The 9th Tokyo Bay City Marathon Race
Urayasu City Athletic Park, Chiba Pref.
November 21, 1999

Races

‚R‚‹‚�	‚P‚O‚O‚O
‚Tkm	‚P‚T‚O‚O
Half	‚Q‚T‚O‚O

• Weather�FFine

Opening ceremony site


Design of T-shirt


Impression of Half marathon race

• Participants for this race are to be selected by lot.
• I was selected a few years ago, however, I could not join at that time. Thus this was my first entry.
• I left home at 6:50 AM. It was fine. I arrived in JR Maihama station around 8:00. Then I walked to Urayasu City athletic park following to many runners. (It took less than ten min.)
• The registration was made in the splendid gymnasium in the park. I was surprised to see it. Urayasu city seems to considerably receive benefits from Tokyo Disney Land!
• The half marathon started at 10:00 AM. More than 2,000 runners started at a time. Starting time was counted down for 10 seconds with mike. It was good to learn the exact start.
• Japanese drums were also beaten at several points including the starting point for runners.
• The course was completely flat owing to reclaimed land. It was not a circle course. It was a round-trip course. There were three turning point. (Cheer girls encouraged runners at the second turning points.)
• Water supply point was set every 5 km.
• Time was measured by the transmitter installed on the runner's number sheet. This must be put on the back. First, I put it in front and thus I was told to change!
• It seemed that many young runners (especially young gals) joined this race. I have to join next year!
• Runners must make lines according to the runner's numbers. (It seems the number was decided by the self-stated running time.)
• It was fine all day! The cold sea wind was blowing before start. However, it was good for running. Sometime, the wind stopped and I felt a little bit hot.
• This time, I ran a little bit faster than ever. Since the course was flat, I thought I could run within 1 hour 50 minutes. To my regret, I felt tired when passing around 10km and paced down. I could not run within 1 hour 50 minutes.
• I caught up with a slim, tall young girl before 2 km to the goal. I tried to pass her. However, I could not easily do it although her pace was not so fast. I wondered why she could run half marathon with such a slim and long legs. Although I finally passed her at the 20km point, I would rather goal with her!
  
  Time
  
  

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  ‚P‚O‚‹‚�	‚T‚QMin.
  ‚P‚T‚‹‚�	‚PH‚P‚WMin.
  ‚Q‚O‚‹‚�	‚PH‚S‚UMin.
  Goal	‚PH‚T‚PMin.‚R‚SS

  
  Split time was almost the same as that of Narita POP Run. Ranking was 543th in the age of more than forties. 975th in the total.
  
  
• Certificate was issued immediately after the goal by the PC.
• One canned sport-drink was given.
• After the race, I and my running mates went to the JR Minami-funabashi station since there were no restaurants around the Maihama station. However, when we arrived in the Minami-funabashi, there were no restaurants there! We had to walk to the mall named 'Lalaport'. We had a party in the Japanese pub there. But only lunch menu was available there. Anyway, we had a toast with lunch menu and Japanese sake. We had enough to be drunken! All of us managed to come home.
  
  Others
  
  
• The parking lot of Tokyo Disney land was already full around 8:00 AM.
• When I arrived in the Maihama station, announce was being made that today's ticket of Tokyo disney land was no longer available since there were enough people there! I could not believe it! I wondered how the people who came from distant place without ticket got disappointed to learn the news.

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