Naha Marathon

In a race that boasted over 25,000 entrants, I was inexplicably given number 296 (I entered a not especially fast goal time of 3:45, which is why my seeding is inexplicable), which placed me in the first group. Some people probably took over ten minutes to reach the starting line after the gun had fired. I took six seconds. Helped by the super-fast pace of those in the front-running groups, I easily met my goal of five minute kilometers and in fact dropped about 1.5 minutes under a five minute pace. I held that gain until the halfway point, where I dropped back to 46 seconds ahead of pace (five minute kilometers would produce a 3:31 time, I hit the halfway point at 1:44.44).

The course was rather boring, which didn't help keep my attention away from the heat that filtered through the zero clouds in the sky. I would have taken any day we've experienced in last the last six weeks in Okinawa over today, where temperatures surpassed 70 degrees at the 9am race start and held steady at 75 through the middle of the day.

I set my sights on the 30km mark, which is slightly short of 3/4 through the marathon. I reached it at 2:19, an average of 49:40 10k's to that point. But then I got tired. I sensed early on in the marathon - around the 15k point - that today was going to include a 'tired' section. At Kume five weeks ago, I was only strong and stronger (with a slower pace). I tried to break down the remaining 12k into five 2k's (the last 2k is so close to the finish it doesn't count), which worked until 34k when I realized I was falling off my pace and I'd lost the extra 1:20 I'd been keeping in reserve. I kept losing at 36k and gave up trying to gain it back at 38k. Then I just concentrated on finishing. I did finish in 3:34.07.

One of my life goals is to break 3:30 in a marathon, so at first this was a disappointingly close finish. But as the day went on and I thought about everything working against a fast run(heat, warm water at water stations, no sports drinks, dirt-flavored tea) I became pleased with my result. It's over 15 minutes faster than Kume and a half-hour faster than my previous two marathons: Palau and Pittsburgh.

At the finish I was in real tough shape. I could hardly walk and had to concentrate hard to understand directions. I allowed myself 15 minutes to sit down before heading to the monorail to get back to my friend Laura's apartment. I did two inconceivable things at the monorail: I used an elevator and an escalator. I am 'stairs' man, but today I was a 'get to the monorail' man.

At Laura's I took a shower and discovered through the pain of the water that I had a raw waistline from my shorts. Before the race I'd liberally applied Bodyglide to numerous potential chafing areas, but hadn't considered the waistline. Later I also discovered blood on my shirt and rear number that I am yet to trace to my body.

I had to get back to Zamami today for work tomorrow, but I found out I didn't have enough money for the cab ride from Laura's to the boat. So I slung my backpack full of groceries on and stumbled the 40 minutes to the port. One of the teachers on the boat said she was watching the marathon on television this morning and saw me starting!

Here are the numbers:

Time: 3:34.07
Average heart rate: 172
Heart rate range: 119-183
Time spent above 150: 3:31
Total ascent/descent: 790 feet
High point: 364 feet
Low point: 36 feet