Okay so it has been a couple of weeks since the Marathon. Race report is long over due but school is kicking my trash right now, so this is what I remember. So a day before the Marathon the group I was with was lucky enough to take a tour on the Marathon course. The course was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The first 3 miles were flat and headed straight towards the mountains. Next 11 miles were all up hill. The group kept saying are you sure you don't want to switch to the half marathon. But I figured I was in Japan and I am running the marathon. The rest of the course was rolling hills and slight down hill back to where the start was. In Japan they treated all of us with the up most respect. As the marathon started they took me to the front of the race which was way cool. Okay so as the gun went off my goal was definetly to go out and compete and try to take in the top 3 overall or even try to win the thing. Man was I way off!!! I felt really good for the first 3 miles pace felt honest, hitting any where between 5:30 and 5:35 splits. Even going up the hills for 11 miles I felt okay not great but good. I was about 100 meters off the back from the lead group. Which was fine because I felt like I could hang on and negative split the second half. Well I hit the first half at 1:16:00 feeling good, then 2 miles later no joke my body was done!! I have never felt this before. My legs felt good everything felt good I just couldn't run anymore!! The only factors that I can think of is, Jet lag and having about 48 hours to adjust to a 15 hour difference in time. Humidity was 100% @ 70 degrees. During the race I was dripping wet from mile 3 on. No electrolytes, and that was my bad, left them at home. Or just simply I tanked it hard. Well there can be many excuses to why I ran so bad. But I enjoyed every second of it. The course was a thing of Beauty. Most Beautiful run that I have ever experienced. And just feel blessed to be apart of it. My hats off to the Town of Ibigawa Japan. Well organized and the nicest and most respectful people that I have ever met. Ended up hitting 2:58 on the marathon, dropped from the top 5 after 13 miles and ended up in 72 second place. Next time I will run the Half Marathon!! If there is a next time???
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