Tsukuba Marathon

On Sunday, I ran my first ful-length marathon since college days.
That must mean my first one in 23 years and my third.

Running has become a very popular sport in Japan, but I was surprised to learn that 16,000 people entered for this event!

My day went like this:

Up at 5:15 AM, got on a train at 6:00. After one transfer, arrived at Tsukuba station at 7:45 or so.
I registered to get my entry number around 8:30, then met up with my friends to change.

The run started at 9:30.
It took about 5 min. to get to the start line after the start of the race.
Because of the big number of runners, for the first couple of kms, it was very slow.

The weather was sunny and pleasant. The course was fairly flat and picturesque.
Although the temperature got a bit too hot at times, it was a very nice day for a marathon.

I did not keep record, but my first 10K was something like 50 min. and at the half way point, my time was 1 hour 51 min. or so.
These are both slow pace for me when I run either 10K or Half-a-Marathon, but since I was running full one, I thought they were OK.

All was well until about the 35th km, then I started to get muscle cramps in my legs!
I remember getting them when I ran my first marathon in 1984 (Seattle Emerald City Marathon). Very painful and my legs felt like pieces of logs!

Then it was a struggle from there. It was so painful!
As I got closer to the finish line, each km seemed longer and I did have to walk at times.

I did finish with sprinting (limping) at the end with 3 hours 51 min. 30 sec. (NET). I should be happy for I could indeed finish the race and under 4 hours.
But I guess, I'd better train more...

I was done with getting my record printed and change by around 2:30.

Came back home via bus and trains almost at 5:00 PM. This was a long day!