Tokyo Marathon Trip: Wed 2/27 - Fri, 3/8

I am writing this blog to journal our travel stories for the 2019 Tokyo Marathon and beyond, as I used many similar blogs to help plan out our trip.  This was an incredible journey on many levels, as our group got to experience a beautiful and unique culture, and selfishly allowed to me to conclude a 15 year quest to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors.  Please feel free to pass this along to prospective #AbbottWMM runners as our recent Tokyo adventure just hit the tip of the iceberg, and was so fulfilling in every possible way :)

Wednesday, February 27 - Thursday, February 28th:  Our journey begins!  Tim and I leave from STL bright and early, and meet Schleg and Stu at O'Hare, where we have a 13.5 hour flight to Narita Airport, in Tokyo, Japan.  Not much to talk about, but Air Nippon was a comfortable flight, and I miraculously slept through the majority of the flight.  I did watch 'Crazy Rich Asians' (only fitting), and 'The Green Book' - both of which were excellent movies, and helped ease the burden of a day of long travel.

We arrived at Narita Airport at 2 p.m. on Thursday, losing 15 hours to time change.  Customs was a breeze, and we snagged our bags from baggage claim.  Stu rented a pocket wifi hotspot (highly recommended), which we picked up from the postage office on the 4th floor of Narita.  In hindsight, Toyko wifi was decent (subway wifi is good), so this wasn't 100% needed but a huge luxury for us.  We decided to take the Toyko Skyliner, which is basically an American Amtrak train with limited stops.  The benefits were much more space and slightly quicker travel time to our train stop, rather than battle the subway.  We had previously mapped out our route, but deferred to the very kind, English speaking Information Desk close to baggage claim, who helped us lay out our final route.  We took the escalator down a level from baggage claim to get Skyliner tickets, then took off for our stop to Sumida, located in east Tokyo off the Ryogoku line (red).

We exited roughly 45 minutes later, then walked about 5 minutes to the Ueno subway for a few stops.  At that point, knowing that subway was our primary transportation, we purchased our Pasmo cards, which is the subway card/currency that is applicable towards mainly applications including subway, Japanese Rail, vending machines, and I believe gambling!  This was not difficult to obtain, as there were people to help, and we filled up our cards with 50,000 yen (ended up filling up twice more (10K at a time) through out the trip!).  We walked through the rain to our Air Bnb, the Hostel Inn Tokyo Ryoguku, which was a little bit off the beaten path but very cost friendly and closer to the airport.  A huge plus was the grocery store, which was a 2 minute walk away, and 2 subway locations less than 10 minutes.  In hindsight, we might have stayed a further bit west (near Shinjuku/Shibuya) but if you have good patience, it's really not a bad area to stay in, as we had plenty of touristy stuff within walking distance, a much calmer/quieter environment, and very cost efficient.

Time to go to work!

Finally!

#2020 Olympiad Games

Blue ad behind us (this is baggage claim) is Skyline - worth it for comfort, in my opinion 

Pasmo Subway Card - don't leave home (Tokyo) without it

Nice and cozy in my 0.75 size twin bed with my boys (Stu, in the living room 5' away)

We checked in, dropped off our luggage, filled our fridge full of breakfast food/snacks/beer from the local grocery store , then hit up a local restaurant for dinner before crashing.

Thank you, Google Translate App (I think???)

At this point, we realized our international experience would truly be different, as English speaking was almost nonexistent from our restaurant servers/menus.  But the Japanese (throughout the trip) were super patient with us American tourists, and we managed to order delicious food without getting sick :)

Friday, 3/1: First full day in Tokyo!  Overcast day, but no rain, and we battled jet lag furiously with all of us getting a decent night's sleep.  We headed to the marathon expo, located in south east Tokyo, roughly 45 minutes away (subway) in an area called Odaiba.  Cool background on Odaiba - this is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, across from the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo.  This was a man made island built mainly for defensive purposes and eventually built up as major commercial, residential, and leisure area.  The expo was held outdoors (supposedly because of renovations to the traditional expo site for the 2020 Olympics) and overall went very well, despite heavy traffic.  We tried to beat the crowd and get there right when it opened, but apparently everyone felt that way and we battled long lines to get our bibs, shirts, and souvenir shopping.

Approaching the Expo

Gladiators before the battle

Wristband/Bib/Face Recognition Pickup

Asics Booth - a true sh*t show

A goal 15 years in the making, so close to being completed

                                   

Tim may have won this race, but not the war

Expo Shenanigans

Afterwards, we had a quick lunch in the mall nearby, and walked 10 minutes to the Miraikan, which is Tokyo's National Advanced Science and Technology Museum.  Admission was ~$8/person, and overall was interesting but not sure I would totally recommend outside of pure convenience (expo is far off the grid, and this is closeby).  There were many interesting exhibits, including a huge globe of the Earth that was suspended over 4 stories, and we spent a couple of hours exploring the area.  The museum contained exhibits concerning robots, data, medical technology, the environment/planet, space travel, and general sustainability within the planet.

The Miraikan

'Data Transfer from the Internet' Exhibit

I want one of these for my home

We rode back on the subway towards our AirBnb, and decided to do some local sightseeing.  We walked towards the Sumida River at night, which there was this beautiful road/trail that Stu had found during this morning picture taking.  We walked ~20 minutes towards Asakusa (prefecture, closeby), and walked through the shopping districts and checked out the Senso-Ji Temple.  This temple is an ancient Buddhist temple, and is Toyko's oldest temple.  This is the most widely visited spiritual site in the world, with over 30 million visitors annually!

Sumida River Trail sights

Kodak Moment

One of the cooler things we did was an Omikiju paper fortune.  For a 100 yen donation, you drew from a box of sticks, then matched the symbol (from the stick you drew) with a drawer containing a fortune.  If it's a bad fortune, you fold up the paper, and tie in the special branches closeby, where the guardian deities will take it over from there and protect you from bad luck!  Fortunately, I drew the "best fortune", and hoped for a good race and a great trip.

The "Best Fortune" :)

Before we left the temple area, we went to the Main Hall to say a quick prayer.  You climb up a small step of stairs, make your monetary offer, and say a prayer.  Very cool.

Prayer for my family

Saturday, 3/2:  Beautiful day, and headed to Yokohama to watch the Mariners play a soccer match in the J-League.  Yokohama was an area that was recommended by a close friend to check out - unfortunately, because of general timing, we didn't have a good chance to explore much outside of Nissan Stadium.  But it was clearly a vibrant area with many sights and sounds, great shopping, and some popular tourist attractions including the Ramen Museum and amazing architecture (Red Brick Warehouse).  Nissan Stadium is one of the largest stadiums in Japan - it hosted the World Cup Finals in 2002, and seats ~75,000 spectators!  We watched a Yokohama victory, before headed back towards our Air Bnb.  Schleg and Stu headed off to an English bar to watch some EPL action, while Tim and I prepared for the marathon and winded down for the evening.

Go Yokohama Mariners!

Sunday, 3/3:  The 2019 Tokyo Marathon!  I will provide more details of the specific race synopsis on a separate blog post, but we woke up early to eat an early breakfast, stretch, and take the 30 minute subway ride to downtown Shinjuku, a major business district.  Rain, rain, rain - it never stopped.  Because of the craziness of a typical major marathon, we basically followed the crowd of runners to our respective check in areas.  Volunteers holding signs were everywhere, so it was very easy and convenient to ask for directions, when needed.  Tim and I were in the same gate area, and navigated towards the check in where we went through security rivaling TSA (metal detector for bag check, face recognition), and got situated before departing towards our respective corrals.  The Tokyo Marathon is very militant about staying in your own corrals - absolutely no changing of your designated corral.  We checked in our bags, took a bathroom break, then I basically huddled under a bridge with other runners to avoid the rain, before checking into my corral (~35 minutes before race time) where is continued to rain and my body temperature slowly lowered.  It was ~40 degrees, ~10 mph winds, and just chilly because of the rain - not gonna be an easy day to run.

A quick race synopsis (via my brain, which may/may not have blacked some of this out):

10K - felt good.  Had some foot issues that I worked through (mainly because I was numb from the cold), but went out at a decent pace and felt comfortable
10-11 mile - uh oh, legs are getting heavy pretty early
13.1 - enter survivor mode - just get to the finish, don't worry about pace
25K - f - time to go to that very dark place to get through this that I don't like
32K - really f - at this point, we were running against the direction of runners at a further point, so I was able to figure out how long it took to get to the turn around which seemed infinite.  I was miserable and cold, and ready to be done.
40K - slow marathon shuffle, but still moving.  Schleg and Stu sighting further up lifted me up to finish

The turn to the finish couldn't come fast enough but when I saw it, relief washed all over my numb body, and I glided in to finish the Tokyo Marathon and complete all of the World Marathon Majors.  Given the conditions and weird external factors, this was the most difficult race I have ever run.  No one said this would be easy, and it was very apropos that the final race would be the most challenging, but that's probably why it was so sweet and arguably the most memorable of the 9 marathons I have ever run.

Afterwards, headed through the finishing area, reflected on this long, difficult journey and tried to hold my emotions in check as we walked to receive food, fluids, finisher tower, and a mylar blanket (~10 minute walk total).  Eventually, I was ushered to the Abbott World Marathon Tent where I received my medals and accolades from the Abbott group.  I truly felt like a rock star, and will always remember the experience, even though I literally couldn't feel my body from the cold and general pain from running a hard marathon.  Because I was a charity runner, I took a short walk to a close-by building, where I was able to change and facetime my wife to wish her a Happy Birthday and tell her about my race.  Yes, I'm the @sshole husband that traveled across the world to miss his wife's birthday ;)

Met up an hour later with Schleg and Stu (took forever to change, navigate towards our meet up area because of the road closings (a special thank you to the lovely volunteer that walked me 20 minutes through the Tokyo Station labyrinth tunnels!)) and had a quick bite to eat before ending up at an English Bar ~1 mile away from the finish.  For the record, this was the only true American/English style bar that we could find, of the entire trip, and we enjoyed the Guinnesses!  Tim finished the race, met up with us for a few victory beers, then we eventually called it a night and celebrated with many beers and Mario Kart!

Walking to our Gate

Rain, rain, go away!

Further up is the start of the Tokyo Marathon

My head is not normally this big (bad camera angle) - oh wait, who am I kidding?

Security

Here we go!

Where's Peter? (middle right)

                                   

Most of the AMAZING photos below are ripped off from social media, so apologies for non-credit

Crossing the finish line! (in the middle, thanking God)

Mission Accomplished!! ******

                     

6 Star Finisher! ******

To the victor goes the spoils ******

A few marathon notes for those prospective future Tokyo Marathon runners:

- Check in to your corral early - when the cut off happens, you're headed to the back of the line - no exceptions!

- Port-a-potties were legit 1K+ distance from the race course and well marked - if you need to go, you're sacrificing major time.  Poop early!

- Volunteers were super plentiful and the friendlier than any marathon I have ever ran

- No blue line to track shortest distance - watch your tangents

- KM physical markers are small, so be on the watch - also, on multiple points, I saw a KM marker for a medical stop, before the actual KM mark

- Your Garmin will go nuts because of the tall buildings - don't be alarmed but don't trust your Garmin distances.  Do your homework for KM splits

- A few 180 degree turns on the course - be prepared

- Crowd support was amazing - given the crappy conditions, spectators were still everywhere and providing much needed support!

- No Gatorade for this race - Pocari Sweat is the "Japanese Gatorade" that is available for the runners.  Tastes relatively decent, and not over-powering.  Worth ordering through Amazon and giving a test run, prior to the marathon.

Monday, 3/4:  Post marathon soreness bliss!  The rain continued on all day, and had a quick breakfast and headed out for our daily excursions.  First on our list was a trip to the Tokyo Tower, which was a solid 40 minutes from our AirBnb and multiple train changes.  I ended up booking a Top Deck Tour online before we left, which was ~$28/person.  This entailed an expedited ride up to the main observatory deck (150 m above sea level), and access to a higher area.  The Tokyo Tower is a communications and observatory tower in Minato, and is the second highest structure in Japan (332.9 m).  The tower closely resembles to Eiffel Tower, but slightly taller.

Schleg and Stu from the Main Observatory Deck

Check the weather before you go here

The Top Deck has these weird mirrors to show off crazy images - reminded me of X-Men First Class

Because of the crappy weather, we had no issues getting to the top, and we were literally the only people that made the voyage to the top deck.  The viewing was great, but definitely impaired because of the clouds and overcast skies.  We took mental notes to schedule the Tokyo Skytree for a clear, sunny day.  Regardless, we had a 360 degree panoramic view of the city, and enjoyed some time to see Tokyo from a different vantage point.

Afterwards, we headed to Shibuya to check out the district.  Shibuya is more or less the New York City Times Square of Tokyo - great shopping, great restaurants, and a crap-load of people everywhere.  Stu scouted out a conveyor belt sushi restaurant he wanted us to try, so we headed to Uobei Sushi.  This was definitely one of the more fun restaurant experiences I ever had.  You order plates via touchscreen ipad (up to 3 plates a time), and a conveyor plate delivers your food within minutes!  Very fun and different, and we never waited a long time.  Plus, the food was fresh and delicious!

Touch screen ordering

150 yen wine - ummmm yes, please!

Seated at the table

Quick menu price breakdown

Conveyor belt in action

Fresh, fatty albacore sushi and shrimp tempura udon - did I mention the 150 yen red wine???

Schleg did work! (for those who were wondering, this was less than $20)

Onwards to check out 'the Crossing', which is one of the main tourist attractions of Tokyo.  At peak time, 3,000 will cross at one intersection from many different angles - super amazing to see!  We did some light shopping in the area, before retiring for the evening.

Crossing "the Crossing"

At an observatory bridge: before

At an observatory bridge: after

Shibuya Shopping

Super Schleg

Tuesday, 3/5:  Finally, sun!  This was the best weather day we have had, so far in our trip :)  We woke up early to head to the Washington Hotel in Shinjuku to meet up with a tour group to do the highly recommended Mt. Fuji Day Trip tour (hotel adjacent to the Tokyo Marathon start).  I set up reservations online through this website, which was super easy and quick.  We paid ~$170/person for this tour, well worth it!  We took a 2 hour bus ride to Lake Kawaguchi, a beautiful lake right next to Mt. Fuji, and stopped to take pictures and enjoy the absolute gorgeous scenery!  Lake Kawaguchi is the second largest lake of the Fuji 5 Lakes, located at the lowest elevation, and the biggest tourist area of all the close-by area.

Secret Lovers

Absolutely gorgeous

The Medals made the trip too :)

We got back on the bus, and headed towards Mt. Fuji 5th Station, which this part of the trip was heavily in doubt because of the recent snow and general crappy weather.  I don't think we made it all the way up to the actual 5th station because of time and potential icy roads, but we stopped a little lower and got to enjoy the sights from ~1300 meters.

Afterwards, a quick lunch break at this amusement park restaurant (delicious bento box), and we drove to Mt. Hakone to do a quick 15 minute lake Cruise on Lake Ashi towards our next destination.  Lake Ashi is actually a crater lake, and was formed due to a powerful volcanic eruption nearly 3,000 years ago!  We ported, and headed for a 7 minute cable car ride up to the peak of Mt. Komagatake.  Absolutely breathtaking views from this point, and walked up to see the spiritual Mototsumiya Shrine, that nestles at the mountain top.  We were so high up that it was snowing, and the temps were a good 10-15 degrees cooler than from sea level.

Samurai Warrior Face Off

Stu walking up to the Mototsumiya Shrine 

Tim soaking in the environment from almost a mile high!

We rode back down, and took the bus to the Odawara train station to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) back towards Tokyo.  Note that we paid extra for this service (original tour takes the bus back), and easily saved over an hour riding this back.  The bullet train is super smooth, and topped out around 160 mph (would have been faster except for some stops on the way).

One quick note about this Mt. Fuji tour - every stop we made was literally 15-30 minutes to enjoying the specific area, before being herded quickly back on the bus for the next stop.  While at the time, seemed slightly annoying because of the short turnaround, there is absolutely no way we would have been able to complete everything in this day trip.  In my opinion, this specific event is tied to good weather/sunny day which is virtually impossible to plan for, and we were extremely lucky to have a perfect weather day!

We stopped at the Tokyo Station (end of the Tokyo Marathon), and had a burger closeby at Kua 'Aini, a Hawaiian burger joint that is located in the Marunouchi Building - apparently, this is THE building in Tokyo with 37 floors of business and shopping.  Afterwards, we walked towards the Imperial Palace grounds (IP was closed), took some city line pictures close by, then headed towards the Tokyo Tower to take some night pictures - absolutely gorgeous!

Tokyo Station

Not bad for an Iphone 8 Plus camera

Wednesday, 3/6:  Got up to an overcast, but good temperature day, and headed to grab coffee down the street at a small shop called Sunshine State Expresso.  For those who know me well, I don't drink coffee ever, but had an absolutely amazing Cafe Latte that rocked my world!  The owners were very nice, and enjoyed a nice pit stop to start our day.  We stopped by the nearby Yokoamicho Park, which is a public park in Sumida that houses the Earthquake Memorial Hall and a Memorial to the Victims of the 1944-45 Tokyo Air Raids.  We stopped in one of the temples to say a quick prayer, before leaving.  Then, we walked along side the Sumida River trail to Asakusa, stopping once again at the Senso-ji Temple, which was very crowded with tourists.  Eventually, we made our way to hit one of the most anticipated parts of our trip, the Mario Kart Tour!

Perfection

Snagged this photo in Yokoamichi Park - don't know why I enjoy this photo so much

Toyko Air Raids Memorial

Prayer area inside the Temple

Views from the Sumida River Trail

Round 2 at the Senso-Ji Temple

Quick background of this expenditure - you dress up as cartoon characters, drive through the streets of Tokyo on a go-kart (yes, with other cars and buses in major traffic), and sight see some of the major attractions of Tokyo.  There are many different locations for these tours around Tokyo, and you can pick 1-3 hour tours, depending on availability and what you want to see.  Our specific tour went from 12:30-2:30, and we saw the Tokyo Dome, Ueno Park, Asakusa, and the Tokyo Skytree.  Note that you need to have your passport and International Drivers Permit, which costs ~$20 and can be picked up at a local AAA.  Our entire reservation was set up through Facebook Messenger over a chat, and paid early via PayPal - very quick and easy.  This event cost ~$75/person.

The go-karts were small, but pretty easy to use, and we had a quick 10 minute tutorial on basic controls and procedures/rules.  Our tour guide was super nice, and did a great job making sure we weren't lagging too far behind and driving together as a group.  Safety was truly not an issue, assuming you weren't an idiot.  I was pretty uncomfortable at first, but took about 10 minutes to have good confidence on the go-kart, then we had some fun cruising down the streets! (for those who were wondering, I topped out at 62 km/hr (roughly 38.5 mph)).

I had slight concerns early on, but Tokyo driving is very conservative, and drivers were very respectful of not killing the silly American tourists, dressed up as cartoon characters!  No one honks their horns in Tokyo (literally heard 2 horns in 8 days!) and while we got many stares and finger pointing, everyone generally would smile and wave in our direction.  In the States, I guarantee you that we would have gotten yelled at, spit on, honked at, and probably ran over by overly aggressive drivers!

Tokyo Sky Tree - 630 meters tall!

Searching for Splinter

Pichachu!

2 hours went very quickly, and sadly had to head back to the shop and turn in our go-karts and costumes, but had a BLAST - would highly recommend!  Afterwards, we stopped by the Nakamise Shopping Street, which is one of Tokyo's most popular shopping destinations.  It's a long street that is lined with many souvenir shops, food stalls, and a great place to try traditional Tokyo street food!  We spent some time doing the majority of our souvenir shopping, and headed back to the AirBnb to drop off bags and plot our next destination point.

Tons and tons of shopping!

We stopped by the Mclean Old Burger Stand, located conveniently off the Sumida River trail, and this was absolutely outstanding!  If you are looking for a great burger, this is the place to go!  The place is tiny, so difficult to find seating, but we picked up our food and headed back to home base and enjoyed a huge, luscious Avocado cheeseburger and fries :)  Best burger in Tokyo!

Home of the best burger in Tokyo!

We decided to check out the famed gaming arcade cafes of Tokyo, and headed towards Shinjuku, which was ~30 minute sub ride for us.  First, we stopped at Mikado, which had 2 floors of classic games (i.e. Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers 1, Crazy Taxi, etc.) and fighting games.  A tournament was going on upstairs (Guilty Gear), which was being streamed on Twitch.  Most games cost 100 yen (roughly $1 US Dollar), and was filled with teenagers and even adults who were ending their day with some good old fashioned video game stress relief!  Be warned - all the arcades we went in were smoking facilities, and didn't serve alcohol!  We spent a decent amount of time here, where I watched Tim show the most efficient spending in video game arcade history by beating Fighting Exlayer (think Japanese Mortal Kombat) on his first attempt!

Beginner's luck?

No - Tim is just that damn good #champion

Not Gran Turismo, but Schleg still doing some work

Afterwards, we headed over to Taito Gaming Station and Club Sega to end our evening.  Both places didn't have much retro gaming, and we played a little bit but didn't stay too long due to general fatigue and smokiness.  Headed back to the AirBnb to conclude our evening.

The Japanese take their gaming seriously!

Thursday, 3/7:  Woke up to a very rainy day, and decided to go check out the Tokyo National Museum, which is the oldest and largest museum in Japan, and one of the largest art museums in the world!  The museum was located in Ueno Park, 3 quick stops down from our stop, and we spent some time in the Park and marveled at a couple of the shrines and the blooming cherry blossums!  The National Museum comprises of several buildings, and we spent the majority of the time in the "Honkan", which provides a general view of Japanese arts.  This contains roughly 24 exhibition rooms on two floors.  It consists of exhibitions from 10,000 BC up to the late 19th century, exhibitions of different types of art such as ceramics, sculptures, swords, scrolls/traditional paintings, and others.

Ueno Park

Cleanse your hands before prayer

Toyko National Museum

I got in trouble for taking this photo - appreciate it!

Tachi Sword (not samarai (pointed down) )

Miniatures

Afterwards, we grabbed a couple of pints and some fish and chips at the World End Irish Pub, which was a very small pub located close to the park.  The fish was solid, and the Guinness was super expensive but tasty!  Because of the rain and lack of bars in general in Tokyo, we made the decision to grab some beer and head back to the AirBnb, where we sadly started to pack and get ready for a long day of travel.  Tim and Ryan made a late night run to Pizza La, a pizza joint down the street from our AirBnb that we had joked about ordering from all week.  The pizza was mediocre, but had a blast drinking with my buddies and playing Mario Kart, until we eventually passed out.


Friday, 3/8:  Sadly, this was our last day of the trip, and finally got one of the rare sunny weather days!  Woke up, ate a quick breakfast in the AirBnb, checked out, and headed for a 25 minute walk to the Tokyo Sky Tree.  The Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure of Japan, and the tallest "tower" of the world at 634 meters tall!  There is an observational deck at 350 meters, and a higher deck at 450 meters, both of which we visited.  We booked a fast ride pass (~$40, about $10 more than the usual) because of long lines and our time constraints.  This was a fitting conclusion to our trip, as the views were absolutely breathtaking, and we had an opportunity to see virtually the entire city of Tokyo and beyond, as well as a Mt. Fuji sighting on a great weather day!

Schleg and Stu soaking in Tokyo from 450 m!

Mt. Fuji cameo

Wow 

Kids are fearless and crazy

Don't mind if I touch down for a millisecond

@stufotog crushing photos

Do you see what I see?

We grabbed lunch in the mall area at the SkyTree (5th floor, I don't recall the specific restaurant but the Bento boxes were outstanding!), and headed off to the airport, changing at the Ueno Red Line station and taking the Skyliner, which was about 45 minutes to Narita.

Last Tokyo Meal

Goodbye Toyko :(

We eventually made it home, and to our respective beds.  I am currently writing this blog post at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, jetlagged with a glass of Cabernet, and many floating memories that need to be acknowledged quickly, before the memories fly away...

First, some shouts of gratitude:
- To my sister Anne and family - you've been there since my first marathon in 2005 Chicago, and have been there literally every step of the way on this crazy journey.  Your support has never wavered, and you have always been the beacon of light when the darkness tried to force its way in.  Thank you

- To Megan and Isaac - I do everything for you.  I hope I make you proud.  I love you so much.  Thank you

- To my running family (you know you are are) - We battled through many storms together, and you held me strong and on point.  This accomplishment is just as much yours as mine, as you have guided me up the mountain to the absolute peak.  Thank you

- To Jeff, Shane, Pat, Marc, Trisha, Barrel, Josh, Schleg, Stu, and whoever else I missed - couldn't have done it without your support.  We conquered this together.  I owe you many saki bombs.  Thank you

To Toyko:
- You are an amazing ambassador to the world.  We are blown away by your respect, discipline, and overall lifestyle  The rest of the world can learn greatly by your example.  Thank you

- This is a worth 2020 Olympics host city.  While I am extremely biased to South Korea, Toyko will make the world proud!

It's been an amazing journey to this point, but it's not over yet.  There will be a little time to recover, re-access goals, and move forward once again.  Thank you again, from the bottle of my heart, for the amazing support along this foolish goal set 15 years ago from a punk kid that could barely run a quarter of a mile :)

****** Lots of love ******, your newest Abbott World Marathon Major 6th Star Recipient,
Peter