tokyo running days

A marathoner / newbie triathlete's training blog.

Friday, January 5

Recalling my first marathon.

Coming Tokyo Marathon is my 10th marathon. Perhaps that's why I can't help recalling my very first marathon experience.

In December 2002, seven months before joining Namban, I ran my first marathon (Aoshima Pacific Marathon in Miyazaki pref.) with 4:05:36. It was very agonizing experience and I thought I would never ever do it again. I did it all by myself, training alone, travelling alone, racing alone and coming back alone, and I thought, what's the point of doing this? A little bit of self-satisfaction in exchange for enormous agony during the race and unbearable leg sore afterwards.

Of course I felt pretty good about myself having run 42.195km, which I have never thought of being able to do for previous thirty something years, but still, it was like one of those good memories you have in your life.

But as time goes by, the thought "I could have done better if..." is growing. The fantasy every runner would have several days after a race, when your leg sore is gone (I still have the same kind of thoughts after every race). Especially I didn't like this "05:36" part of my time. That's the only reason I decided to do my second marathon.

Then I joined Namban, ran my second marathon in NYC 2003 with 3:40:40 (with even worse agony), *snip* and here I am, going to run 10th marathon!

My target time for Tokyo Marathon is breaking 3:05:36. One hour improvement from my first one would be sweet if I could.

Well, let's see.

4 Comments:

At January 05, 2007, Blogger Ewen said...

A one hour improvement from your first would be brilliant! And that first marathon wasn't that long ago.

I think you did the right thing in stopping the 5k. At least you know the reason why it was less than satisfactory.

 
At January 06, 2007, Blogger mika t. said...

Thanks Ewan. I, kind of needed a motivation to run hard, so I made up this 1 hour improvement goal. Ambitious, but not impossible, I think.

 
At January 07, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although i was disapointed with my 3:26 at Ohtawara i dont think taking an hour of it is realistic (maybe Brett can do that for me :)

But I was thinking that my first half in Dec 03 was 2:23... so taking an hour of that is a great objective!!

 
At January 07, 2007, Blogger mika t. said...

Arnaud, cutting 1 hour off from your first half marathon time is an incredible achievement. That means...2hour for a marathon. And you are almost there. Go for it!!!

 

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