the last edition of Tokyo women's

To be honest, I was hoping to make my PB in the final edition of the Tokyo Women's since I've never finished this race. In my opinion, this is harder than Boston Marathon for me even though the course is almost flat, and also there are many Namban supporters.

Unfortunately I caught a cold a few of days before...no choice but to take medications, but I felt OK when woke up on the race day. I set my target time as under 3:15:00. My strategy was to run easy for first 10km, keep on running a bit faster, and just go ahead. I started in the second wave, so I had enough time to go to the toilet, which was an advantage. :-)

After the gun, the leaders started slowly, it took 4m50s in the track for the first km mark. I dressed with arm warmers, gloves, but I didn't need them because I sweat a lot after a few km, so decided to throw the arm warmers to Namban cheering group in Shinagawa (thanks to Luke for catching them!!). Then I thought it's going to be a tough race.

At Suidobashi, I could hear Shibasan's voice yelling loudly, but I was so glad to hear his voice!!! Thanks to Shiba-san. After Shiba-san, Yumiko-san was standing at the station, Satohiiiiiii----!!!! Arigatou Yumiko-san too.

From my past-experience, I tried to stay easy, not rush, just stay cool with my pace. Enjoyed running at Shinagawa with high five with some TTOG. I got many encouragements there from Namban cheering group, thanks a lot! Saw the leaders passing the other way after Shinagawa. I thought Shibui was going well. I tried not to do any ineffective things during the race, but sometimes I could run at someone else's pace.

Running at 4:40/km pace was not so hard until 25 km, and then suddenly my ankles felt light pain. The pain was getting harder step by step, ankles to knees were not moving so well, just repeated the same moving from there to the finish. When I was getting slowly, Peter called me, "Satohi how are you doing?" I answered, yeah.. so so... because I was worrying about the bad situation happening again...three times in a row...I met Nambanners in Shinagawa again, they put me out to ahead, but I was so slow. It makes me feel so terrible when I can't run at my pace. I guess looked so tired even though I could give a smile.

At Hibiya Park, my co-worker Taka-aki was cheering me on with his wife, so glad to see them!!! Thanks for coming on Sunday!!! So, I got motivation again to get to the destination, but I didn't running just jogging perhaps walking faster. A woman called me by my name at 35km marks, "Satohi-saaaan", but so sorry I didn't know who she was? On the sidewalk, many people cheered me by my name, Numasawa-san or Satohi-san, otherwise Namban-Rengooooo!!! I was blessed by everyone's support... thank you for your support, I couldn't finish without your help.

In front of Yotsuya hill, I passed Yoshiko-san, but she passed me in front of the stadium, she is so strong. The hill was hard for me even though it's easier than the Heartbreak-hill in Boston, I wonder why? I was worried about passing time at 40km mark since I got cut off there last time. I really wanted to pass it. Suddenly a judge might require me to stop...but it was okay this time, so could jog after 40km gate too. The stadium was getting close a little by little, and entered inside when suddenly Yoshiko-san passed me and she said, "Beat me!" I had no energy to run at faster than 5 minute pace, however I tried to follow her and we passed over 10 girls in the stadium. It was amazing!

I will run again in Tokyo 2009, see you there!

Distance Time Total Time Pace
5 km 22:59 22:59 4:36
10 km 23:22 46:21 4:41
15 km 23:05 1:09:26 4:37
20 km 23:08 1:32:34 4:38
25 km 23:33 1:56:07 4:43
30 km 24:27 2:20:34 4:54
35 km 27:08 2:47:42 5:26
40 km 28:00 3:15:42 5:36
Finish 11:46 3:27:28 5 :21