Tokyo Marathon 3-2-2025 (6th Star of the World Majors for me) & visiting Japan Adventures

Tokyo Marathon 2025!

 So here's my little recap of the marathon that didn't quite go as planned.  

Tokyo marathon was supposed to be my final star in the World Majors.  However, they decided to add Sydney earlier this year so now there is 7 and they have 2 more they are working on to make official so soon they'll be 9 stars in all!   Anyway, since it was just announced, they still had the 6 star celebration in Tokyo where you would receive the big 6 star medal if you completed the marathon.  😁

Penny and I had planned for this race for like a year.  Tokyo is one of the hardest majors to get in other than Boston.  People have waited years trying to get in.... I talked to some that had waited 7 years!  I was super excited when Penny and I were both accepted on a charity bib.   There is like a 1% chance of getting into the lottery.  The charity amounts are not like Boston, but you must still write an essay explaining why you want to run for that charity and place a bid.  Yep, I said bid!  They select winners by their essays and bids placed.  So you have no idea if you'll get in or not because you can't see the other bids.  I was fortunate to get selected by a charity that helps families with kids that have cancer. 😍  This was perfect for me and my desire to help kids with cancer over the years through St. Jude.  

It's not a quick trip to get to Japan from the US so we decided to leave on Tuesday morning, which meant we would not get there till Wednesday afternoon.   I figured that would give us a little time before race on Sunday to adjust to the time change.  We planned several little tours so that we would get to see the city and kind of know where we were at by race day.  We also decided since there was a Disneyland there that we would visit it even if it was only for like 1/2 day.  

So we left my house around 1:30am on Tuesday heading to the New Orleans Airport (2 hour drive), where we flew to Atlanta, had like an hour layover and then left Atlanta straight to Handea airport in Tokyo, where we arrived Wednesday around 3pm.  It was a LONG travel.  That last 3-4 hours of the flight was a killer!  I felt like I'd never get off that plane.  

We took a taxi to our hotel instead of trying to figure out the subway system.  We were just exhausted.  Our hotel was nice and the people were so friendly there!  (Rose Garden Hotel).   It was really close to the start line.  We just walked out our hotel and down like 2 blocks and there was the gate to go through security to the corrals.  

Most of the rooms in Japan are small.  They don't waste space or anything over there.  It's the most clean city I've ever been to!  No trash on the streets!  Bidets in all the bathrooms! Oh how I miss them!  We made ourselves try to stay up but fell asleep around 7 or 7:30pm.  

Thursday - Disney that morning and expo that afternoon.   Disney was so fun.  It was good to walk around and stretch our legs after a long travel.  I was also very tired.  We only rode a few rides and walked around taking pictures.  No stress!  The people there LOVE Disney!  

We left there and headed straight to the expo.  Everyone I know that's been had told me how disappointing the Expo is for a Major marathon.  And they were right... the que to get into the "official" merchandise store was 3-4 hours long!  We did not wait for that.  We walked through a few of the other vendors that were there, but didn't buy anything.  Grabbed our bibs in like 10 minutes and were done.  I'm so glad we had made our jackets before going!  Someone had post on FB about buying an iron on and a regular Asics jacket and making your own... they said you'll be glad you did because you probably won't get a jacket at the expo.  My friend Jane did not when she went.  So we made our jacket and then saw a post on FB where you could order a jacket.  So we ordered one also..... then found out it was probably not the "real" thing.... but a scam!  We did get those jackets... they say made in China... and they look a bit different than the "official" jackets... but who will notice in the US.  😆  I like our jackets we made the best and we had so many people stop us and ask us where we got them.. they LOVED them.  We were pretty tired when we got back to our hotel and decided to just eat right across the street at a Ramen place.  It was so good! 

these stores are amazing and have great food too! We visited the one next to our hotel every day!

Friday - Private tour to Mt. Fuji with some stops along the way... This trip had lots of great reviews and I will say... if you are in Japan.. you should go see Mt. Fuji... watch the weather.. it can only been seen really good on a clear day.  If real cloudy the clouds may cover it.  Here is what else we saw:  

1. Arakurayama Sengen Park - at the base was some sort of temple where you could offer a prayer.. and then a gizillion stairs to climb to get to the Chureito Pagoda - it was built for about 960 people that died in wars after 1868.  From the top you could see Mt. Fuji.  It was beautiful.  It was not a completely clear day so there was one big cloud on the top of Mt. Fuji all day.  It just kind of hovered on the top.  Reminding me of the Cloud over the tabernacle when God was leading Moses and the people in the bible.   They say when the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom it's really pretty around the Pagoda looking out to Mt. Fuji.  We were a tad early for that.  

2. Oshino - Shibokusa and very old little village.  The snow melts off Mt. Fuji and flows down to this village.  People believe if you drink the water you'll have good fortune.  and the water is so clear you can see beautiful fish!  The village has a great little market where you can buy all kinds of stuff such as fresh fruits, meats, and souvenirs.  It was really pretty! 

3. Fujiyoshida-Kamiyoshida - This was another temple site.  Supposedly it has the biggest gate entrance... got to look up that word..   Our tour guide was not good at giving details.. more on that later....  so we wondered around taking pictures.. but not really knowing any history.  It really was beautiful.. kind of off in the woods so made it nice and quite. 

4.  Fujikawaguchiko-Azagawa - & Lake Kawaguchiko - This area was a small shopping / restaurant area at the Lake which was kind of the base of Mt. Fuji.   Every place we've been so far... you can see Mt. Fuji. 😍  We had lunch here at a neat place where they brought out like a candle thing, then your pot with your noodles and veggies and you let it cook for 10 minutes and then eat.  It was cool.   We could have rented a small boat to go out on the lake, but it was pretty windy & cold so we did not do that.  

5.  FujiKawaguchiko - Oishi --- this too was at the lake, but another little area where they had great ice cream.  The line was way too long so we did not wait in it to get ice cream, plus it was COLD>  We took some pictures and marveled at the giant mountain -- Mt. Fuji. 

6.  5th Station -- Supposed to be the starting point for those that climb Mt. Fuji.  We did not make it there... we had to stop at the 4th station because the roads were closed due to snow!  There was lots of snow at the 4th station and people that had not seen snow were running around grabbing pictures.  It was COLD and WINDY! 

We left there and headed back on the hour drive back to town.  We felt like we got stuck with a dud for a tour guide!  He barely spoke any English, was from Pakistan and knew very little about the Japanese.  So we learned very little!! And most of the day we were scared we were about to be kidnapped.  It was experience like no other!!!  I could hardly believe it after all the great reviews I had read on this tour... which all those reviews were on other tour guides!   Something was up with this guy... we couldn't put our finger on exactly what.. but we were so THANKFUL to get back to our hotel.  And once I got home I contacted the tour agency and gave them a detail report of what all happen and how we felt during the tour.  I'm waiting to hear back from them.  

Once back at hotel, Penny had found a neat place to go eat called Kura.  It was a sushi place where your food comes to you on a conveyor.  It was so COOL and GOOD.  We walked back to our hotel marveling at the GIANT buildings in the city. 

Saturday - City tour of Tokyo.   We met our tour group at the LOVE statue in Nishishinjuku.  This tour was amazing!  Our tour guide was the BEST. She was full of knowledge and history.  Just what we love about Tours!   We visited Meiji Jingu Shrine, Imperial Palace outer garden, Asakusa (Senso-ji-temple - Kaminari-mon Gate & Nakamise shopping Ave, Tokyo Sky Tree, & ended with a Tokyo Bay Cruise that finished at Shinjuku Station.  I LOVED Saturday's tour! We learned a lot and saw a lot of the city.  We ended the night with dinner at our hotel restaurant where we had pizza.  We were off our feet and in bed early. 

Looking down from the sky tree!

This shopping area was so crowded. 

SUNDAY - RACE DAY

Let me first start by saying... TOKYO HAS MANY RULES!  Over the months prior to the race we had read many post on FB about rules and all stated... READ the runner's manual and go by it or you will be DQ!  The rule that hit hard with me is that you are not allowed to bring in your own hydration.  Yes, you could have brought in a hydration packet, but no bottle to mix it!  I'm not sure how I could of mixed one on the course either because they only gave out like 2 swallows of water in their little while cups.  That's not enough water to mix a packet in and the water stops were so congested, we did not even get water at some!  

Tokyo is also the only major that does not start with a wave start.  What I mean by that is usually the corrals are spaced out and there may be like a 5-7 minute wait time between each corral starting.  That kind of spaces out the runners.  Tokyo does not do this.  When the bell goes off to start.. ALL 38,000 start! It's a mad house.  You could not even see the first water stop for all the runners.  And their stops are every 5K (3 miles) not every mile like normal marathons.  Penny and I were both kind of freaking out at the first stop when we could hard get to it to get water.  I especially started to get very worried.  Race day temperatures were rising.  It was going to be 70 degrees by lunch and the race didn't start till 9:10am when it was already 63 degrees.  Running and 70 degrees is not fun for 26.2 miles!  Plus I tend to dehydrate faster than the others in our group.  That's why I LOVE to bring my OWN hydration... but was not allowed.  

So I told myself if I could get to a water table to take their Pocari Sweat instead because it's supposed to be their electrolyte drink so I did.  

It's VERY sweet!  By mile 16 I was so sick.  We stopped at a bathroom and I puked my lungs up.  It was then I really got scared.  I was like I have nothing in my stomach..... oh and BTW they were now running out of water and Pocari at the water tables..... so I was like how am I going to finish this HOT marathon!  By mile 18 I was cramping.  I could not even jog.  I told Penny she could leave me, but she wouldn't.  I had to walk.   That was the only way I saw that I might be able to finish without cramping so bad and being toted off the course.  See I've cramped so bad in the past that it literally took me down and I could not move.  I had to get an IV that day.   So I know my body..... there was no way I could force myself to run so I repeated what my brother had said to me... one breath.. one step... at a time.... I did A LOT of praying during this time.  Around mile 22ish or so a guy on the side said he had salt.  I went over and took a big handful of salt and licked it.   Immediately I started throwing up again. 😖  Penny grabbed me a water bottle from the medical tent (so thankful she saw it) and I sipped on that water as I walked the last few miles.  We had to jog at one point because another thing that TOKYO has is several check points.  We were way ahead of them the first half of the race when I was running, but was now close to missing one.  Penny told me that I had to run or we would miss the last cut off.... I don't know how... but by the grace of God he picked my feet up and we jogged like 1/2 mile to make the cut off.  We both cried when we did!  The guy literally had the rope in his hand to pull across the road to stop runners who didn't make the cutoff!  Oh how I thanked God for making it.  

We crossed that finish line with a time of 6 hours 29 minutes!  My longest marathon ever!  My Garmin says my run time was 3 hours 13 minutes... that was to around mile 16... then my walking time was 2 hours 55 minutes! with idle time of 20 minutes (probably when puking at bathroom!) Says the average temp was 79 degrees! We barely made the 4:10pm cutoff (7 hours from 9:10 - 4:10 is their limit).  I was so THANKFUL to have finished!  I would have been so disappointed in going across the country again (Greece) and not getting in my marathon.  

I was happy to be done and get my 6 star medal.  I give God all the glory.  🙏💓He carried me to that finish line.  And I thank Penny also because if she had not stayed with me, I'm not sure I would have beat those timelines! She kept me on track and I'll forever be grateful. 💓

As far as the roads... its an amazing race.  NO pot holes!  I'd love to have ran the course on their normal cold temperatures for the race.  The course starts kind of downhill for like 4-5 miles before it flattens out and you have a few rollers, but other than that it's flat.  Would have been a great course if I had not been so sick!  

Since the race I've read where several people got sick and believe it was from the Pocari and the heat.   I know Penny and I were both dehydrated because we noticed that by mile 18 we were not even sweating...  bad sign! and then me being sick... once all that happens it's hard to get back on top of it.  Especially during a race.  It was just the cards dealt to me that day and I'm glad I didn't let them defeat me.  

So now I've finished my 6 races I had been chasing.. 

New York 2015 (didn't really know about the majors then)

Chicago 2021 (Penny introduced me to the majors)

Berlin 2022

London 2022

Boston 2024

Tokyo 2025!

Monday morning after the race we didn't have a flight home till 5pm so we went back to that shopping street we had went to on our city tour and rented Kimonos and had a photo shoot.  We had no idea you could do that until our tour guide told us about it.  We wanted to take some pictures outside also around the temple and stuff, but it was pouring rain, cold, windy and having a few snow flurries! Yep, you read that right.. the day after the marathon it turned very cold! 39 degrees and dropping as the day went on... Go Figure!  

you picked out the one you wanted to wear.

The Kimonos were so much fun!  I'm so glad Penny did that with me.  I'll treasure these photos forever!  

We left there at 5pm and arrived back in New Orleans around 8:30pm the same day! Yep you gain coming back.  However, I've been so jet lagged all week that I can barely keep my eyes open and focus.  Working has been HARD.  That long 19 hours or so of travel is a KILLER, but Tokyo is an amazing city!  I'm glad I got to see it.  

and that's a wrap on my Tokyo trip.  

Up next..... April... Derby Marathon with the girls in a new state for us.. KY 😍

My Medals are back on my wall with my 6th star medal. 

Tea in my cup I got in Tokyo... Very expensive.. had a letter of authenticity... handmade.. I bought 2.. hope I don't break them.  They are truly beautiful.