Saturday in Japan was supposed to be low-key so I could collect my thoughts and let my body rest up for the big race day!  My husband, however, had other ideas… of walking too many places and climbing too many stairs.

Our morning started off with a stroll to the supermarket to get some local produce and some milk that I needed for my UCAN protein shakes. I was so surprised to find so many choices for produce and was pretty excited to finally find some food that I could dive into! Fueling plan in Japan has been rather difficult for me – I just don’t want to experiment before the race and end up in trouble. We picked a handful of items, including ice cream. I figured that would help my constant headache from jet lag. The hardest part of the supermarket was trying to read the Japanese language…because nothing was in English. The employees just smiled and nodded at these crazy Americans trying to figure things out.

After the supermarket, we headed to the race venue because I wanted to practice my morning walk from the hotel to the starting corral. On race day, it just makes things easier and more familiar having rehearsed everything possible. A little over a 700m stroll from the hotel door to the corral area – perfect! Things were finally starting to sink in as to what I was about to embark on.

From the starting corral area, we walked some of the race course on our way to Shibuya Crossing, the world’s busiest intersection!  Raul wanted to go to a Godzilla store over that way, so we walked.  On our adventure, we came to this little street filled with little huts that were diners.  It was fascinating to see people just crammed into these places!  It was so different than America.

We continued on our way and passed other iconic shops like Harry Winston, Louis Vitton, Disney, and an IKEA.  Eventually, my hunger cues started to really speak up again and we needed to find something soon.  I also didn’t want to keep walking much more, after reaching about 5 miles for the day.  We found a Korean BBQ place on our way back to the hotel…except it was on the 5th floor.  All these places have restaurants stacked on top of each other.  But, I was now starving…so up the stairs we went.  We ordered a variety of meats, a ton of rice, some veggies, and water.  To say I was hangry would be an understatement.

Once back to the hotel, I wrapped up my night by finalizing my mobility routine and getting my race day outfit all set. With a fairly late start for race day (9:10am), I was looking forward to sleeping in until 5:30am…or so I thought. Jet lag still has a way to snatch your dreams!

Final thoughts:

One of my well-respected support crew members shared this with me and really resonated with what race day is all about: “Victory Day” – Victory over patiently waiting since 2020 to run this very marathon, here in Tokyo, Japan. And this is what I will ink to my hand in the morning when I need a mid-race boost.