Wednesday 30 June 2010

Tokyo Marathon, Holy Crap!

Tokyo Marathon, Holy Crap!  This is the printable version of what went through my head when I was informed that I had been successful in securing a spot in the 2010 Tokyo Marathon.

Each year over 300,000 people apply for just 35,000 places in the Tokyo Marathon and as a result runners are chosen by lottery.  I learned via email that I was not picked to run after the October lottery.  I was actually a little relieved as I had only been running since August and tackling a marathon in February was probably too soon.

Aspirations of running the Tokyo Marathon put aside I changed my training to focus on the more achievable goal of running my first 10Km race at the Toda Marathon in November.

What I was unaware of, however, is that a second lottery is held in November to fill those places not accepted by the first round winners.  It was November 24, my birthday, I had just put my daughters to bed, and made a cup of coffee before opening my email to find an acceptance letter from the event organizers.

As the acceptance letter was in Japanese I had to re-read it a couple of times, and even ran it by my wife, before I finally let myself believe what it was saying.  Tokyo Marathon, Holy Crap!

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