Tokyo Marathon - Advice?

I ran it in 2016, although flew over from China, where I'm based, so time difference wasn't an issue. I believe the course has changed a little since then too. Started by the metropolitan government building, went through Shinjuku and past the Imperial Gardens, then down and up through Shinagawa & Ginza before crossing over to finish on Odaiba. I heard they tweaked it a bit, not sure how much.

I have since run a little quicker, but Tokyo was the best marathon experience of my life. Great expo with a bunch of freebies, and extremely well-organized with a very scenic course and a huge amount of other runners and deep, supportive crowds almost all the way. The course back then was gently downhill for the first 10km or so, with a couple big bridges right towards the end which hurt a bit (Odaiba is very empty compared to Tokyo proper).

I ditched an emergency blanket at the start line and wore gloves the first 10k or so, then threw them into one of the many bins staffed by volunteers. Drinks stations all had both water and pocari sweat (very popular isotonic drink here in Asia) and there were bananas and maybe other food available too.

I can't recommend it enough - make sure to get there early since the start area is very crowded, but everything is superbly organized and the sights and crowds are great. I fully intend to run Tokyo again one day. If there are still bridges towards the end, go easy on the downhills, but it's otherwise a pretty flat course.

One word of warning for afterwards - the Tokyo metro and train system is very comprehensive in its coverage, but the stations are sprawling and don't always have escalators - be prepared to suffer through staircases or take long-ish detours to find elevators. I trashed my quads (I live and train in a pancake-flat city so long downhills in marathons royally screw me) and was in a world of pain limping around train stations the next two days.

Thanks so much for all the helpful hints. Looks like the course doesn't go through Odaiba anymore, but it does look like there are a few bridges (including out and back to Sumida City). Our AirBnB is near the start, so that will help me get there early.

http://www.marathon.tokyo/en/about/course/pdf/illustmap_2018en.pdf

I've run NYC a few times and people just throw their clothes to the side before the start. Did you see that happening in Tokyo? I read somewhere else that people kind of place them to the side nicely. Also, at New York, I used the water bottle I had with me to take my last minute leak and others just peed on the side of the road at the start. I read that people don't pee in the open in Tokyo. That's my biggest concern. I always have to get the last bit of pee out before a marathon, just for peace of mind. Any advice on these aspects of the starting line?

Your experience shows what a great race it is. This will be my first marathon abroad, as well as a family vacation, so I'm super excited! Thanks again!

I'm pretty sure those Upper Sumida bridges are all flat and pretty short, so that shouldn't be any issue.

sp2 wrote:

I'm pretty sure those Upper Sumida bridges are all flat and pretty short, so that shouldn't be any issue.

Thanks!

There are plenty of volunteers around near the railings at the start - I (and many others in my start group) just placed our warm-up clothes over the railings and the volunteers collected them. One reason I recommend getting there early is that the lines for the toilets in the start area were crazy, so be aware of that.

Relieving yourself out in the open - absolutely not done in Japan. I managed to survive the lines for the portable toilets beforehand, can't really advise on the water bottle situation. Japan is a great place to travel around too, I'm sure you'll have an awesome time. Great that you don't have to deal with Odaiba too, motivates me even more to go back and run it again someday.

Yeah, peeing openly is not a thing in Tokyo. Please don't do it. You may be stopped, and if you aren't you'll have disgusted everyone and lived up to the "ugly foreigner" reputation. Get in line and use the portapotty before, and you'll be in a decent corral so it's not super urgent to get into the corral an hour before the race (like I did). If you really, really have to do this, though, try to do it super subtly. I wore full sweats into my start corral and then sat on the ground for an hour waiting for the race to start. So maybe you can slip a plastic bottle inside your sweats and relieve yourself without it being super obvious. There should be bins in the area to dump the bottle after (better yet, don't bring a clear bottle so it won't be so obvious what you're carrying). I just left my sweats on the road. And, yeah, I would have liked to have peed right before the race and couldn't, and spent most of the first half of the marathon thinking I'd have to stop at a toilet and was looking for one that I though would be quick. There were quite a few on the route. But the feeling ended up passing so I never did. I ran 2:47 in that race by the way, so similar to you. This was 2014, so the old route. The one thing that sucked, and I don't think they've changed this but I'm not positive, is that they had the elites up front, then the next corral was all the 10km runners (many, many slow ones!), then I was in the fastest non-elite corral behind the 10km runners. There were enough of the slow 10km runners that I got to the start line and couldn't really move, and then spent the first 5km weaving through crowds of slow runners. My first 5km was my slowest of the race.

I'll add to my earlier response to answer some of your other questions. I can't speak to the expo experience because I don't remember that there was much of one, but maybe I just walked past it. I went to pick up my number on Friday and I do remember fairly long lines, like it took maybe 45 minutes. But the Japanese are nothing if not organized, so it went smoothly despite the wait. I guess I'm not an expo guy and not really sure why that would be an attraction. Maybe it's just totally lost on me. But I will say this: Japan is not nearly as English-speaking as most developed countries, so you're not going to have an easy time talking with people at the expo assuming you don't speak Japanese. If you don't want to ditch clothes -- and they didn't permit you to leave the corral once you are in -- they did have a super, super efficient and well-organized baggage drop-off area. It took about 30 seconds to drop off my bag (different trucks for different groups of numbers), and, given that a 2:45ish finish will put you in the top couple hundred finishers, collection lines will be short for you and it took me about 1 minute to collect my bag in the finish area. They also had free massages in the finish area, and early finishers like you would have no wait. Can't speak to time change since I'm based in Asia. As mentioned, I ran a different course since it was a few years ago. Can't speak to the new course. Temperature is usually chilly but good, anywhere from 40-55F in a typical year assuming it's not raining/snowing. Difficulties with the weather can come in the form of rain (38F and rain sucks!), high wind (Tokyo Marathon is almost always windy, though less so since they moved the finish off the bay), and god help you if it snows because Tokyo shuts down in the snow.

mr. rager wrote:

I'll be running Tokyo in a few weeks and just wondering if anyone here has done the same. If so, can you offer any advice, please?

--How to adjust to the time change?

--What's the starting line experience like? I'm assuming I'll have to take some old clothes to wear and ditch at the start.

--What's the expo experience like?

--Advice on the course?

--Anything you wish you had known beforehand?

My training has gone well, so I figure I'm in 2:06 shape. ;-) Hoping to run around 2:45.

Thanks in advance!

Thank you both. I remember at Chicago years ago I had the "I have to pee" feeling at the start, and like "Please don't..." it eventually went away during the race. I'm just used to the start at New York where they push you out on the starting line over 45 minutes before the gun goes off with no access to porta potties. Just trying to make sure I have a clear idea of how things will be. I've been to Japan a few times, but never for a race, so it's good to know their cultural norms still apply during the marathon.

I'm really looking forward to the crowds. I've seen some of the Ekiden races on TV when I was there and it's nuts how much they get into running.

I also didn't really think about the language barrier in regards to the expo. I definitely want to get some souvenirs, but the language shouldn't cause a hindrance to that. I'm also lucky that my father-in-law, who will be on the trip, speaks Japanese.

Hoping the rain stays away! My best marathon was in a race with some snow flurries, so I'd prefer a bit of that to rain.

Anyhow, thank you again. I feel like much more prepared for the experience based on the helpful advice.

One more thing on the toilet issue: I used the toilet at Shinjuku station (I believe it was -- whatever the station that was nearest the race start). In other words, I took the train to the start but used the toilet before exiting the station. If you've been to Japan, you'll know that public toilets (like in train stations) are pretty clean and my recollection is that all the stations have them. I certainly wasn't the only one who thought of this, but the line at the station was much smaller than it appeared to be for the porta potties at the start. So I used the toilet in the station, jogged to the start (maybe a quarter mile?) then dropped my bag and went into the corral. I didn't really even need to jog as I was in the corral for a good long while, but at the time I was nervous to get to the start area (which is fairly vast) since I didn't know how long the bag-drop, etc would take.

Does everyone start at the same time or are their waves?

There are waves, but the start time is listed the same for all of them. My wife is in G and I'm in A this year. Both 9:10

andydufresne2 wrote:

There are waves, but the start time is listed the same for all of them. My wife is in G and I'm in A this year. Both 9:10

I'm in start B, green card color (not sure what that means). Do you know how much time they do between waves? Thanks.

My experience was that rather than waves having formal start times or staggered delays per se, as soon as the gun went off everyone started moving towards the start line, and were basically able to start running by the time you got there. I was in wave C back in 2016 (my previous PR was like 3:27) and I was passing people the whole race. It's certainly not so congested that you need to do a lot of weaving in and out. And I think they may have put the 10k runners further back in recent years because I certainly don't recall getting held up by them too.

Assuming things are similar this year you should be crossing the start line just a couple of minutes after the gun goes if you're in B.

Shanghai wrote:

My experience was that rather than waves having formal start times or staggered delays per se, as soon as the gun went off everyone started moving towards the start line, and were basically able to start running by the time you got there. I was in wave C back in 2016 (my previous PR was like 3:27) and I was passing people the whole race. It's certainly not so congested that you need to do a lot of weaving in and out. And I think they may have put the 10k runners further back in recent years because I certainly don't recall getting held up by them too.

Assuming things are similar this year you should be crossing the start line just a couple of minutes after the gun goes if you're in B.

Thank you. Glad we won't have to weave our way through the 10k runners!

Did anyone have friends or family watch them run Tokyo? My family is making the trip, so I'm hoping I can find a few spots where they can catch a quick glimpse of me during the race.

I'm in corral B, gate 2. Gunning for a sub 2:50--is that close enough to get running rather than walk-run once I cross the finish?

CHSDOC wrote:

I'm in corral B, gate 2. Gunning for a sub 2:50--is that close enough to get running rather than walk-run once I cross the finish?

For sub 250, you'll be able to run across the finish line. :)

Hi - Curious if anyone else is shocked about the "no bottles" rule that Tokyo has adopted. I ran Tokyo in 2014 and, like all 18 marathons I've run, did so wearing a fuel belt. The organizers are now saying that these are prohibited (well the belt is ok, it's the plastic bottle that goes with it that isn't). How can they do this? As you know, you train how you plan to race. Many runners use a fuel belt as an integral part of their training gear...it is as important as our shoes. Plus, you acclimate your body to a particular type of hydration aid and you should never make changes on race day.

-Has anyone seen belts worn/used in recent races?

-Does anyone else think this is extreme to prohibit them?

I'm considering dropping out of the race because of this.

Thanks for your feedback.

26ptTWO wrote:

Hi - Curious if anyone else is shocked about the "no bottles" rule that Tokyo has adopted. I ran Tokyo in 2014 and, like all 18 marathons I've run, did so wearing a fuel belt. The organizers are now saying that these are prohibited (well the belt is ok, it's the plastic bottle that goes with it that isn't). How can they do this? As you know, you train how you plan to race. Many runners use a fuel belt as an integral part of their training gear...it is as important as our shoes. Plus, you acclimate your body to a particular type of hydration aid and you should never make changes on race day.

-Has anyone seen belts worn/used in recent races?

-Does anyone else think this is extreme to prohibit them?

I'm considering dropping out of the race because of this.

Thanks for your feedback.

Those are the rules of their race. If you can't follow the rules, don't run. They have loads and loads of well-stocked aid stations and there is zero need for fuel belts. If you can't make do with the aid stations that are designed to meet your needs then you are doing it wrong. It's not an ultra in the desert.