Know thy enemy

This week was yet another week where the rhythm of running was sacrificed at the altar of work. I think I only ran once or twice over the week because I was so busy. One of those runs was a memorable "I just got home, it's 2 a.m.; screw it, I'm going running anyway" sort of run. I ran down a street I had never ran down before in the dead of night, and enjoyed the slight drizzle that was coming down, even as I prayed for more rain. The street took me towards Gotanda, and I turned back near the station.

Today was my long run. Seeing as I hadn't gotten as much running as I had hoped over the week, I considered cutting it back. But then my earlier attitude resurged, and I said, "Screw it, I'm doing the whole thing."

That was the plan, but since I didn't really map out a route beforehand, and I still haven't calibrated my Nike+ with my Vibrams, I was sort of winging it on the distance. I figured my pace would be about 9:30/mile, and with a target distance of 9 miles, I figured I'd just turn around when I hit 42:30.

But what really made today's run fun was that I ran nearly all of it along the route of the Tokyo marathon.

I live pretty close to the second 10k of the marathon, so I figured that I should work that into my regular running routes so that I'll be good and familiar with at least that section come marathon day. I popped open my marathon map to see where it ran, and I was only further encouraged that the map said that it was nice and flat. Done and done.

I Google mapped up a route that put me on the marathon course at about the 14th kilometer, without bothering to figure out how far along that route my time-based guesstimates would take me. I just knew I had to go down, turn around, and then turn left up Hibiya Ave. (which is also on my route that takes me to Ueno Park, so I'd be back on familiar grounds up there).

I'd never ran in that direction before, so I was pretty excited about having a nice flat course, only to discover that I appear to live in the bottom of a meteor-impact crater; there seem to be hills in every direction in the first mile or so from my apartment, including the one today that took me to the marathon course.

But of course a hill at the outset is no big deal, and soon enough I found myself back on the course. It was right at what would probably be my favorite part of the race; the knee wasn't hurting, the crowds were boisterous, and this was where I found Joe (and watched him give everyone on the sidelines high fives through the half). Getting that whole scene back in my head reminded me of how fun the marathon was and pumped me up a bit for rerunning the route.

I wasn't sure where the turnaround point near Shinagawa Station was, so I just kind of winged it. Comparing my turnaround to the maps, it looks like I turned around a bit too early, closer to the marathon's 15k mark, whereas the marathon's actual turnaround is about 400 meters farther down the line.

I was feeling pretty good throughout the run. Instead of stopping for lights that were about to turn red (which is par course when I'm feeling lazy), I found myself speeding up to make it across without pause. When confronted with pedestrian footbridges, I often will stop and walk up them, but this time I was jogging right up and down.

I came to my 42:30 mark just about as I got to the place where the marathon course turns right at the North end of Hibiya Park. I didn't actually know this during the run, so had I needed to go further I probably would have kept going straight rather than making the turn.

Besides being wooed by the sweet smells of Indian food at numerous Indian restaurants along the way (yes, Tokyo has lots of those) and running past (someone who I think is) another Nambanner (complete with a runner's wave/nod), the rest of the run pretty much continued apace.

The entire run ended up being 1:25:43, so I pretty much kept the same pace for both halves of the course. Working it out on Google maps, the entire course was 15.6 kilometers, or 9.7 miles, which now easily takes the record for my longest run in Vibrams. And the pace was surprisingly fast given where I am in my training: 8:50 per mile.

Post-run, I'm still feeling pretty good. Calves are a little sore, although nowhere near as bad as when I first started with the Vibrams (let's talk again tomorrow though). Feet are a little sore and pulling back the toes to stretch them feels like just about what I need.

I'll contrast that to last week, when I copped out and ran in regular shoes; after the run, my knee started hurting. It wasn't the same injury as before (different location, different feel), but, with my record, I ain't interested in hearing anything about no knee injuries. Score 1 for the Vibrams.