Osaka Marathon

Well, with only 5 days to go you might be wondering why the title of this blog entry is "Osaka Marathon" when I'm running the Tokyo Marathon? The reason for this is because I have submitted my entry to the Osaka Marathon on October 30th, 2011. I guess with all this training I just can't get enough and had to sign myself up to another marathon! For anyone interested in learning more about the Osaka Marathon or looking to sign up click on the link below:

Osaka Marathon, 30th October 2011

The Osaka Marathon will be the first general public access marathon of its kind for the city of Osaka. They are making some 28,000 places available and should the Marathon be over subscribed then it will go to a lottery to decide places. Essentially the same process as for the Tokyo Marathon, so my place is not guaranteed. Applicants will be informed of whether they are successful or not by end of April. 

Moving on to more pressing matters and the ever looming Tokyo Marathon. Tonight was my last training run before the marathon on Sunday. a short 9k run done in a gentle and easy time of 58 mins. That was quite a slow time but it was the same pace I'm aiming to complete the Marathon in. If I can sustain that pace over 42k's I will be very pleased indeed.

In other news, my fiancee, Jumi, will also be running the Tokyo Marathon with me now as a last minute entrant. Jumi has been training with me most times and feels ready for the Marathon. Actually I'm more worried about her beating me but we'll leave that to the day to see how that pans out.

During the day itself I plan on trying to update my twitter account with progress and pictures. If you want to follow me on twitter then search for me @JamesHardcastle on twitter and I'll do my best to update as much as possible mid run. You can also use the twitter hash tag, #tm2011, for any relevant posts. For a fuller more involved experience of running the full 42km's from the comfort of your arm chair follow Joseph Tame (@tamegoeswild) who will be attempting to broadcast live to uStream from his marvelous contraption he's christened the iRun. You can also check his website out http://tm2011.com/ for more details. 

So with no more training runs to go now all I need do is sit back, get plenty of rest and carbo load on Saturday. (I can't wait for that last bit!) I'll post back again before Sunday, until then ciao for now.