Run 8: Imperial Palace 10km

Saturday, 17th October 2015 (1:30pm)

For my second run in Japan, I was very excited. There were two reasons for this; first, I knew exactly where I would be going and the route I'd be running. Second, it was only 10km. Whenever I say that last part to people, they laugh and think I'm being arrogant. The me last year would have punched the me saying that now. 10km is a lot but after a half-marathon, it's a welcome respite. It also gives me the chance to really throw myself in to the running and push myself, where half-marathons' goals become just finishing the race.

The Emperor of Japan is in there somewhere...

The Imperial Palace run was perhaps the smallest race I have done so far (a close tie with the Wimbledon Common run) and made to seem even smaller by the fact that out of the small hundreds of participants, we were separated by four different runs; 5km, 10km, 15km and 20km.

The Imperial Palace is surrounded by gardens, walls, archaic-looking gates and a path that measures around 5km long. As such, each race's route merely differed by the number of laps the runner needed to do. I needed to do 2.

As an English teacher from a rather small English-speaking country (Wales), I feel a certain pride in displaying a big Welsh flag in my classroom. For this run, I thought it'd be a great idea to step up the costume from the diabetes wig by using the flag as a cape. Dressing up in bizarre costumes is usually common-place for Japanese cosplayers, but less so on the running scene. I attracted a lot of awestruck gazing and one Spanish fellow shouted "Scotland, Scotland!" at me. Though I didn't catch whether he was actually from Catalonia, he did introduce himself and talk at length (get it?) about ultra-marathons. He was incredibly athletic and wore a one-piece running vest that reminded me of that Simpsons clip.

Who's that strange Welsh guy in the wig?

After a group photo, we got ready for the four different waves; 20km went first, followed by 15km and then at 1:30 I got ready for my 10km.

I started well, overtaking most of the people who were there just for a little jog around the palace. One guy at the front was absolutely blitzing it so I decided not to bother trying to match his pace. Another guy in a blue shirt passed me quite early on and I decided he would be my target for the race.


I had been unable to do much training for this race but I felt good. Pushing myself to follow the guy in blue meant that I kept up a decent pace.

The Imperial Palace is a very popular walking and running spot for tourists and Japanese people alike. As a result of this and the four simultaneous races taking place around the grounds, there were a large number of runners. Everyone I passed, I checked out what colour bib they had so that I could determine how far in front I was.

Quite confident that it was just blitz-runner and blue-runner ahead of me, I convinced myself I was in third. More than likely though there was someone else ahead and being behind blue-runner, I was actually in fourth. There were prizes for the top 3, so I would have to come within that zone. There weren't many people in the 10k so it was certainly possible. I just had to beat blue-runner.

Conquering my first lap

Shortly after the first lap, blue-runner went off to the side to wave to his wife. I took this lull in his concentration to overtake him. I smiled encouragingly as I overtook him. From there he kept good pace with me but at the 7km mark I decided enough was enough and with 3rd place firmly in mind I pushed myself to run faster so that I could secure myself a prize.

At around 8km, Spanish Ned Flanders lapped me shouting words of encouragement. I grunted back at him.

As there were no timing chips, I kept a close eye on my phone timer towards the final kilometre. I was on a pretty good time, on track to do just under 47 minutes.

I finished at 46:20 and discovered to my horror that were many people already finished from the 10km. My dreams of 3rd place had been in vain. On the plus side though, two very good Australian friends, who were in Tokyo for a wedding, were waiting at the finish line to congratulate me and receive my incredibly sweaty embrace.




After the race I became something of a small celebrity as a group of Japanese lads, fervently practising their English before-hand, asked if they could have a photo with me (and my crazy wig and patriotic flag-cape). Shortly after this, I was approached by some Indian tourists who were in Tokyo for a naval exhibition.

Proudly showing off the colours of Wales with a random Indian Naval officer

Sadly no extra donations came but I did get to talk to people about why I was running; to raise awareness of diabetes and to help show people that pushing yourself to do a little extra can make a big difference.