Ms Mari Tanigawa Half Marathon Race (The 5th)

Date : Sunday January 11, 2004 Weather : Sunny

Location : Kita-ku Tokyo (15 minutes on foot from JR Akabane Station of Saikyo Line)


Details of Race

Race	Half	Time Limit	*	8,000 Runners
	5 km		*	1,200 Runners
	3 km		*	300 Ru8nners
Entry Fee	Yen 3,500
Contact	2-9-10 Negishi, Taito-ku Tokyo 110-0003 Secretariat of marathon race TEL : 03-5824-3501
Gift	T-shirt
Free Service	Sport Drink
Remarks	Water Supply Points : Sport Drink available

IMAGES

 
Reception Start Gallery



Records & Impresiion

• This time, the race site is located in Akabane City. I can reach there via Ikebukuro. It is very convenient for me.
• At 8:00 AM, I met with my running mate, Mr. S, at Hibarigaoka Station.
• We took on the Saikyo Line at Ikebukuro Station and arrived in Akabane around 8:45 AM. The fare from Ikebukuro to Akabane is only Yen 150.
• I use season ticket for Seibu Line and thus total fare for this race was Yen 300! I have never paid such a lowest fare for marathon race!
• I also took off at Akabane Station for the first time. A lot of runners were walking to the bank of Arakawa River.
• We arrived in the site around 9:00 AM. The cold north wind was blowing there. A lot of runners were already gathering.
• We finshed registration and waited another running mate, Mr. HS, there.
• It was said that almost 8,000 runners participated for the half marathon race. It was amazing.
• Before 10:00 AM, I stood in line the course. However, the start line was far away.
• The cold and strong north wind was still blowing and a cloud of dust being raised around the start line.
• The half marthon race started at 10:00 AM. However, the line did not move for a while owing to a lot of runners. I could pass the start line only after 4 minutes 45 seconds from the start time.
• The course was clowded with runners until I passed 5 km point. The passing time was 33 minutes.
• Ruuners have to run upstream alongside the Arakawa River and return to the start point. The course was completely flat.
• We had to run against the cold north wind at the intial half stage.
• Around the 7 km point, I came across the top running group who were coming back to the goal. When approaching to the turning point, the course was again clowded with runners. It was so crowded that the running pace was being slowed and it seemed to be a little bit dangerous to run. My passing time at 10 km was 1 hour 01 minute.
• After passing the turning point, the fair wind was blowing and it was good for runners.
• The scenery on the course was monotonous and uninteresting.
• All I could do during running was to evaluate (?) the lady runners. It seemed that more younger gal runners joined the race compared with other marathon races.
• I tried to compensate the loss of the initial half, however, it was very difficult to do since the loss was too much.
• It may be impossible to have good record among such a huge number of runners.
• The gross goal time was 1 hour 59 minutes.
• The origin of the race name is that Ms. Mari Tanigawa, a famous marathon runner, coordinates the race. And Ms. Rie Hasegawa, a top Japanese model, also joins the race. However, unfortunately, I could not meet both of them.
• After the race, we had a small party with the canned beers in the tent which Mr. HS brought.
• Then, we looked for the restaurant at the north area of Akabane Station. However, all restaurants were already occupied with runners.
• Thus we went to south area of the station and found a Japanese restaurant operated by a bold mistress. We finally enjoyed drinking hot Japanese Sake.
• It was a race under the cold condition. Mr. HS, let's have a party with hot Japanese Sake in the tent next year!

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