Lately I haven’t been very dedicated to my running. In fact as of the date of this post I have only run once in twelve weeks, but it was for 26.2 miles. I didn’t think I would do it but I went ahead and ran the 2008 Tokyo Marathon. I have had so much trouble with my legs, ankles and tendons that I just didn’t have the motivation to run much. Toss in the fact that this winter was a little colder with more snow than last year and I just couldn’t get myself out of bed at 0500 and out into the weather. I even tried keeping a running log beginning 84 days before the event complete with a countdown timer. I stopped filling it in after day 51.  Whine, whine.

My plan was to spend the marathon weekend in Tokyo with Bobbie and drop by the Expo just to pick up my race packet; after all it was already paid for. But as race day approached I began to regret not being prepared. I decided that I would pick up the packet and start the race, drop out around the 10K point and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Race day was beautiful. We could see Fuji san from our hotel and I was inspired. I started the race and felt surprisingly good, the crowd was enthusiastic and at the 10K point decided to continue. At 20K I was ahead of my pace from last year, very encouraging. Soon I passed the half way point so why stop now?

Video crossing the finish:

Enter 30983 into the search window and click search. Click the play button on the right side; it may take a few minutes for the video to load. If you look closely to the left of the frame, about a 1/4 down from the top, you will see the flash of a camera, that's me taking this photo.