Tokyo Marathon

Does the cape make him run faster?

I've never watched a race or a marathon (other than the bits they show on the TV during the Olympics), but we had a friend running in the Tokyo Marathon and we went out to support him.  I thought it would be pretty boring, but it was actually a lot of fun!  I enjoyed the 90 minutes we spent watching the race.  We were near the 35 km mark (21 miles). 

I don't know if it's just Tokyo, but many runners wear costumes.  From my experience here, Japanese people seem to love to dress up for any reason, but maybe it's a running tradition.  I'll have to pay more attention when they show shots of some of the US marathons.  Anyway, I got some pictures...

 
Some people went all out:

Pennywise from Stephen King's It?

Super Ninja

This is the Japanese baseball team I was told I had to be a fan of - costume or uniform??

I have no idea who he is.

There's a cop a few meters behind him...

How long until I can take this off and get a real beer?

Luigi from Super Mario Brothers

I think the snowman is melting.

Mt. Fuji was a theme:

Some thought just something on their head was enough:

I guess it's a good place to store your extra water!

It wasn't just men...a few women dressed up, too.  They leaned towards tutus and princesses:

Jasmine from Alladin?

Another Jasmine?

I think this is my favorite

She got lost from the Color Run

I also saw quite a few people wearing "saran wrap" like in the picture below.  It was unusually warm and sunny, so I don't know if they wanted to sweat extra amounts??

You can see hundreds of people running in the background.

There were a LOT of people participating.  I had to restrain my inner cheerleader - I wanted to call out "you can do it" or "strong legs" or whatever the right term is to encourage them on, especially when I could see they were struggling.



Afterwards, we went to the Farmers Market where they were having a little chocolate festival.  We could try chocolates from around the world.  I think our favorite was from Belize.

What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!