Shinrinkoen Marathon, 11th February, 2017

Hello Nanbanners,

On Saturday, 11th February, I completed the Shinrinkoen half-marathon, in Saitama, in a time of 1:33:56. This was the third race of my first competitive running season – the first was the Tsukaba Marathon – 3:51:42 – and the second was an ekiden in Shibuya in January. It was a pleasant, leafy course; however, it was pretty hilly – for me at least – and by 17km my legs were shot and getting to the finish was a relief! After the race, runners got a certificate with their finishing time – all bibs had a chip on them – and some tasty udon and vegetable soup concoction.  In my race goodie bag there was a pretty big white towel and some powdered Aquarius. The entry fee was 3.600 yen – payable at any conbini – which included the price of admission to the park, but not the 600 yen car parking fee. Shinrinkoen is family friendly, with lots of interesting play features for my 5 year old daughter, and the locals were very chill. Overall, it was a great day out and I’d definitely recommend the event to others:)

For reference for other novice runners, I averaged about 40 miles (64km) in the eight weeks leading up to this event. I also invested in Jack Daniels Running Formula just before Christmas – a really worthwhile purchase. Oh, and I have also lost 10 kilos since the beginning of October – yah me!

All the best,

Stuart Brady