I'll be your superman: Tokyo Marathon 2010

Hello earthlings! This was my 4th consecutive Tokyo marathon, but 1st as SUPERMAN. I think I will try to break the record for consecutive TOkyo Marathon’s by a gaijin/uchuchin, if I haven’t already. As Steve and many other’s already echoed, it was a miserable race with hard rain just above the freezing point, even for someone with super powers. I definetely was feeling like I had been zapped by kryptonite at 16k when we made the turn at Shinagawa and headed into that vicious freezing wind.








Thanks to Super Steve, we were able to keep our spirits and bodies warm before the freezing rainy start, but that is when the happy part of Superman’s story ended (until the superfantastic La Boheme party and nijikai). I managed to sneak in okusan wonderwoman to the A gate, and we quickly warmed up from 0 to 5k, running at 5 minute pace with plenty of fuel in the tank and encouragement, “Superman, gambare”...i wondered how many times I would here that in one day. Than I pulled over for a H2O break and lost wonderwoman. Mary pulled up and gave chase to super okusan, which left superman all alone...


I was happy to run with Mika for a considerable distance, thanks to Mika’s stretching regime. Than it was a very very lonely 20k to 30k….I had super blisters on the bottom of my feet from the moisture…lots of skin ailments/chafing from the not-so-super costume, and the old hamstring injury felt ready to start screaming again. The only consolation was that wonderwoman was ahead of me by 10 minutes on pace for a big old PB!(and Leng Leng screaming "you are superman!" at Hibiya).





At about 33k the blister pain subsided to a dull ache and I latched on to Arne for some comradery, with plenty male bonding with Fabian and Arne for the last 8k. At 35k, i felt like I could finish well under my PW time, which was my worst-case-scenario goal (yes, this race was worse case scenario).







I felt that superman would never-ever live down the shame of running slower than his IRONMAN sub-4 hour time, even with that heavy soaked cape! At 42.189k, I felt genki enough to do a little superman dance and victory lap around the finish line, so I guess my time would have been a minute faster or so, but no cares on planet earth...my PW was not violated! And my lovely wonderwoman Megumi came through with a massive PB by 11 minutes. She clearly likes freezing rain more than superman.





super splits were:
25:19 (up up and away)
25:12 (superistic)
26:16 (hmmm)
26:27 (uh oh)

27:22 (chotto)
28:10 (ara…)
28:45 (down to planet earth)
30:28 (Houston we have a problem)
14:21 (FUBAR)

3:52:22 Superman

3:39:21 Wonderwoman





Many thanks to nanbanjintachi Steve, Leng Leng, and Chiba san for a super dinner…great to see Joachim/Christiana from China too…






ps. FUBAR=F’ked Up Beyond All Recognition