Notes
2013 Run #60. In Tokyo, so had to check out the Imperial Palace 5K running circuit. Checked out 6 laps of it even, felt like a good enough time to get my long run in!
Went down the day before to scope it out. Police officers told me the closest lockers were at Tokyo Station (and they must be clued up on the place where they work, right?!) so put my gear in the lockers there, then walked the 1K-ish to the start of the circuit. Not fantastic prep for this run, made worse that I did a bunch of walking on Thursday (with a heavy-ish bag), ate a BLT quarter pounder for dinner at 10PM after the first night of wrestling, then only had miso soup for breakfast. Also only five days since my last long run too. Making excuses yes, but I think I can PROBABLY do (a little better!) next time...
Fortunately the weather was overcast, rainy and windy, which naturally kept it cooler!
Anyway, did six laps of the course. Couldn't find the vending machines either, so... had to walk down into the subways that were on the course (and back up!) to get drinks, which also turned out to have lockers! Must have dropped over a thousand yen at this one place. The lady there warmed up to me as well, despite me turning up every half hour-ish incoherent and dripping in sweat.
Good circuit too. Mild uphill section around the back too. I was finishing up as the lunch break runners came out, so was getting smoked by pretty much everyone. Of course, loved the guys who flew past me in really heavy gear, who I then stumbled passed about a K later as they were hunched over trying to get their breath back.
With all the drink stops in the subway (timer off) the breaks took up a lot of time. Wonder how I will go in Kushiro in three weeks time... There is a three and a half hour time limit for the race!
Walking back to Tokyo station, training it back to Akihabara, and then finding somewhere to eat (random fast food restaurant called Becker's) was kinda rough, but I did randomly eat poutine there. Capsule hotel had a bath and a wet sauna so that was all good too.
(Weighed 79.6kg after the run. Not sure about before though...)