Tokyo Marathon 05: Math, Magick and Going Mental

21km to go. What does that mean? About 13 miles. I had done all of my training in miles; thinking of minutes/mile, averaging my weekly distance in miles, always pushing myself through the last mile of a long training run.

But now, I found myself on a course measured in kilometers, and with twenty-one of them left to go. There were markers for every single kilometer, and this kind of threw me off. I like to think of chopping up distances into larger blocks than just one kilometer at a time. So, for the last 21km, I decided to do a little math and break it down into segments. This proved a little more difficult than it seems. See, after running over 13 miles, my brain starts to turn into mush. Nevertheless, after a few minutes, I had picked out my Magic Number markers to look out for: 26, 32, 37, and 40. I would just try and ignore all the other km markers until I saw my Magic Numbers in the distance.

For this part of the race in particular, I switched over to auto-pilot. My stride and pace were great, so I just kept my brain busy. Whispering calculations and coincidences with the Magic Numbers in my head, I sped along through the streets.

"Twenty-six, Twenty-six, stack one thousand metric sticks..."
"I’ll have completed my first marathon before the age of 26..."
"I wonder how fast I’ll run at the age of 62, as it’s 26 reversed..."
"Will cars fly by the year 2026?..."
"If these kilometers were miles, we’d almost be done by 26..."

Passing the bold red gate of Kaminarimon, I couldn’t help but notice how dead-quiet the spectators here were. Maybe it was out of respect for the nearby Sensoji Temple, or maybe out of exhaustion; these people would have been cheering for over two hours. Either way, I awkardly waved to the crowd and cameras as the course flipped around and headed back toward Ginza.

Just before Magic Number 32 came around, I spotted my pals Steven and Nobue on the side. I stopped and chatted with them for a minute, still bouncing up and down. "I’ll be to the finish in about an hour," I predicted. And I was off again, only realizing after I had said it, that I would be finished in just one more hour. Sweet.