17th Shinjuku City Half Marathon

On January 27, I took on the first half marathon of my life together with 平岡. For me, it was not only a half marathon but also the longest distance I had ever attempted. I did some training for it, but even in training the farthest I had run was just over 10 km. My goal was to finish within the 2-hour-30-minute time limit, so my rivals were myself and the six cut-off checkpoints. On a cold day, I met up with 平岡 at the start, where I could see that President 半場 and many others had come to cheer us on.

Right after the start, 平岡, who was aiming to finish in under two hours, disappeared into the pack ahead in no time, and from then on it was a solitary battle.

The first 5 km or so looped around the Gaien area, and there were so many people that the pace was slow. Perhaps that helped, because although my legs always felt heavy, nothing felt wrong even past 7 km. Still, there was a long way to go, so I kept the pace slow. Passing 10 km, my time was 1:00:00?! For someone aiming for 7 minutes per km, that was an astonishing pace. From the start I had been holding it in, planning to stop at a restroom while taking a break along the way, but at this pace it seemed a waste to stop.

Passed 16 km. No problems apart from needing the restroom⁉ Even so, I kept it slow, saving myself for the last 5 km. Passed 19 km, no problems. Thinking that surely nothing could go wrong now, I picked up the pace all at once! When I entered the stadium it was 2:02:00. I had a reason for wanting to beat 2 hours 4 minutes no matter what (President 半場's record was 2:04), so I sprinted all out. As a result, I finished in just over 2 hours 3 minutes.

Incidentally, by early afternoon that day I was hit by severe muscle and knee pain, and the next day I couldn't go up or down stairs at all without relying on station elevators; on the train I was even mistaken for an injured person and offered a seat.

Even so, although it was a fairly cold day, once I started running the cold, dry winter air felt good, and racing through the city center under clear skies was exhilarating.

Let's all run together next year!!

栂野 (with gratitude)