Time 3:45:57
HRV 64
RHR 73
Running a marathon the day after your birthday is not always great, but somethings we have no choice. I had a wonderful birthday on Saturday and went to bed early for my race on Sunday. Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:30am and then failed to get back to sleep. I finally got up at 4:55am and was not surprised to see that my HRV and RHR were the worst that they had been in a long while. As I had a race that morning, there was nothing I could do but get up and get out the door.
This was the 3rd time that I had run the Koga Hanamomo marathon. It is a little outside of Tokyo but as the race was at 10am, there was plenty of time to get there and hang out for an hour before the race. We arrived on the train at 7:39 and after a short walk, took the free bus to the start of the race, arriving around 8:30. We then collected our T-Shirts and by 8:50 we were sitting in the bleachers of the local stadium waiting for the start. And then the sun came out. I always bring sunscreen with me as I am very fair skinned but I was not expecting so much sun. Sitting in the stand it was positively hot and I was afraid that I would get burned.
Heading to the start from the station with the Namban Rengo crew.
At 9:35 we headed off to the start of the race and after a quick stop at the restroom, I was in my block by 9:50. At Koga, everything is nice and relaxed and there is a very friendly atmosphere. The race seems to have grown in numbers in recent years with 10,500 people entered in the marathon, 10km and family races. Unfortunately, the size of the roads have not changed and it quite difficult to start. I had hoped to run at a 5 minute/km pace but because, the streets were so packed my first 1km took 5:25. After that, I got into my groove but I was not feeling great. My glutes and inner thighs were feeling sore from the start for some reason. I was not sure why as, I had not done anything strenuous in the last 8 days.
A final photo before we headed to the start.
The course is very flat and I managed to keep close enough to my 5 min/km goal, going through halfway in 1:48:37. I knew at that stage that I would not make sub 3:30 but thought that I still had a chance to get in under 3:40. However, shortly after halfway, my pace dropped to 5:15 /km and then to 3:30/km after 30km. At 32km I took my first walk break and then again at 35km. The wheels had really come off. I was walking for a minute and running for a kilometre, all the time hoping that the pain would end.
Finally, I saw Jay and Arnaud on the side of the road with 1km to go, cheering me on. I was about ready to give up when I saw them but since they had waited around after the 10km race I could not. I pushed on into the stadium and completed the 3/4 circuit to finish my 21st marathon.
Thanks to Arnaud for taking this photo in the last kilometre of the race. I am in a lot more pain than I look.
While I was glad to finish the Marathon, my overall feeling was one of a missed opportunity. I thought that I had trained sufficiently well in January and February to get back to where I was 3 years ago and run a sub 3:30 marathon here. It was not to be the case and I will have to go back to the drawing board again before I attempt the races next winter.
My Results.
Koga Station Platform with beer
The Ohtawara Marathon Project 
Outstanding. Well done Padraig. It is utterly Amazing that you have run 21 marathons. I cannot even fathom the scale of work to accomplish that. Well done indeed and happy birthday.
Conrad B
Thanks a lot, Conrad!
Any marathon finished is a victory. Well done. I will not give any advice but if I did I would say don’t check your HRV and resting HR on the day of the race. Only positive thoughts etc before the race. Congrats.
Well done Padraig, give yourself heaps of kudos, may not be the time you wanted but another marathon trained for and completed, that takes discipline and dedication. I haven’t managed a stand alone marathon for 3 years
Too bad, I was wondering what went wrong (none of this congratulations crap from me!). Strange that you had soreness at the start, I wonder why. I do think a review of your pre-race training is in order. Why don’t we meet up with Paddy for a beer and go over it? I’ll buy you a beer!
And I agree with the guy who said don’t check the stats the morning of the race!
Thanks Bob. I will take you up on that beer.
I was eagerly waiting for your race report and there it was! I missed the link or you didn’t send it. Great read, now I understand better how it went for you on the day. Marathons like that where something goes wrong fairly early on are the toughest ones to finish, so congrats on doing that! 21 in 10 years or so, you can be proud; talking about birthday, at this pace it will catch up with your number of years on the planet. I’m not an expert, but one thing I was wondering when looking at your training: do you have enough marathon target pace runs?
Thanks a lot for reading and commenting.