Tokyo marathon done and six-star journey completed. It turns out that even if you run a marathon 'easy' it's still quite hard.
Average temperature during training: 4°C (39°F). Temperature at start of marathon: 12°C (54°F).
Super congested at the start, which continued for at least the first 4k (2.5 miles) where I nipped off course for a comfort break. As with many big city marathons it suffers from lots of runners failing to follow race etiquette (weaving, cutting across, suddenly stopping, walking in the middle of the route) and I'm not sure arranging the drinks stations by bib number was a fantastic help. They tended to appear all of a sudden on only one side, too. Paper cups, but filled less than half, so I started taking two per station to try and keep hydrated.
Managed to keep to 3:30 pace for the majority of the run, fading in the last 8k (5 miles) which had no shade at all. Stopped completely at the final few drinks stations (off to the side, out of the way) to get on fluids. No point in doing unnecessary damage with London 8 weeks away.
Didn't walk at all (I thought I might have to at some point with the heat), and picked it up for the final stretch on the cobbles. Official time 3:35:29.
Medals and finisher goodies collected, then back to the hotel for a nice hot bath before popping back to the charity lounge for light snacks and thanking them for my place. Then used the voucher they provided for some fries and a strawberry milkshake to take back to the hotel to start the refuelling process.
A shame about the weather, but you can't do anything about it. At least the photos should turn out well. It's going to be 7°C (feels like 4°C) and raining tomorrow.
Finishes the week with 48.8 miles (78.55km) run.
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