Tokyo Marathon

Anyone ran the Tokyo Marathon before? Have done London and would like to target in the next few years an overseas marathon and for some reason thought that Tokyo could be the one. I spoke to them at the London Marathon expo a few years ago and I think that was were the idea was planted. Just looking to hear people's thoughts on the race, organisation, overall experience etc

I have ran it once and visited it again a couple of years ago. Great marathon/ experience. Japan is an amazing country that you must go visit so why not make a marathon out of it!

The course might not be a big PB course but its not slow. Just like London the amount of people out on the course is amazing. Weather can be a bit unreliable as it is normally held around February/ March.

Organisation = 9

City = 10

Speed = 8

Food = 11

Overall = 9

You get everywhere Footnote, you'll have to hide me under your sweatband next time you race overseas.

Quoted from Kirstie_McIntosh

It would be a pleasure Kirstie!

Didn't even know there was a tokyo marathon. Which areas of the city does it go through?

Not sure the areas as I do not know the city that well. I know it starts by city hall and finishes out on the islands near the rainbow bridge. This area is not very populated and can be windy.

Check the course out here - http://www.tokyo42195.org/2011/map_en.html

WOW. That's a great course. It goes straight through the Ginza for way intersection and past the Imperial palace which is awesome!

What a route...I wish I could be a marathon runner, it would be a great way to see these places, I can't break the 10 mile mark. I guess my body was just not geared up for running.

What about the 10k point and the Imperial Palace - here's the course map if you want to check it out

http://www.tokyo42195.org/pdf/map_2009.pdf

The whole course looks good. The Imperial Palace is cool but only a very small portion of it is visible to the public the rest of the residence is covered up trees and walls. Not sure If you'd see anything but moat and brick from this angle....

Is there many other popular landmarks on the route?

Quoted from Jack87

Probably the best way to do it - you wouldn't want to miss anything by speeding past it. It'd be so motivating to complete a challenge like this in an amazing place!

To be fair, in any major city marathon you are usually far too busy trying to avoid running into a fellow runners or stepping on any discarded bottle that you don't really noticed much of you surroundings at all. If someone asked me after my first London experience about the route, I couldn't really tell you where I had been running because I just didn't take it in. 

Hmm. I suppose if you're in tokyo for the race youll have a couple of days to go round the city anyway. Never thought of it that way though. Although I reckon if you went through some districts of tokyo you'd at least notice some stuff what with all the neon kanji floating around!

My dad ran there a few years ago, said his time was longer than usual because there was a lot of cool stuff to look at (well, that was his excuse anyway...)

A valid excuse If there was that much to look at, it'd be a shame to miss it all, although I see what Simon's saying - I can imagine if you're really going for it and focusing on the running, you could easily miss your surroundings.

I know this is a very old thread but I am running this next month

Are there any other realbuzz people out there who are running it?

I'm not but I know someone who is. They've been training hard and they plan to make a holiday out of it and have a well deserved break after the race.

How are you feeling the-Bandit - prepared? What time are you looking for?