Johnson and Heart Foundation Trophy Recipients Janene Kingston ...

Page 28 — June 2013 Vetrunnerorganised entertainers were located approximately every 3-4km. However, the runners were so thick that it was verydifficult, if not impossible, to sometimes see, or even hearthe entertainers. I have no idea if the entertainersthemselves were really only playing to the crowd not therunners. In between these there were rows of ‘port-a-loos’,again with a queue of up to 10 runners long.I soon settled into a rhythm, but l had to abandon myusual habit of hugging the corners. The crowds, whoconstantly yelled ”Ganbarre” (meaning “hang in there”),also wanted ‘high fives’ with the runners as they went past.After a few kilometres I have to admit I started to tire ofconstantly having my hand in the air slapping the verywilling crowds of hands. So I started to stick to the middleof the road, which actually was not a major issue becauseas anyone who knows Tokyo will agree the roads tend to benarrow.There was a reasonably chilly wind during the wholerace but after about 5km l took the plunge and discardedmy plastic ‘overcoat’. There were many times l regretted itbut on the other hand the chill factor helped me to try andkeep up a reasonable pace. At about the 7km mark Irealised I had made a huge mistake. I had forgotten to puton my ‘nipple protectors’. John Harding would kill me! Ihad them with me and did my best to put them on ‘on thego’ but not very successfully and I did suffer a bit as aresult.As the runners thinned it was easier travelling exceptwhen we came to a national attraction, of which there wereseveral, including the Imperial Palace, Tokyo Tower andTemples of note. These locations became photoopportunities for a significant number of runners and therace almost stopped while runners stopped to take photosand then swap with other runners to be photographed infront of the attraction. Obviously time was not an issue.Being a ‘walker’ I actually did attract some attention.Particularly the crowds seemed to cheer a little louder as Iapproached but I also had many runners coming frombehind – and the occasional one I passed – who wished me‘ganbarre’. One runner asked if he could have a photo of thetwo of us! He spoke English and l said “as long as I don’thave to stop”. He immediately commandeered anotherrunner to take our photo. This other fellow had to virtuallyrun almost backwards while the first fellow put his armaround my shoulder and gave the customary ‘V’ sign. Hethanked me profusely and went on his way.At about the 21km mark I was travelling a little slowerthan I would have liked. So I resolved to ‘go faster’ thesecond 21km. It was about now a fellow – obviouslyAustralian – came up behind me and said, “Hell, l’m havingtrouble keeping up with you, are you walking all the way?”After some small talk I learnt he was a West Australianwho had been injured and “shouldn’t have started” themarathon because he had only been training for two weeks!Any ego I may have had vanished immediately…At about the 35km mark I was passed by a group ofrunners carrying red balloons and all wearing red T-shirtsand some numbering. I realised it was the five-hour pacers!I was able to stay with them for a very short distance buthad to drop off. Any hope of doing five hours was dashed.There were many runners wearing fancy dress, fromsuperman to ballerinas, and a number, particularly men,all dressed in pink. Many seemed to treat it as a great funrun, not like me who treated it very seriously. There wasone fellow who seemed to be my pace almost all the way,running, but carrying and playing a guitar while singinghis heart out. I did vaguely recognise some of the tunes butbecause he was singing in Japanese l had no idea of thewords. There were two runners who particularly took myattention. One was a young Japanese girl wearing a skintight bunny’s outfit complete with floppy ears and abeautiful little tail perfectly positioned. I tried to stay withher, but try as I might, she left me watching her tailtwitching into the crowd. The other was Jesus himself. Hewas wearing nothing but a loin cloth and a crown of thorns.He had no race number on and was bare footed without arace chip. He was carrying a cross over his shoulder. Asmuch as l would have liked to chat I passed him, afterpaying due reverence.At about 40km we crossed a bridge that did not havespectators on it, so l found myself towards the side of theroad. As we crossed the bridge it seemed we all burst intoanother big crowd cheering their lungs out. But as l left thebridge someone in the crowd recognised the ‘Australia’ onmy singlet and started yelling “Go Australia!”. Suddenlythe whole crowd started yelling and before l knew itseemed as though the whole crowd were yelling just for me!Any ego l had lost returned.Not before time I rounded the final bend and saw theFINISH sign. With about 50m to go the spectator crowdssuddenly disappeared and we were left to jostle each otherto cross the finish line. Because it was the finish manyrunners put on a final burst and things became quitecongested.Not long after going through the gate l was approachedby another runner who saw my ’Australia’ and he asked meif l minded having his photo taken with me. He promptlycommandeered another runner to take the photo. Thistime l stopped and we put our arms around each other andgave the customary ‘V’ sign. My ego was lifted again. It wasthen another 100m to be given a wrap around towel forwarmth, another 100m to collect the medal, another 100mfor a banana, another 100m for a free gift (sportssupplement) then about 200m to the huge hall to collect ourbaggage – and it was all over, except to find the way out!Statistics:Net time5 hrs 19 mins 48 secsTotal 34796Overall place 24891Total no. of men 27798Place for men 19357Total in age group 526Place in age group 344