Tokyo marathon result-3:13

Ran the Tokyo marathon today, 17 February 2008. A beautiful city, a flat course, a cool (cold) day, blue skies, massive crowd support (about 2 million supporters), and of course support from Gillian, Olivia, Jen and Caitlin saw me beat my goal time and come home in a net time of either 3:12:59 or 3:13:00. Two minutes quicker than my goal time! I'm delighted...



I was consistent with my pace throughout the race and stuck with my plan of just easing into the race, although I went through my 5k goal time about 30 seconds quicker than projected. I just felt really good but didn't push the pace. Banked valuable seconds along the way and at about halfway had close to 1 minute 50 seconds stashed away. The thinking was to just keep this pace and see how I feel at 35. At 35, this bank had come down to about 1:30 but still, all was going better than planned.



Let's see how I feel at 40 was the thinking and pushed it slightly between 35-40. Still felt strong, even up the hills (small hills but still...) and while the legs started to get a little heavy, I had no signs of 'the wall'. Just kept blasting away.



From 40-42, pushed it and hammered it home. Chopped about 30 more seconds off and came home in either 3:12:59 or 3:13:00. Just so happy with this.



Seeing the girls out at 16, 25, and 36 was a massive help and they were great.

Off to drink a few well deserved Sapporos...