworkers that are pretty big soccer fans.

For dinner we took the train out to Ueno, met up with another Marathon Maniac to eat at Maguro-Ichiba. I had their umishichi don which came with a bowl of misoshiru. It was only 980 yen. Such good food and it's so affordable! I'm not sure if the recent nuclear power plant disaster had anything to do with the seafood prices being low.

My friends weren't done exploring, so I took the train back to Shinjuku. There was a long delay before the train left the station because something or someone had gotten on the tracks otherwise the train schedules are normally very punctual. At the Shinjuku station, I reserved my NEX train at one of the machines for tomorrow's ride to the airport before heading back to my hotel. I also picked up some snacks at the 7 Eleven next to my hotel.

Roll cake, hosogiri potato, a couple of onigiri

Tuesday 2/25
Checkout time was 11am. I checked out at one of the self service machines which basically takes back your room key. My flight home was at 5:05pm and my train was at 12:40pm so I slowly made my way to the Shinjuku station for one last time. This time I decided to take the underground route. It was actually harder to find the platform that I needed but I had plenty of time and eventually I found it.

I made it back to Narita airport. The exiting stalls were sort of hard to figure out. To enter the airport I had to put in both tickets. I inserted my ticket, but it was denying me and speaking to me in Japanese. Good thing the attendant there spoke really good English. I had to insert what I thought was the receipt into the machine as well. They also checked our passports shortly thereafter before you go any further. Going through security was pretty easy. Along with the liquids, I just needed to remove my tablets from my bags, but I get to keep my shoes on. I then made my way to the food court to eat one last delicious meal before heading home. I had a plate of katsu kare at Curry Spice. Good stuff!

katsu kare

The flight time would be about 9 hours 45 minutes. It was a shorter flight heading home so I was only able to get through two movies: Runner Runner with Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Safe House with Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington. Both were kind of below average movies, but there wasn't much choice. The inflight meals were good again. Instead of drinking all beers, this time I went with little bottles of cabernet sauvignon. I think I'm starting to prefer drinking red wine over beer... it's always good to expand one's horizons. :)

This marathon definitely makes my top 3 list. It's right up there with the New York City Marathon and the Berlin Marathon. Having now run Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago, and New York, I only have London and Boston left to run to complete all 6 World Marathon Majors.

After about a month, I received a copy of the Tokyo Marathon 2014 Newspaper and a finisher's certificate. What a nice touch! I'm glad that I've finally run this marathon.

Received in the mail