Race Review: Yokohama Marathon 2019

It has been another year of ups and downs in the running journey and always looking forward to an overseas marathon if I can make it work. This year 2019 turns out to be Yokohama Marathon!

Japan marathons have the reputation to be very well organised with loads of supporters and volunteers storming the race route. This is how running should have been celebrated as runners who took lots of discipline and effort to run the 42.195km route and others who did not participate should also celebrate each runner’s efforts by giving their support. Japanese always do this in style.

Race pack collection

Arriving on a Saturday morning to collect my racepack at the Pacifico Exhibition Centre Yokohama and once I reached the area, signs and volunteers were seen everywhere to show direction.

the 1st volunteer I see and they hold this signboard the entire day, with shifts of course!

And this is still about another 500m more to go to reach the entrance of the exhibition hall! As I walk further, there are more and more runners heading to the same direction and more volunteers along the way as well.

Supporters were out in numbers !

As i continued for another 100m from here, I entered into the exhibition hall where I saw a long snaky queue walking into the exhibition hall. The 1st thing that came into my mind is, “Looks like coming on a Saturday to collect is wrong.” and the long queue is at least about 200m long from the upper level all the way down to the lower level. While, the queue is moving hence I will just have to move along and see what happens.

At the lower level walking into the exhibition hall

Although the snaky queue is long, it is moving hence not as bad as what I thought it will be. I moved along and I am already at the entrance without even having to stop. I kept my fingers crossed and continued to follow the queue. The next moment as I enter in, I was astonished!

Reaching the entrance of the expo

What a sight of long snaky queue of runners!!

I was taken aback as I enter and I wondered for a split second how long it will take me to clear this string of people. The collection booths were so far away (can see from previous photo) and this seemed to be like at least a 30 rows to go. At this moment, I still didn’t even need to stop for a second to wait. After 2-minutes of walking, this is where I am (everyone is waling so fast as well, all seemed to be well trained runners).

Ta-da!! Similar to some races in Singapore, scanning of ID first to determine which booth to go to before moving ahead to the dedicated booth to collect my race pack.

The time the volunteer took to scan and indicate which booth I should go to was even shorter than the time I took to take out my passport from my bag!

So here I am, in front of my booth.

It was a fast and really organised race pack collection despite the sheer massive number of runners storming into the exhibition hall. From the time I saw the 1st volunteer till the collection of my race pack, I do not remember stopping at all. This is something that big or small races locally should learn from. This is largely contributed by the generous number of booths as well. It seemed to be on par with some of our local big races and the locals were also queuing. Perhaps I was from overseas and there were much lesser numbers as compared to locals (fact: 1,000 foreigners out of 28,000 total running the FM).

All the collection booths

As i walk into the expo hall, there were many booths which sell apparels, showing runners the route, souvenirs and there were some simple games to take part in to win prizes. I skipped those which I totally had no idea what they were queuing for.

Race route and showing runners which entertainment there will be at which km mark

The following booth came as a surprise to me! It showed a mockup of a typical drink station, how it will be setup, how the drinks and food will be lined up. And the volunteers were evening teaching runners how to drink properly from the cup if they want to continue running after fetching a cup!

The drinks station

The food station. I tried some samples as I don’t think I will get any during the race

More food!

Demonstration of how you should drink from a cup. The volunteers were explaining expressively to runners

Booths in expo

More booths

Customisation of event tee right on the spot

Souvenirs

If you think running the marathon is not enough, you can devour it as well!

A good way to market the race

Race photo, race timing to be added as a plaque for memories. 6 different designs.

A target booth, to constantly remind ourselves why we came here for. Wah, this white-haired man has my respect! He is wearing a Boston Marathon jacket!

lots of booths and can spend some time here

Day Before Race Day

After spending about an hour in the expo, I headed back to the outdoors to recce the race start and end point. This is to facilitate logistics on the actual day itself and to ensure as much worries were eliminated as possible. One of the 1st thing i did was to find out where exactly the end point is.

How I wish I am already at the end point now…

After the recce, it was almost late noon and had a good carbo load dinner of pasta. Yes, pasta in Japan despite the many good food out there. While, this is what works for me all these years hence with the number 1 rule in running, NEVER try new things for race day. =). Packed my baggage items the day before I turn in and rested early for the night to prepare for the big day.

All clothes packed for the day!

Race Day

Alarm went off about 2.5hours before flagging off at 8:30am. As my accommodation was near to the start point, I just got to ensure that I deposit my baggage at 7:30am (yes, the baggage service ends at 7:30am) and reached the start point by 8am (pen entries closed at 8am), I will be fine. I prepared and left the hotel at 7am.

As I walked over to the baggage area, I felt that this race wasn’t as popular as the other race I ran before in Osaka and Kobe, Japan. There were not a lot of people along the way.

Are they runners or… weather is cold, that’s why.

As i walked nearer to the baggage area, I got stunned. There were packs of runners forming up another snaky queue. With the experience of the expo, I thought the queue would move as fast but I was wrong. There was security check and it some how slowed down the queue a fair bit.

Took me a good 15-minutes to get into the exhibition hall for baggage storage

I guess almost all runners will require the baggage as they will be dressed in long sleeves as it was cold in the early morning. And they will need to change back into their warm clothing after the race as well.

Finally got in and changed into my running gear, before proceeding to find the booth to deposit my baggage. Male and female deposit halls were separated.

many runners preparing themselves

Volunteers in place

Everything is in order and timely as I deposited my baggage which consist of my handphone. There is no worries about not knowing the way to the start point as we could just follow the crowd and the signages available along the way.

Clear signage along the way, even in English. Source: Yokohama marathon Facebook

Runners would know which pen they should proceed to according to their bib numbers and even if the runners were unaware of where the exact location of their pen, there were ushers along the way to ask for assistance.

I reached the pen atabout 7:15am and gosh, I wasn’t the earliest. There were already 4 rows of runners sitting in line right in front of the block, behind the barrier which separated the other pen in front of us. There were a few runners doing warm-ups as well. As it was still early, I found a spot and sat down with the rest (follow the culture). The sun did not spare us and it was already scotching hot at 7:15am, imagine that.

Runners kept behind barriers in their pen. Cold (raincoat) and hot (scotching sun) at the same time! Source: Yokohama marathon Facebook

The emcees were entertaining the runners and giving out important information as well, both in Japanese and English. At least it gave me some awareness of what was going on. Really appreciate that.

The race started on the dot at 8:30am and finally runners were set off.

28,000 runners set off on the dot. Source: Yokohama marathon Facebook

The race took us a big round from the city at the heart of Yokohama, towards the residential area, enter a flyover overhead expressway (running about 15km on it) before returning back to the city of Yokohama.

The race have a few elevations, especially going up the expressway and along the expressway. The rest were a few ups and downs. The lacking of cloud cover did not help the runners as well as this is the 1st ever Japanese race where I perspired throughout the race. The photo above shows the weather on that day.

There were hydration stations at about 2.5km apart and there were no lacking of hydration at all. The volunteers set up table in two rows to top-up the hydration at the front row when it is depleted.

The 2 rows of hydration preparation is clearly missing from Singapore races. And not forgetting the cheerings from the volunteers as well. Source: Yokohama Marathon Facebook

Somehow, I did not remember seeing such nice scenery. I must be too tired from the grueling race. Source: Yokohama Marathon Facebook

The roads were wide most of the time, especially on the expressway. The spreading out of runners from Pen A to Pen P worked as there were some narrow roads which did not pose any congestion at all.

My race wasn’t a bed of roses as I felt my left quads tightened at about 28km mark and my right quads at about 29km mark. This was when I was still on the expressway and I know that I have to stop to stretch them. I was happy when I managed to stretch the tight quads away but it took some valuable time off from my intent, besides the toilet visit as well (there were portable toilets availabel at every km mark, even on the expressway!). I did a time check at 34km mark and do my math, knowing that I cannot hit the target timing, I slowed down a little to enjoy the rest of the race.

The distance of 42.195km is really a great respect. No matter how much one trained for it, it is still very difficult to complete it, not say in good timing. The sight of the end point, is always the happiest thing a runner will find after hours out in the sun.

Post Race

The cheerful volunteers at the end point to hand out the medal and towels did help to lighten my mood from the long hours of run and of course the disappointment in the timing after months of training.

End point with a medal around necks of runners Source: Yokohama Marathon Facebook

It was a short walk to the baggage area after collecting our medal, towel, bottled water and banana. I was too tired from the race, ate and drink the banana and water, got my baggage (again, the volunteer went to get my baggage as I was walking towards it), did a bit of stretching and walked back to my hotel for a well deserved rest. Only took out my handphone after i walked out of the baggage zone. Thus explaining why no photos of the post race items.

Runners “limping” to the training station

Runners running towards the end point with a choir cheering runners on

supporters lined up along the route

After reaching my hotel, bathed, rested and sipping some soy milk which I bought the previous day, I was glad that I was resting my legs on the sofa at this point in time looking at the other runners. Another overseas marathon accomplished and kept in my memories for a long time to come.

View from my hotel

The medal is quite unique and heavy too. The transparent acrylic ( i assume) in the centre of the medal surrounded by thick metallic golden metal which forms the medal.

Finisher medal of Yokohama Marathon 2019

Ratings

A) Race Expo: 4.5/5 (big expo, many booths with apparels, no waiting time)

B) Race precinct: 4/5 (baggage area is a distance from the precinct, baggage area no queue, precinct is crowded, toilets adequate)

C) Medal/event tee: 4/5 (quality of medal is top notch, there is a plain event tee, no finisher tee)

D) Post Race: 4/5 (toilets available, fast retrieval of baggage, volunteers giving directions)

E) The Race: 4.5/5 (everything that a runner needs to enjoy the race, they spot it, from starting time, no congestion, hydration plenty, portable toilet every km, cheers from planned bands, dances, school children singing/dances, cheers from volunteers, if only the race doesn’t make us climb to the expressway, it will be perfect 5)

Overall Rating: 4.2/5

I am going to make this short. This is my 4th Japanese Marathon. If you ask me, will this be the last, my answer is no, but when is the next? Unsure. I am trying to find one which is flat without much elevations ( I know it is pretty difficult to find a flat route in Japan races), and I know it is difficult. I enjoy all races in Japan so far and i will be back for more.

Thank you Yokohama!