Yokohama Marathon 2023
Race Report 3
Yokohama Marathon 2023 (29 October 2023)
The 2023 Yokohama Marathon was my third official marathon event. So far on my Substack I’ve uploaded race reports about my first marathon and my first ultramarathon, but I still have a few race reports in the pipeline.
Last year during the Shonan International Marathon I got an official time of 3:33:38 seconds. I had several goals for the Yokohama Marathon:
Set a new PB
Come in under 3:30:00
Beat Uncle Chen’s (the chain smoking marathon runner from China) time (3:28)
Anything better than that.
In addition, whenever I go to any running event, 笑顔で完走 (egao de kansou : Finish with a smile), is always my most important goal.
The night before the run I set out my gear and wrote some average paces on my arm that I’d need to hit if I wanted to hit certain goals. I had paces from a 3 hour marathon (4:15 /km) at 10 minute intervals down to 3:30 (4:58 /km).
Race day
I got up at 4:30 having gone to bed at around 9pm the day before. I was on the train at 5:20 and got to the convention center (Pacifico Yokohama) before it opened. As the doors opened at 6:30 a massive line immediately formed in front of the restroom so I opted to just go get changed first. I dropped my bag in my zone went outside and was greeted by a bunch of facilities set up just for the marathon so there was no need to rush. Everything was very well organized.
The baggage drop point was more or less at the finish line (Pacifico) and there was quite a walk from there to the start point (Landmark Tower). According to my watch I was already at around 7,000 steps before we even set off.
It was raining a little before I set off but that wasn’t a huge issue. Running in the heat is worse than running with some light rain.
While I was waiting in the starting area I ended up meeting a friend of mine. We had a chat before we set off which was actually a good time to go over some last minute strategies. My friend had pockets full of energy gels and asked me what I was doing for fuel. I knew the rough locations of the 18 aid stations from a video I watched running through the course (link here), so I knew I would be ok without carrying any gels with me. I just planned to grab whatever they were offering and run without stopping. He offered me a gel because I wasn’t carrying anything other than my phone and an emergency water bottle but I declined based on my strategy to just pick up what I needed on the course. It turned out that I didn’t need the water bottle either and could have maybe traveled lighter.
Race Start!
The race started at exactly 8:30 next to a big inflatable gorilla and some cannons that spewed mist onto the course. Between the race officially starting and me getting to the first sensor on the ground only a minute had passed, which was when I started my watch. Right as I set my watch off a guy tripped over the sensor mat and it took him about 4 attempts to stand back up. Not the best start to the race for that guy. I hope he finished (and I hope my watch had nothing to do with it. Weird timing).
In some events I’ve run, I’ve occasionally taken pictures as I’ve gone along. That kind of strategy is fine for running ultras where you can take your time and stop at aid stations, but for this event I mostly wanted to run as fast as I could, focus on the result and worry about picture taking another time.
I was aware of the course thanks to a map provided by the Yokohama Marathon. The first 21 km (in red) were on regular roads, followed by a 11-12 km run on the expressway (in blue) before finishing back on the regular roads on the way back to Pacifico. I quite like taking pictures during events so I decided I’d allow myself to take a couple of pictures while running on the expressway (since it’s not a place we can normally go on foot) and beyond that I’d focus on running.
The first section of the marathon was very crowded. I needed to weave my way around a lot of runners as I went. I had originally expected only fast runners to be in the A block (I was in the B block), but it turned out that there was a bunch of people doing a 7 km fun run in the A block. This was the only part of the run that seemed like bad planning to me. I did a lot of weaving and a lot of jumping over puddles in the first 3 km leg and my average pace was around 5:00 /km. After that I started picking up speed.
It was pretty easy for me to run at about 4:30 /km after that but I kept slowing down and speeding up as I went through aid stations. I grabbed a cup of sports drink at every aid station and only picked up food when it was convenient for me to pick up a bag of raisins or a banana (over the course I ate about 5 bags of raisins and 3 bananas). I started to also pick up cups of water later on as well to throw over my head to cool off. (Thankfully the sports drink and the water were in different colored cups). I was drinking most of what I picked up and I did end up needing to take two short restroom breaks during the run, but I’d rather lose a little time doing that than be dehydrated.
Before going under the expressway we ran through a little town with streets full of people cheering. The crowd support through the whole event was phenomenal and each of the aid stations had a real party atmosphere. There were different performances going on at each aid station with cheerleaders, dancers, and bands playing music. (One of my favorites was a band playing the Evangelion theme).
At the first turnaround point at 20 km I heard someone shout “アンソニー！押忍！” (Anthony! Osu!). One of my karate friends came out to cheer me on. I had no idea he planned to show up so I was really happy to see him. (He sent me the video of that interaction, which I embedded below).
Just after the turnaround point (where a scoreboard showed I was in 850th place), it was on to the expressway. All of the signs on the expressway had been changed to things like, 「ようこそ首都高へ！マイペースで」(Welcome to the Shutoko expressway! Go at your own pace!), 「自分を信じて」 (Believe in yourself) and「NICE RUN!」.
The on ramp was steep. The whole expressway seemed difficult to run on and just went on forever. The road surface didn’t feel right (there was a subtle lean to it), the scenery looked almost exactly the same all the way, and the wind was really severe. I took one more picture before the wind got too bad and decided to call it a day there with running photos. (I was also concerned I’d lose my hat).
The expressway was also pretty hilly and the inclines were draining my energy. By about 28 km my pace started to go down without me realizing it too much. I didn’t walk at any point but I saw a few people who were suffering and either needing to stop or walk at this point. That 30 km point on any marathon is well known as the point where many runners just fall apart. I wasn’t falling apart but I’ve never run this fast for this long before so my body was starting to rebel and did not want to cooperate anymore.
Coming off the expressway was a psychological boost because we were running back through Yokohama City and everything was getting recognizable (and a bit more picturesque) again. The crowd was great and I could orientate myself better thanks to the things like the aptly named Landmark tower. That psychological boost didn’t last for too long because my whole system was fried. Every step was an absolute war at this point even though I knew I only had a few kilometers to go.
I rounded a corner at the Redbrick Warehouse, which I knew was very close to the finish line and another friend of mine was yelling at me by name. I ran near him and tried to give him a high five but completely missed. He told me I was almost there and I saw the 41 km marker just ahead.
That last kilometer was the hardest I’ve ever done in my life. I dragged myself across the finish line as fast as I could and when I finally stopped I felt like I was about to pass out. A race organizer came up to me right after and started talking to me but I wasn’t registering what I was saying. It was only after I realized he was asking if I was ok to be interviewed on the stage that I remembered where I was.
I stopped my watch, staggered over to pick up my medal and was ushered into a seating area. I was handed a bottle of sports drink, which I finished in about 3 seconds and was eventually asked to stand on the stage and be interviewed about the event (I’d agreed to do this beforehand). I don’t think I was very eloquent during the interview and probably didn’t look at the camera at all, but I was asked stuff about the marathon, if the expressway was as difficult as everyone said it was, and a bit about my running history. In the end host asked (a pre-prepared question), if I was able to finish the race with a smile. The answer was of course, yes.
Post-race
After I got off the stage I was handed a towel, and an egg (for some reason). It was the best egg I’ve ever eaten.
According to Strava I completed the marathon in 3:19:36, which was a new PB. I also got best times for my 30 km and half marathon distances as well.
The official race certificate has me at 3:21:58. So for this race, I hit every one of my goals, including smashing Uncle Chen’s time.
I came in 695/16992 (Top 4.1%) overall and 680/14429 (top 4.7%) in the mens.
I also now have a nice, new medal for my collection.
Final thoughts
I really enjoyed this race, and because I met all of my goals it was a fantastic result. There are many running events around the end of October in Japan so I’ll need to consider which event to enter next year. I got this one out of my system for now.
One thing I’m also quite happy about is the fact that seemingly everyone in the race thought the expressway section was incredibly difficult. If it was less windy it could have been that everyone’s time would have been improved. The time I got was way better than I expected and I’m going to keep training, but it’s nice to know that I did this well even while being hindered by the environment.
I’m still in recovery mode as I’m writing this. I’m still able to move around but my shoulders, abs, and legs are still pretty sore. Despite that I’m still looking forward to my next event like this. I’m running the Shonan International Marathon again in December, but I’ll probably just aim for a course PB rather than an overall PB.
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Osu!
Anthony