Trekking Barris: Tokyo Marathon

We flew back Monday night from Kyoto, and left Thursday after work for Tokyo. Let's just say Narita is not a convenient airport, but flight prices were cheap! Friday after a medical appointment at Yokosuka (I've got a surgery scheduled for mid-March - yuk!), we trained back to Tokyo to register for the race and then to the New Sanno.

Saturday was a sunny day and not too cold that we were able to spend most of the day outside at this neat kid obstacle course.

The Tokyo Marathon was fun, very well organized and a scenic course. 36,000 runners ran surrounded by huge buildings, near the Tokyo Tower, over bridges, past thousands of fans and impressive temples. There were bands, drummers, cheerleaders, and running police with backpacks that though they were probably 5'2" could have karate chopped me to the ground! Security was on high alert, but as orderly as everyone it didn't feel as if there was any danger. There were probably 3-4 volunteers for each runner - the sides lined with people carrying trash bags and runners using them to dispose of finished goos or discard clothing.

The race started with a slight downhill, and I started feeling strong hoping to run faster than Kyoto but by about half way knew that wasn't going to happen so slowed down. At the end I had enough energy to finish fast with a 3:41. Jeff and the girls were impressive and able to find me 6 times on the course, and tried at another 2 spots but I was lost in the crowd.

Monday we hit a temple and a 100 Yen store (they are all different and super fun to check out!), and then flew home. The kids didn't have school Monday so they ended up just missing one day.

Thanks Jeff for the mid-week massages to get me back in race shape!

race expo - Race Motto - the Day we Unite

my name is somewhere in the pink near the corner of my race number

we saw people wiping out, getting wet, and sinking! Bella kept going back and forth which was fun.... until she dropped her cell phone (one of our old ones she plays with)...