Tokyo Marathon 2010

Oh, lucky us. Remember we won places in the Tokyo Marathon way back last year? 32,000 golden tickets for 310,000+ applicants. Of all the lotteries we could win…and we didn’t even have to eat a chokky bar to be in the running. So we’ve been in denial these past few months but you know, love talking the talk…We are doing a marathon. Yes, us. No, actually to be honest we were doing pretty well following our beginners guide to marathoning, but that all quickly went way, way south when we went home for Chrissie. It was too hot there and now it’s too cold here to train. And in just under 2 weeks we’ve got to do it. So in the spirit of complete panic, we’ve decided to go all Zen on our bad selves and just enjoy the whole process. I mean, everyone's got to run a marathon once in their lives, right? It's all about the experience. Runners are given 7 hours to complete the 42km.  We are hoping to do it in 5:59:00 (sounds better than 6...).

We did our last LSD last week (runny speak for long slow distance or for us laboriously stellar dawdling…) We planned a 32km run from our place to Shibuya and back, along 246. Before we knew it, just 7km in, Trace needed the toilet and we just happened to find one, in of all places, the food court of the heavenly Takashimaya Department Store. Hello, Boons Crème Puffs. Didn’t know there was a new Krispy Kreme there. Anyway we digress as we trotted our way through in full running regalia. We made it more than ½ way before Trace’s facebook status said it all: “Had to retire at 21km of our 32km run today due to the fact that I couldn't have been colder if I was sitting naked on top of an iceberg. In Antarctica.”

So we ended up in Café de Crie, then took the train home. Why won’t they let us plan the course? And more importantly (for those history buffs) why couldn't Pheidippides have died at 18 kms? Anyway we’re moving forward and for the last 2 weeks pre-our-LAST-run-ever we have adopted the following check list (which we may or may not have seen on a t-shirt)…Please feel free to add anything else relevant….

• Carb load (Oh, we are so doing this right now…"carb-loading" doesn't fully convey what's happening in our apartment right now.)
• Drink water (Have practiced this during training since the last highly embarrassing, near-death incident at Run for the Cure...)
• Work out toilet issues (Not mastered yet, we still can’t get our compression tights off, 2 months after putting them on.)
• Refrain from huge sobbing meltdowns at kms 25, 30, 35 and 40. (Whatever.)
• Feign lucidity at the finish line. (Totally sure as we stagger over the line that lucidity will probably be a very distant second to sheer relief, pain management and grief counseling...however appearance counts and we will do our best to look relatively normal.  Oh, who are we kidding. Massive hugs, tears of joy and pride awaits. So loving ourselves.)

For our many dear friends who’ve expressed interest in coming to watch the fiasco of us attempting this, you may like to check out the Tokyo Marathon Website for the event details and those we've added below. Please make sure to watch the Tokyo Marathon Movie. We’ve watched it, embraced the motion sickness and are now nauseated beyond belief about the task ahead.

Estimated running times have been given for the elite runners (doing the 42km in 2 hours) and also for the fun runners (completing in 4 hours.) So the 6 hour entrants must be called the surviving runners and we have worked out our own passing times based on where we expect to be at certain points along the course.  The excitement of the day sees many spectators lining the streets - and if you're out and about and want to cheer us both on this is where we are hoping to be on February 28th 2010:

About:

• 9.10 am        Start    Tocho Dori, Shinjuku
• 9.45 am        5km     Iidabashi
• 10.25 am      10km    Imperial Palace/Hibiya Park
• 11.00 am      15km    Shinagawa Station (here as the elites are finishing...)
• 11.50 am      20km    Hibiya Park
• 12.30 pm      25km    Higashi-Nihonbashi
• 1.20 pm        30km    Ryogoku
• 2.00 pm        35km    Tsukiji
• 2.50 pm        40km    Shinomome
• 3.09 pm        42km    Finish at Tokyo Big Sight

We are considering awarding our own special prizes for the best Dee and Tracey SIGN. Here are some ideas…knock yourselves out.

"We can't all be heroes. Someone has to sit on the curb and clap as you go by."

"You're not slow. You're just enjoying the course."

"Don't stop...People are watching."

The pride is forever. 

Comments

[Yvette]

HOw about 'Only a little bit further...'

[Linda Autry]

Dear Dee & Tee....

I so love reading your stories. I laugh so hard I cannot even use the lol because it just doesn't cut it!!!

I am so proud of all that you two take on in life. Beautiful inside out. <3

I am hoping that there will be a book written by both of you...and when it's out I want an autographed copy.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your beautiful yet painful journey with us. So much fun to watch it unfold.

I am with you in SPIRIT!!! GO MY TOKYO GIRLS!!!!

Huge Hugs from Dallas Texas xoxo
Linda