{"id":9611,"date":"2017-02-23T05:37:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T10:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=9611"},"modified":"2017-02-23T05:37:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T10:37:10","slug":"the-tokyo-marathon-expo-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=9611","title":{"rendered":"The Tokyo Marathon Expo 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting the bags from Nishi Kasai to Shinjuku was a marathon unto itself.\u00a0 But we made it… and despite the fact that Mom and I are both seriously under the weather.\u00a0 Mom’s on the mend but I seem to be falling quickly into a phlegmy, germy wasteland of whinging.\u00a0 I make for a poor companion in the best of times; when ill I’m about as pleasant to be around as, well, a jackass with an inferiority complex enveloped in a negative aura of depressive pessimism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having arrived at the hotel and dropped our bags with the bell hops, we boarded the JR Line out to the Tokyo Big Sight.\u00a0 Mom got to expereince first hand the rush hour sardine sub.\u00a0 These photos don’t do it justice.<\/p>\n

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I yelped a place for lunch that proved overpriced, super crowded but that may have been due to the narrow, limited seating, and helped me write what I considered a great text to my brother: Why did Mom and Kevin cross the road?\u00a0 To get to Shin Udon!<\/p>\n

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From there we made the long ride out to Tokyo Big Sight, the host for the marathon expo.\u00a0 I actually recall this place from my first Tokyo Marathon nine years ago.\u00a0 It’s hard to forget an inverted pyramid and giant saw…<\/p>\n

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Inside, the packet pickup and expo itself proved itself worthy of a a town where people are literally shoved into subway cars.\u00a0 It was a crowded affair and most vendors said this was the *slow* day as it will only be more crowded on Friday and Saturday.\u00a0 Yowza.<\/p>\n

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The multifloor expo just kept going and going and going…<\/p>\n

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I tried a few photo opp stations but was underwhelmed by the options.\u00a0 When they asked me what my target time was at the Seiko booth, I said Three-fifteen.\u00a0 I guess they misheard me and punched in 3:50.\u00a0 Mom saw it and asked them to fix it, well aware I had just put up a slightly under 3:11 in Kyoto.\u00a0 I was totally with her as if we’re talking stretch goals I’d like to hit another sub-3:15 on Sunday.\u00a0 After a fair bit of confusion, we got a reshoot.<\/p>\n

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Ugly Americans: 1; Hapless Japanese Expo Booth Workers: 0<\/p>\n

This was probably my favorite thing at a booth — they had people cheer on a robotic runner who was essaying the course on a 2-D map.\u00a0 Apparently the more audible cheers the robot heard, the faster it would move.\u00a0 It all felt VERY Japanese to me… and I loved it.<\/p>\n

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So too was the Tokyo Marathon faux-kimono in the merch tent…<\/p>\n

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I was much more enamored with the cookies of the course layout — you could literally EAT your way through the marathon.\u00a0 That’s a genius idea!<\/p>\n

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At the end of the Ikea-ish maze, there was a station to post an inspirational thought — I think that’s Buddhist but maybe it’s Shintoism.\u00a0 OR maybe it’s runner-ist.\u00a0 Whatever the case, I posted my message:<\/p>\n

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It took a lot longer to navigate the halls and we didn’t even really stop for things because, well, we don’t speak the language.\u00a0 Walking back to the JR line to then take Mom to Shibuya, I was struck by this banner:<\/p>\n

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I bet I saw the same thing 9 years ago when I was last here.\u00a0 Things have assuredly changed in this town… but things have also remained the same.\u00a0 As it should be I suppose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting the bags from Nishi Kasai to Shinjuku was a marathon unto itself.\u00a0 But we made it… and despite the fact that Mom and I are both seriously under the weather.\u00a0 Mom’s on the mend but I seem to be falling quickly into a phlegmy, germy wasteland of whinging.\u00a0 I make for a poor companion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}