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Tokyo Marathon.
Report – David Jones.
Low temperatures and persistent rain put a slight damper on the celebratory aspect of the 13th Tokyo Marathon but at it didn’t harm the runners’ overall performances.
The winner — Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese — clocked the event’s second-best time ever (2:04.46) and a record number of runners — 38,000 — participated.
For club member Simon Bolton, it was a case of 4 down 2 to go, as he attempts to complete all 6 marathons in the World Marathon Majors.
With Tokyo, Chicago, London and New York all completed in just two years, he just needs Boston and Berlin to complete the set.
His time of 3:40.33 was a mere 4 seconds shy of his New York marathon time in March 2017. He finished just outside the top 20% of finishers and he was 138th out of 451 finishers from Great Britain and NI.
Simon was delighted to finish the race in one piece. He’s had only 4 weeks to train due to a stress fracture in his foot and not wanting to ramp up the mileage too quickly, he felt had dramatically undertrained.
For Simon, the start was the usual combination of pre marathon excitement and nerves, but this time, added to the equation, was the pouring rain.
He managed a nice even pace for the first 20 miles, indeed his 3 x 5k splits from 5k to 15k were all within just 3 seconds of each other.
He then deciding to tactically back off for the remainder of the race, to prevent a complete breakdown!
He commented:
“The rain didn’t stop, although like my pace, it eased towards the end. Given the weather, the support from the spectators was brilliant, with decent crowds along the whole course. I arrived at the finish line wet and cold but delighted at coming in at a respectable 3:40:33. It was not my fastest marathon by a long way but perhaps my proudest, given the shear determination I needed to get round it!”
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