Shizuoka Marathon 2025
Race Report 16: Fifth Official Marathon
Background and pre-race ramble (written before the race)
I didn’t run any full marathons in 2024. I ran some ultramarathons and other events but I didn’t run a standard full marathon. I set my marathon personal best in 2023 at the Yokohama Marathon with a time of 3:21:58 (official time).
I applied for the 2025 Tokyo Marathon but ended up not getting a place. After not getting in I asked some of my friends if they had any recommendations for other marathons around the same time, and the Shizuoka Marathon was recommended to me. (My friend Sakamoto San came first place in the Shizuoka Marathon a few years ago so his recommendation was a big part of me entering).
The marathon is around Shizuoka city and appears to be very flat (just over 100 meters of elevation) and very straight.
There are 15 water stations on the course, 6 of which have food as well. I’m going to carry food and sports drink with me to reduce the amount of time at aid stations, but I do note that some of the things on offer at the aid stations do look very tempting.
When I entered the race originally I needed to enter details about my personal best time and my estimated finishing time. Based on that my starting block was decided. I was put in the B block, which means I have a good chance of not being stuck weaving through thousands of people.
Rather than listing up any goals for this race I simply want to do my best and finish with a smile. Literally anything can happen on race day.
静岡マラソン (Shizuoka Marathon): 9 March 2025
I woke up at 4:00 to get over to Shizuoka. The first train was at 5:18 and the Shinkansen from Odawara was at 6:17. I went to bed at 20:00 the previous evening so I was well rested and ready to go. The more marathons you do the fewer marathon nerves you have. The weather conditions were also quite good (forecast for 6 to 12°C through the race).
There were a lot of people at the station and it took a while to walk over to the start area. There I used the restroom, got changed, dumped my drop bag then went to the starting block. The area where we were staring was pretty much next to 駿府城 (Sunpu Castle) so it was quite a scenic start.
Everyone moved up closer to the starting line at after 8:00 and by 8:20 we were off.
After we started running I decided to take a quick restroom break just after 1 kilometer, but this ended up being a bigger time loss than originally expected. I ran the first kilometer pretty quick but then ended up losing about 2 minutes here due to some guys in the queue having some kind of performance anxiety. I’d moved from the B block to the A block before my restroom break, but after I ended up caught in the C block and needed to pass a lot of people. Not the best start.
Bathroom break aside, the first part of the race had us running north of Shizuoka city and into the countryside. I quite enjoyed this part of the run. There were a lot of people cheering so the support in the area was great. I nearly ended up getting punched under the jaw two or three times when passing people who were shorter and slower than me who decided to throw up their arms right as I was passing them. This is when being a martial artist and runner comes in handy because I was able to dodge the accidental strikes.
I was running along and maintaining a comfortable pace of 4:10 to 4:15/km for a good chunk of the first part of the race. The deep countryside area was wonderful to run through. Flat roads, no wind, and support from the locals. I passed quite a few old folks homes on the way that had the residents outside and cheering everyone on. It was really nice to see.
After the countryside area we were back into the city and where the course kind of looped back on itself for a while. I ended up seeing a few of my friends who had come to town to cheer on the marathon, which is always good for a power boost. One guy who I didn’t know obviously saw a foreigner running along and decided to cheer me on in English by shouting “YOU CAN DO IT!!!!” in a perfect Waterboy, Rob Schneider voice.
I had two bottles of sports drink with me (about 1kg in weight) and some sports yokan. It was my intention to drink the sports drink as I went along, try to avoid the aid stations and occasionally eat the yokan. The yokan ended up being not very practical but I managed to eat three of them as I was running along. Maybe these would be better in warmer temperatures because it was like eating something the consistency of cold toothpaste in the early spring.
Leading up to this I ran across a pretty cool bridge and along a river. Although I was mostly well hydrated and nourished I started to notice my feet starting to go numb just before the half-marathon point. This was not a good sign.
Right around the halfway point there was a big 太鼓 (Taiko) group playing, which was fantastic motivation. War drums really put fire in my blood. Another great motivator was that just after this point we needed to run up a slipway to get to the long, straight road along the coastline, and at the top was a 柴犬 (shiba inu), sat in a camping chair, with a sign in English that read, “Run if you think I’m cute.” I couldn’t stop and take a picture because I was obliged to run, so generated the below picture using AI.
The coast area we ran up to was called the いちご海岸通り (Strawberry beachline). From around here most of the aid stations had strawberries. I had pretty much given up on the yokan I was carrying at this point so I started grabbing cups of strawberries as I ran along. We were running into a strong wind for the entirety of this area, which was a good 10km of the race. Not fun.
By this point my feet were causing my serious problems. About half way down the coastline I took a restroom break, just to stop my feet moving for a bit and it eased the pain for a short amount of time. I decided from that point that if the pain got too much I would walk for 30 seconds and then get back to running, and stop at aid stations when I came across them. At one of the aid stations I stopped, ate a bunch of strawberries (probably looking like a snake swallowing them), and everyone at the aid station suddenly started cheering at me slamming strawberries. I gave them a thumbs up (with a mouthful of strawberries) and dashed off.
I was doing a lot of starting and stopping but when I ran I was still running at a good pace. I passed someone walking a goat somewhere along the coastline but remember not stopping to react to it so I was clearly having spurts of being totally locked in before needing to walk for a bit.
There was a hairpin bend at the end of the coastline which I ran around, picked up some more strawberries and a cold water sponge, then kept on running as I passed a sign reading 6.4 km to go. (Cold water sponges are a fantastic idea).
The wind died down as we started running through Shimizu town but the pain in my feet was getting worse. As the distance to the finish was being shaved away I kept telling myself that I would try not to stop but I still needed to take frequent walk breaks because the pain was slowing me down so much. I could run if I rested and let the pain subside but I felt like I was getting slower until I rested. During one of these short breaks a small child shouted 諦めないで! (Akiramenaide: Don’t give up!) at all of the runners, which got me moving again.
About 3 km before the finish I saw one guy just full on collapse in front of me and staff go to help him. Crashing out 3 km before the end is rough. I hope he finished the race. In my case, I knew I’d finish but I was quite concerned about the time. I had been checking my watch on and off for a while and seeing if it would be possible to get a personal best. With 3 km to go I was still around the 3 hour mark, which meant if I ran the remaining distance in under 20 minutes I’d get a personal best. Which under normal circumstances would be very easy, but at this point I felt like both my feet were being crushed.
I got to a sign that said 41 km, took a 30 second walk break to mentally prepare, then just started hard charging towards the finish line. The finish line itself wasn’t immediately visible, but when it came into view I just totally ignored the pain and started passing people. I blew through the finish line roughly 5 minutes quicker than my previous personal best time, shouting “Woooooooo!” (for some reason). I usually would prefer to sound cooler but a high pitched “Woooooooo!” just felt right.
After the race
After the race I limped over to pick up my medal, finisher towel, and other participation goodies (a bottle of tea, an orange, and some snacks), then dropped down on a curb to take my shoes off for a while. The issues I was having were 100% caused by my shoes. It was like part way through the race my feet had started to swell, but my shoes had no give in them, meaning they were essentially being crushed as I was running along.
I gave my feet a bit of a rest then went to collect my finisher T-shirt. Our race numbers had a barcode on them so when I went over to the T-shirt area my barcode was scanned and I received the correct sized shirt. Technology.
Right after this I received a message from some of my beach running friends who were in the area, including Sakamoto San, who won the Shizuoka Marathon in 2018. We had a catch up, took some pictures, then went on our separate ways (with me limping over to the changing room).
After getting changed I started to head over to Shimizu station before a guy suddenly handed me an alcohol-free beer. I don’t drink alcohol but I do enjoy these so I happily took it and bought a 牛串 (Gyukushi: Beef skewer) to go with it. Magical stuff.
On the way out I walked past a tent that was giving out those beers. A woman ran up to me, held up a sign asking me if I’m over 20, then gave me another beer when I assured her I was. I’ll take that as a compliment.
Race results
Looking at my Strava times I managed to get a lot of personal bests. I ran the Shonan Fujisawa City Marathon in January, which was a half-marathon, but I still managed to beat that time in Shizuoka.
The official race certificate had my net time at 3:15:43 (with the record time of 3:17:17). My record time at the Yokohama marathon was 3:21:58, meaning I officially improved my time by 4 minutes 41 seconds (according to race records).
If we look purely at Strava times, my Yokohama Marathon 2023 time was 3:19:36 and my Shizuoka Marathon 2025 time was 3:14:37. That’s a 4 minute 59 second improvement.
Final thoughts
This marathon was a bittersweet victory for me. While it’s true that I completed the marathon, got a new personal best, and finished with a smile, I feel like I still have a lot of potential to do better.
In the first marathon I ever ran I didn’t stop at all. During the Yokohama marathon, I didn’t stop at all. During this marathon I needed to stop frequently in the second half of the race due to the pain in my feet. I was close to just taking my shoes off and running barefoot for the final stretch, but that might have caused a problem with the race chip attached to my shoe, so I just chose to persevere as best as I could.
It seems kind of ridiculous to be making excuses and saying things like, “I could have done better,” after giving my best performance to date, but on some levels this is a good thing. I learned I need to buy some new shoes for marathon running and I know I still have the potential to do better.
The day after the marathon I ran 5K in comfortable shoes. Two days after the marathon I ran a 10K. I’m a little sore but I’m not so physically destroyed that I can’t move around. This shows me that I still had more to give.
But I’m not giving up any time soon so let’s see what the future holds.
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Anthony
I think it's amazing you managed to get a pb even though your shoes were squashing your feet. I imagine the strawberries had something to do with that. And thanks for reminding me of the Japanese for strawberry. I'd forgotten. Now I'll remember. 😁 🦖