Michael Magnussen's Staging Area

When I first decided to pursue the Six Star medal, I had already done Boston twice and was just about to run the 2016 New York Marathon for the first time. It had always been my understanding that Tokyo and Chicago were the weakest majors of the six and Boston and NYC were the crème de la crème of all races. I remember going into my first Chicago with tempered expectations and came out thinking it was awesome – so I went into Tokyo taking the opinions of other runners with a grain of salt.

First of all, the city is great and very beautiful. Not a lot of English is spoken outside of the hotel concierge, so there is a little bit of a barrier there. The sushi and ramen is (needless to say) unbelievable, and so is the shopping. I stayed in Shinjuku, so the trek to the start line was easy. The restroom lines at the start of the race are otherworldly long, and I heard you definitely don’t want to use the restrooms while racing because they have lines, are a couple of blocks off the course and are primitive. Since I didn’t need them while I was racing, this was a non-issue. The weather was lousy, but that is about all I can complain about. The race was well-organized, the street surfaces are as nice as you will ever run on, the water stations were clean and orderly and the crowds were interesting and enthusiastic. The finish is kinda nondescript, but the support of the volunteers was really appreciated. Reflecting back on this race, it was my very favorite until I ran London a couple of months later.

In short, don’t let some know-it-all ruin this race for you before you ever run it. I thought it was awesome.