Nara Marathon 2014 Race Part 3 (Completed)

Sunday, December 14, 2014

See my previous post here.

Up to the halfway point, things were going well. However, after this point, you will suffer a lot from the weather that does not recover easily, the temperature that does not rise, and the ups and downs that continue in detail.

20km to 30km are very up and down.

Nara Marathon, the hard part is the ups and downs in the second half. I think the hardest part is around Tenri. I think the weather in that area is a little colder than Nara City.

I’m feeling pretty drained.

There are no aids at all, only the aid at the head temple of Tenrikyo?

By the way, there are no aid stations at all in Nara Marathon. There are too few. It’s hard….

The salvation was zenzai at the head temple of Tenrikyo. I was so grateful for this.

But it was a bit difficult to get it. That’s because there were no aides at all, so we all felt the same. I think we lost more time than we expected.

But well, Tenri City is amazing.

After 30km, the layout gradually becomes more relaxed.

However, after the Tenri stage, the course becomes much easier to ride.

With the savings from the first half of the year, I felt relieved that I didn’t have to work as hard anymore.

Apparently, passing through the barrier gate is not a problem.

Then, with only 5km to go, we came back to Nara City again. It was rather like a junior high school marathon because this area is a normal residential area. Somewhat disappointing layout.

If you reach Todaiji Temple and Nara Park, you will be relieved.

The glorious goal

After 40km, I crossed Nara Women’s University, and there was only about 1km left. The uphill climb to the finish line at Konoike Track and Field Stadium was tough at the end of the race.

However, I managed to hold out here and went inside the stadium.

The entrance to the stadium is just at the 42km point.

The rest of the race is a half lap around the track and then the finish.

And a glorious finish! The time is about 5 hours and 40 minutes. The official time can be checked after this as it took some minutes to start.

Finish line ceremony

We started with the finisher towel. It’s a very colorful and nice towel.

Here’s a photo I took again.

And the medal. This is also unique and wonderful. It is wrapped in a bag, isn’t it?

After that, we got a drink and a banana, and that was the end of the award ceremony. We are going to pick up our luggage.

A certificate of completion is issued on the spot.

On the way to pick up your luggage, there is a place where they will issue you a certificate of completion. If you tell them your number, they will print it right there. Here it is.

It was the first time for me to do it on the spot. In both Tokyo and Kyoto, they were mailed later. Of course, the time and the rankings are shown. This is a good system.

And go home.

After receiving the luggage again, we went to the hotel where we had stayed the day before. It was very helpful that they opened the large bathroom for free for runners. And because there were not so many runners, almost private. I was able to take the fatigue slowly.

However, I couldn’t stay there even slowly. I went to JR Nara station and went to Kyoto. Then I took the Shinkansen to go home.

I walked over 60,000 steps that day.

I was certainly tired, but I didn’t feel the strain on my legs as much as before, which is a result of completing five full marathons. The next day, I took the morning off, but in the afternoon, I went to work as usual without any limping.

This is how I ended my first Nara Marathon. After next time? I’ll think about it again next year.

（奈良マラソン2014シリーズ　完）