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The Tokyo Marathon Experience
An Abbott World Marathon Major is greater than the sum of it's parts.
Robert Dalto
March 25, 2025
I remember preparing to go to Tokyo in 2023 and being scared out of my mind. The list of rules was intimidating and the 23 point COVID protocol that seemed sure to fail. I never expected to go back in 2024, never-mind take a third lap in 2025. This year I feel compelled to share what these events can be, and how they can change your life. Above is my first ever youtube video, and a glimpse of how I want to tell the story of a majors weekend; the city, it’s culture, the people, and of course, the race experience itself. Consider this my guide to Tokyo!
Before I get into what you should know about the race, here are all the shoes I wore on the road to Tokyo. I used to be a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” type runner when it came to shoes. Believing the right answer was to commit to one pair and never deviate. I was scientifically wrong about that. The data shows that the changes in foot position and mechanical load on the body when wearing different shoes can help distribute load/fatigue, resulting in reduced injury risk, so here we are!
Now you may be wondering. So what are you going to teach me about Tokyo? Well - Here are my top 3 things to consider when planning for the Tokyo marathon:
The best way to get into this race is via the charity program
Tokyo has the lowest charity minimums of any Abbott World Marathon Major. Read that again. The Tokyo marathon program works in a unique way. You select a charity, pledge a number you commit to raising, then charities review submissions and awards spots to the highest ticket submissions first until they run out of spots. If you are notified that you got a spot, you then wire them the money upfront. See below for the details.
It’s better to stay by the finish (Ginza) than by the start (Shinjuku)
It’s easy to stress about race day logistics, and runners usually have a bias toward making things easy on race morning. I’ve stayed in both areas and recommend staying by the finish for three reasons:
The best place to do your shakeout runs is by Imperial Palace. You MUST do a run around Imperial Palace. It’s the best.
You want to walk home after the race, trust me. The exit area from the finish is long and complicated and getting on the subway is not what you want to be doing.
Transit on race day is free. Take a trip to the start area another day on the weekend before the race and get familiar with how to get to the government building. The trains run incredibly reliably, are clean, and fast. You can even load money onto your transit card (Suica) directly through your apple wallet, no interpreting Japanese card machines required.
3. Here is what you need to do if you can spend a week after the race!
You can cover a ton of ground in Japan in just a few days. If you have 5 days after the race here’s how I recommend you spend it:
Monday - Take the train down to Hakone and recover at an Onsen Spa for the day.
Monday night - Tuesday - Continue on the bullet. train to Osaka explore the city and visit the running man sign, take a picture with your medal.
Tuesday afternoon - Get to Kyoto and stay as long as you can. You can spend three days here easily, there is is so much to see and do. Temples, shrines, shopping, food. If you are ready to resume biking or light jogging that’s a great way to get around the city as well.
Friday - If you have an extra day I’d recommend a day trip to Hiroshima to go to the memorial museum, you only need 6 hours total in the city to walk to the museum, take a tour, get food and head out and back up north.
Friday night/Saturday - Get back to Tokyo and fly home.
The Running Man sign in Osaka
This is really as little as I could possibly say about the Tokyo Marathon, I want to let the video tell a lot of the story. If you didn’t please go back and give it a watch and let me know what else would you like to see in the storytelling at the other six Abbott World Marathon Majors this year?
I often get inquiries about coaching, course strategy, nutrition planning among other topics. If you want to chat, I’ll be doing a limited number of calls as we head into the spring races.
