Run Boy, Run!

From couch potato to Tokyo Marathon finisher in three months.

- Farhan Shah

A NUMBER OF THINGS HAPPENED at the 35-kilometre mark. My legs, woefully short on sodium, started cramping. The dull ache in my knees began throbbing furiously, as though a few drummers with nervous tics had taken up residence within my bones. And a human-sized Starbucks coffee cup ran past me.

That last incident took me by surprise. I have seen quite a few runners in ridiculous constumes along the route. There was one in a Pikachu suit who managed to waddle his way to the finish line. There were a few in typical Japanese salarymen garb, complete with briefcases in hand. There was even an overly enthusiastic naked man, protected from the cold only by his stars-and-stripes underwear, a pair of running shoes and a miniature American flag.

But the man in the Starbucks coffee cup costume definitely took the overpriced Oreo cheesecake. His attention to detail was amazing. Besides the accuracy of the siren at the front, the runner also extensively reproduced the different boxes you usually find at the back of a takeaway cup as well as the temperature warning.

I would have slowed down to take a picture and applaud his effort, but my family would probably disown me if they knew I was beaten by a Starbucks coffee cup. So I put my head down and plodded towards the finish line, seven kilometres away.

POUNDING THAT PAVEMENT

If you had told me four months ago that I would be competing in the 2017 Tokyo Marathon, raucous laughter would have erupted. I have a tempestuous relationship with running. On the rare occasion when I pound the pavement, it’s usually with a lot of reluctance and grumbling. But when ASICS offered me a place in the 2017 Tokyo Marathon, I jumped at the opportunity.