Johnson and Heart Foundation Trophy Recipients Janene Kingston ...

An account of competing in a Major Marathon24 Feb 2013 – Geoff BarkerMy main reason for going to Japan was to visit mydaughter who is currently living there. While there lthought “May as well have a go at the Tokyo Marathon”. Iwas only half hearted because my running days are prettywell over, so if l was to do it, it would be as a walker! Sothere was no pressure because we broken down runners donot have to worry too much about excuses. I did have atraining program for myself and l was following it oh soconscientiously. It consisted of at least one ‘long walk’,about 38km per week and whatever l could get in duringthe week. But l had very much in my mind that l waspreparing myself to say “Well l was going to do it but…!”Then l read ‘The Global Hero!’ on page 16 of theFebruary 2013 Vetrunner. This man was obviously smart;he was obviously fast; but was he wise? Smart because hemarried a girl with the name Barker! Fast because he hadrun marathons in just over three hours! But wise? Runninga marathon after having a pacemaker fitted – really! YesLance Purdon ran a marathon in the exceptionally goodtime of 2hrs 56mins, after having a pacemaker fitted!I read the article and felt an enormous sense of guilt. Ionly had a bit of a sore knee and l was ready to use that asan excuse for not worrying too much if l did not compete.It gave me the motivation l needed. I had been findingthe ‘long walks’ to be psychologically difficult. Whentraining to run a marathon l always found it a challenge todo a ‘long slow run’ at least once a week; to do it ‘walking’required a whole new mindset.June 2013 Vetrunner — Page 27I’d walk a million miles, well a million stepsanyway, for one of those medals!system so that I was confident I could get to the start OK.The day before the big race we competed in anInternational Friendship Run over 4.2km, or one tenth ofthe marathon. Marathon entrants were given free entry tothis run so there was a large contingent of marathoners.Over these couple of days l met a few runners gearing upfor the marathon. Two Australians, one from Sydney whowas running his 40 th ! He had not long done the BerlinMarathon, and yes, he has done the Canberra one – ninetimes! He can’t do it in 2013 because he is doing theLondon one, again! And yes he has done the Six FootTrack nine times! The other fellow was from Brisbanedoing his fourth marathon to experience what an overseasmarathon would be like. I also met a Chinese fellow fromHong Kong doing his third Tokyo marathon. His wife anddaughter ‘allowed’ him to run it provided they all go toTokyo Disneyland afterwards.The night before the ‘day’ the hotel concierge presentedus with three pairs of ‘Tokyo Marathon 2013’ gloves as asouvenir. My decision not to buy a pair at the expo hadturned out to be a good one.The morning arrived. It was cool with a cold wind. Thetrain trip to the start – Shinjuku – was uneventful but Iwas surprised there were no directional signs when we gotout at the station. However, because of my previousreconnaissance I was able to find the start OK. As with allthings Japanese everything was very orderly and thereappeared to be no crowding or jostling of any description.Even the loooong queues outside all the ‘port-a-loos’ seemedvery calm and collected. But I was still very grateful that ldidn’t have to stand waiting with them.But now, with six weeks to go, and a guilty conscience,it took on a new meaning. I tried to fit in extra walksthrough the week, but the time factor was a real issuebecause walking simply takes longer to cover a distancethat is a comfortable distance running. However, lpersisted as best I could. I was reasonably pleased with myprogress and was particularly pleased when two daysbefore l left for Japan l walked a PB for the monthly BlackMountain run-up (conducted by John Harding for theMountain Running Association). Someone even told me Ihad lost some weight.After an almost sleepless night on the plane we arrivedin Tokyo at 7am local time. With a bit of culture shock wechecked into the hotel and it was off to the Marathon Expoto check in and collect my race number and T-shirt. I wasblown away with the crowds and the efficiency of it all. Butwhat blew me away most was the consumerism of theJapanese. After collecting the race number the only wayout, almost, was through the hall with everything fromjoggers to underwear on sale. And on virtually every stallthere were two or three spruikers urging you to buy at the‘special price’ for the marathon! I resisted all offersalthough l did go very close to buying some ‘TokyoMarathon 2013’ gloves mainly as a souvenir.The next day was spent learning the Japanese railThere were eight ‘starts’ – A to G. I was in group B.How they were allocated I have no idea. My main guess isthat it was in order of entry received – with the exceptionof elite and invited runners. In our group the greatestnumber by far appeared to be Japanese, nearly all male.Virtually all were wearing – as I was – large plastic bags,with head and arm holes cut out, acting as wind cheaters.As the time for the start drew close the excitementseemed to self generate. Almost without warning therewas a huge ‘bang’ and thousands upon thousands of smallpaper planes floated through the air and we were away.For the first 500m or so things were fairly orderly althoughslow, relatively speaking. Even as a walker I had littletrouble keeping up with the majority of the field. It wasnot too long though before the field started to spread outand the faster runners from groups C to G started to catchup, wanting to get going. Then it did start to becomecongested and even pushy. In fact at about the 3km marka runner came past me so fast he bumped me and causedme to move off course. I took it in my stride; not that I hada choice—I couldn’t have caught him even if I had wantedto.Pre-race information gave runners the location of 26entertainment events along the route. They ranged fromtraditional Japanese dancing to drummers to gospelsingers to singers to children’s dance groups. These