Virtual Tokyo marathon 2020

Due to the corona virus pandemic rampaging the world at the moment all the marathons have to be cancelled. I was lucky to be able to run in Taipei Standard Chartered Marathon held in January 2020 which was only slightly ahead of the corona virus epidemic which first occurred in Wuhan, China. Actually I had registered to run another marathon to be held in March but that marathon was  cancelled as the epidemic had spread to Malaysia during that time. The whole country was put under lockdown for almost 3 months before situation improved.  During the lockdown I still exercised but only did running on the spot in my garden. Though exercising at home could be exhausting too but it was not so fulfilling as compared to running outside. 

Seok Wan, and I started the run together for 5 km

As my wife and I are members of the St Peter's Park Run in Sydney, we participated in its virtual park run called (not) park Run which was being organised every week. We just have to run 5 km anywhere in the world any time and submitted our time for 5 km to the organiser for ranking among participants every week. The ranking will be published in the Park Run’s webpage every Tuesday. So that is my initial exposure to virtual run and it is free.We usually run in the evening from 6:30 pm when there is less traffic along waterfall road and lake garden. From the result published by St Peter's Park Run Group every week our times ranging from 33 minutes to 50 minutes were ranked among the slowest but  we were ranked first for making the most runs every week.

As the pandemic caused all the premier marathons in the world to be cancelled,  Virtual Marathons for all those premier marathons in the world such as Berlin Marathon, New york Marathon , Tokyo Marathon, Prague Marathon and so on were being organised. The organiser, Virtual Runners fixed the date for the various marathon to be run anywhere in the world. Runners from all over the world could register to run either one or more of the marathons with a registration fee which includes a medal to be posted to those who completed the run. Finisher t-shirt was also available for booking during registration. I paid RM206 for the medal and finisher t-shirt by registering for Virtual Tokyo Marathon which I found it more meaningful. This is because Tokyo was the venue for 2020 Olympic Game but was postponed to 2021. Perhaps that is the reason the Virtual Run is called Tokyo Remembering the Olympic Spirit Marathon International. Anyway I just called it Virtual Tokyo Marathon. We could register for either 5k, 10k, half marathon or Full marathon. I registered for half marathon which would roughly be a 3-hour run for me in my neighbourhood. After registration, I was invited to join a facebook group consisting participants of the Virtual Tokyo Marathon. There are more than a thousand members from many countries and the platform allowed us to know our fellow runners by  posting our runs and getting feedbacks and comments.

Taiping Burmese Pool

My route consists of a few slopes

The hidden Tupai river at the fringe of lake garden

The complete route of my half marathon

One week before the Virtual Run I practised running the full distance of the half marathon at Taiping Lake Garden. As I embarked on the run without much preparation and started off the run too late in the morning, I was totally exhausted due to the heat and bringing insufficient drinking water. In fact I was feeling hungry and I could hardly moved after 18 km of my run. Actually I could just stop the run but I persisted until I finished the 21 km as planned but the time was 3 hours 14 minutes, about 25 minutes more than my run in Taipei. My aim of running this pre-run is for the purpose of making use of this time for virtual Tokyo Marathon if  I could not run on the actual day due to any unforseen circumstances. I hit against the wall in this pre-run because I ran without consuming any energy gel which I usually do. This terrible pre-run experience taught me a lesson and forced me to be more prepared for the actual virtual Run on 2 August.

   

On the actual day, I woke up at 4 am to take my breakfast and only set out in my car to my starting point at the foothill of Maxwell hill which is very near to my house exactly at 6 am. My car was serving as my water station with plenty of drinking water, isotonic drink and banana to make sure I would not hit against the wall. My wife , Seok Wan ran together with me for the first 5 kilometers before I continued to complete my half marathon alone. Even though I was running alone but there were other joggers along my route whom I could pace with. The pacing allowed me to run slightly faster than my normal pace as most of those joggers were faster runners. My route was quite a big loop but I still managed to return to my water station twice to hydrate myself.  I started and stopped my run exactly at the same spot that is near my car but the total distance covered was not far from the 21.1 km half marathon distance. Though my time of 3 hours 7 minutes was not too impressive but I was quite happy with it and did not feel so exhausted as compared with my pre-run. 

I posted my time and snap-shot of my Garmin connect for the run as proof to organiser on the same day of the run as required. The organiser was quite efficient in the sense that on the next day the result of our run was ready for viewing. I thought I could be among the last in my man's half marathon category but I was still faster than one hundred plus runners among the total of one thousand plus runners. This is my first International Virtual Run and I found it quite a good experience. As virtual run is the normal now due to unrelenting pandemic, I may register for other virtual run especially local virtual run which is much cheaper to register.   

In the mean time I am waiting eagerly for my medal and finisher t-shirt to arrive which according to the organiser would take about 3 weeks.    

My certificate for Virtual Tokyo Marathon

Thumbs up for myself and all the runners