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My First Marathon (Fuji Marathon)

Today I completed my first marathon. It was the 50th annual Mt. Fuji marathon in Japan, and I can confidently say it was the most challenging thing I’ve done.

I arrived in Kawaguchiko, a resort town with a large lake next to Mt. Fuji, two days before the marathon. The town was bustling with marathoners and vacationers.

We ended up staying at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), specifically the Wakakusa no Yado Maruei hotel. I haven’t been to a hotel like this since I was a kid, so it was a fun experience. In general, it was a great stay, but my pregnant wife had some difficulty with the provided futons for sleeping. They also provide breakfast and dinner, both in traditional style, which was a bit difficult due to my wife’s dietary restrictions and my aversion to seafood. Because the hotel doesn’t accommodate meal changes, we ate the parts we could and supplemented the rest with items from the convenience store.

The day before the race, my friend and I went to bib pickup at the start. In typical race-event fashion, it was an expo featuring different sponsors showcasing their products. My friend and I ended up purchasing a supplement kit from amino VITAL for 2000 yen, which included supplements for pre-, during-, and post-race. There was another booth for RunConcierge AI, a chatbot company that the event uses to provide race information to runners. Definitely something par for the current times, but I can’t help but feel that it’s unnecessary if the information was better organized on the race website.

The night before race day, it was sleeting outside. By the time the morning came, it was raining. This resulted in a somewhat stressful start as I frantically tried to get everything ready (it’s very difficult to put on your race bib with cold, wet hands). Once the race started, the rain began to ease up, but because of the clouds, we didn’t see Fujisan until the latter half of the race.

The race itself was tough. Since we’d been in Japan vacationing for a week leading up to the marathon, my legs were definitely tired. By the halfway point, I was struggling. It also didn’t help that the 17k course overlapped at that point. As a result, I had hundreds of runners passing me, which made things tough mentally. It also caused all the bathroom lines to be long, so I had to wait until the 17kers left the course before I could pee.

During the race, there were various aid stations with water, energy drinks, and food. Some food they were handing out included:

• Japanese cookies
• Rice crackers
• Jagarico sticks
• Chocolate
• Muscat grapes
• Azuki pouches
• Peach jelly
• Energy gel
• Rice
• Miso soup I ended up skipping the rice and miso soup aid station because it would have been too much for my stomach.

Many marathoners I’ve spoken to have mentioned the 20-mile mark as the most challenging part of the race. But I think 12-18 miles were the hardest. At 20 miles, I actually locked in and got a second wind up until the 25-mile mark. After that, the last mile and a half was very tough.

At the finish line, my wife and friends were waiting and cheering me on. It was a great feeling to complete this achievement, especially given all the training required to get to this point. My knees are shot, my back is sore, and my quads don’t want to support my body anymore. But it’s a great feeling to say I’m in the best shape of my life since high school, and I hope to continue this trend going forward!

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