Tokyo Marathon 2026 – Abbott Star

Well, turns out I had it easy this year!

I managed to get in the ballot, found a hotel for myself (wonder staff at the Sunroute Plaza hotel at Shinjuku) less than 3 blocks from the Keio Plaza (start line and wheelchair setup room, I was supported by a great AirNZ staff member with cheaper than usual flights (you know who you are, thanks a bunch)… and yet, I hit a snag.

So, with all this support I knew it wouldn’t be easy completing the Tokyo Marathon as a squirrel in my Racechair, in under 2hrs 10min… But it should be possible. I mean, anything is impossible, until it isn’t.

Training had gone well, talked with coach, we had a game plan, knew the topography of the course, yup, we’re doing it. Packed, get to airport, great flight over, land everything checks out ok. Go to Achilles dinner on the Friday night, meet bunch of member from around the globe. Day of the race, all going well get checked over and approved, ready to race. Have my cutoff times on my chair handle bars, so I know my times frames to hit, and start doing warm ups.

Bang, 9:05am race starts. Wow everyone else is fast, oh that’s right, I’m dressed as a squirrel. It’s like I purposefully make my life harder… Anyway, good pace, feeling good. Getting close to times towards the 21km area, but I know I have a lot left in me to make sure I get to the 29.2km by 10:40am. Nope. I get pulled off the track at 20.9km because I’m 2min over the cutoff time. Wow.

Well, I could say a lot about things, but I did understand that Tokyo was pretty strict, however some leniency might be applied. Turns out, they are very strict. Race over for the squirrel, with lots left in the tank.

I’m not upset at anyone but myself. It’s my race and I knew this might happen several months ago, that’s why I trained so hard to mark sure I’d be in under 2hours 10min or very close to it. I can tell you how absolutely gutted I was Sunday night. In fact, devastated isn’t even a low enough word. I was haunted by the event every sec, what I should’ve done, what I could’ve done, etc. It ate me up for hours. All I wanted to do was crawl up and sleep. I should’ve been able to finish, but I didn’t

I’ve heard it said you learn a lot more from failure than success. Well, I was learning a lot. I needed to process the event by myself, without anyone around me, that was hard. What was harder, is I knew I needed to be strong for everyone else who’s just completed something great. How to move on? Plan,, then keep moving forwards (a Walt Disney saying).

I took stock of where I was, I’m in Tokyo and disappointed. I set myself in the future, when I look back on this, how do I want to think about this time? So, I bucked myself up, started to think about the plan for next Tokyo marathon 2027. I even made a few enquires about trying to get into Boston marathon in 3weeks. I kinda already knew there wouldn’t be a chance as entries closed months earlier, but I had to try. The idea was to convince myself I’m still moving fowards.

Next, I threw myself into tourist mode. Got up Monday and navigated the train systems there (honestly, like colored spaghetti thrown on a wall), several of the train services, yet all of them were super accessible! All of the staff were super friendly, and everyone spoke better English than my Japanese! Ha ha, pretty easy really. Fantastic tourist stops in Tokyo I managed to visit Mon & Tuesday – many train stations (food, and chats with staff, good times), Maruyama Mini, the Tokyo SkyTree, Imperial Gardens, a burger house, Samuri museum, Tokyo Disney Land, the marathon Expo, a roller coaster and so much more. Nah, that’s about it really.

All in all, a wonderful experience meeting incredible people in Tokyo. Massive thanks to everyone that helped me along the way, there has been a few… It was a great learning experience, and with the bitter taste of defeat in my mouth, I never want to taste that again. Luckily I learned enough, that when I return, I can take others around!

If you’re not having fun, then why are you doing it? 🙂