The 2022 Shonan International Marathon was billed as an “eco marathon” with the aim of reducing and recycling the waste generated in any major race. The main feature was the no-cup aid stations where the usual disposable cups were replaced by rows of large water and sports drink dispensers placed at 200-metre intervals along the length of the course. Leading up to the race, I thought hard about the best way to deal with hydration: should I carry a container to fill up at the aid stations, or should I run with a hydration vest? If I went with the container option, I had the choice of a small disposable cup which the organisers had sent out to all runners or the 300 ml running bottle I sometimes use. However, I thought that there would be queues for the water dispensers, so I ended up running with a hydration vest. This worked out okay. I used a Salmon hydration vest which was very comfortable and allowed me to carry 1 litre of water with mineral tablets. I could take small sips throughout the race, and in the end, I drank over 900 ml. On reflection, though, I will carry a running bottle next time. There were 5 or 6 water dispensers and the same number of sports drink dispensers at each aid station, and with them being so closely spaced, there were never any queues. Watching others stop to refill, I think it only cost 8 to 10 seconds each time. And with my slow finishing time, a few moments lost stopping to fill up a bottle would have made little difference to me.
Now to the painful bit: my race. Or more accurately, the second half of my race. The first half was not painful, but it was hard. I started off full of optimism that I could ignore my lack of training and pull out a good time. I had done this in the 2018 version of the race when I completed my one and only sub-three marathon. I did this on a similar lack of long-distance run training, so I figured it might be possible to do again. Unfortunately, I had ignored the immutable fact of my current slow run times. In 2018, I had finished the triathlon season with my fastest ever 10k in a triathlon, run at 3:47 pace. This year, at the very same end-of-season race, my run pace was 4:07. That is a huge difference. In the 2018 Shonan Marathon, I ran the first 10k in 42:06, or 4:13 pace, while in 2022, I ran just one minute slower at 4:19 pace. Clearly, with my fitness, I started way too fast. I could feel this in the first half of the race, and I was slowing even by the half marathon marker. After that, I suffered an inexorable slide through 5-minute pace, 5:30 and finally 6-minute pace. I suffered the kind of discomfort that all runners must go through at some time. I desperately wanted to quit, but fortunately my brain lacks that component.
My time of 3:23:51 (on my Garmin) doesn’t sound so bad, but I had at least expected to go under 3:10. The frustrating thing for me about marathon is that it is impossible to guess what would have happened had I started off at say 4:30 pace. I can’t try again the next week to see what would happen. I guess this is one of the many reasons I enjoy shorter distances, especially Parkrun. I can go to Maborikaigan Parkrun week in and week out and experiment with different pacing strategies, different warm-ups, and different running shoes. With marathon, this is impossible.
During the last 10k of the race, I told myself I will never do another marathon. At the finish, I staggered to the bag drop area, collected my stuff, walked 5 metres and collapsed on to a tiny strip of grass. There I lay for 30 minutes feeling awful. And then the feeling passed, I sat up, looked down on the mass of people crossing the finish line, with the shimmering Pacific behind, and thought how very lucky I was to be able to be a part of this. I met up with Andrea and Jeff and we went to Oiso for a celebratory omurice.
No-cup Aid Stations
The water and sports drink stations worked very well. There was almost no litter on the course, apart from a few salt tablets wrapped in plastic. You were never more than 200 metres from a water dispenser, so refilling took little time. If I had carried a 300 ml bottle and drank the same as I did with my hydration vest, I would only have lost 20 seconds – and not had to carry a kilogramme of water in a vest. Whether this all leads to less waste is another matter. There must have been several thousand water and sports drink dispensers which looked brand new. North Face had also provided large tankers of water. These all need transporting, cleaning, and so on. And of course there were still lots of other kinds of waste, such as the plastic jackets and bin liners which were thrown away before the race. It would be interesting to see a careful analysis of the environmental impact of the race.
Access
Access to the race is a pain. It is several kilometres from the nearest station, Oiso, from where there is a shuttle bus service. However, the station gets frighteningly crowded, and the lines for buses are legendary. Getting back from the race is even slower as all the roads become jammed. I decided to cycle from Hiratsuka station which seems the best option. It is a flat 6 km ride to the official bicycle parking lot which is just10 minutes on foot from the race.
hayama3tri 