I could not get top 8 at the Nagano Marathon because I was stupid.

Hi guys, it’s me Ikegami.

Yesterday, I ran Nagano Marathon. I was aiming at top 8 and standing on the podium. However, I was 36 seconds slower than the 8^th runner and also time wasn’t as fast as I expected. The time was 2:22:34 although my training was as good as 2:18 plus minus 1 minute.

Today, I will write more details and what my faults were so that you can learn something from my mistakes.

First of all, I recap the race. I started out bit too fast because I wanted to find someone who I could follow. Nagano marathon does not have huge number of elite athletes. So, there are not many runners in the front.

I thought that it was OK to run alone if nobody was there to run with the same pace with me. But I found one who is almost same pace with me. But he was bit too fast.

So, first two kilometers were bit too fast and after that I made a decision not to follow him and then most part of the race I ran alone. However, always two runners were in my sight. So, I didn’t feel that I was running alone.

After that, I went for my feeling without watching my watch.

Honestly, I didn’t feel great yesterday, but on the whole, everything was OK and after 25km point, I started suffering a bit. But still everything was in control. And around 28km point, two runners passed me and I followed them 2,3km.

And then I judged that that pace was too fast for me and made a decision to run alone again, but it was already too late.

I completely lost my rhythm and ventilation got too hard and started dramatically slow down.

I was wondering if I could finish the race. I felt so hard. Once I slowed down, adrenaline did not emit much. I started feeling tremendous pain in my left foot and chest. The 8^th runner was far away from me, time wasn’t good anymore.

I also started wondering why I was running.

I tried to see positive things at the same time. I recalled days that I could not run because of injuries. I recalled runners who competed with me and trained with me in my junior high school days and high school days and do not run now anymore (most of them quit before 25 years old).

So, I am lucky for running still today and thanked that during the race. And then again the negative thought came to my mind and then I switched that into positive thought. I talked to myself that as long as I could run, everything was OK.

Also, I observed my physical sensation. Still my legs were fine and I felt that I still had enough glycogen. However, in the beginning I went out bit too fast and I had oxygen debt.

So, I thought that if I ran slow enough, I could still recover. I was waiting with slow pace until I recovered.

Once I walked a bit and took a cup of water and sipped it, I felt I recovered. The rest distance was only 3km. There was not much time to recover my lost. I started pushing myself again.

I just switched my mind. I deleted my memory that I already ran 39km. I thought that that point was the starting point of the race. So, I started out the 3km time trial from there in my mind.

I was 11^th position and soon passed by one runner. And I was in 10^th. The 9^th runner was getting closer and closer to me.

At the last 1km point, I was still 7,8 seconds behind. But he was already within the range of my missile. I caught him at 42km point. There was only 195m to go. I went forward without any hesitation.

But he went forward too. I was behind at 42.120m point and then again I tried to beat him. We crossed the finish line at the same time. But I lost. That was my first experience to finish at the same time with someone else in a full marathon race.

End spurt. Wering a black top is me.

I gave it all. So, I’m not shame. There is no shame on me.

However, I need to point out 4 mistakes which I made.

The first one is about training.

There were 8 weeks between Osaka Marathon which I ran 2:19 and Nagano Marathon. The result of the Osaka Marathon was as good as my training. Meaning, that was the best result which I could get from my training.

So, I needed to add something into my training to improve my time.

However, if there are only 8 weeks between two marathon races. I should not have tried to improve my time.

I mean, it’s OK to run faster with the same training. But I should not have changed your training because there is no time to adapt to a new training stimulus.

So, I just should have done the same training without any new training stimulus.

But, I added 3x1000m with 200m recovery jogging which I had not done before the Osaka Marathon because in this season, there is only 1 minute and 23 seconds per 5km between my 5000m best time and full marathon race pace. I ran a full marathon 16:30/5km pace and 5000m best time was 15:07. Definitely, I need to run faster in 3000m or 5000m

And I thought that adding 3x1000m with 200m jogging recovery was OK because it was not much, right?

But I was wrong. Hard workouts are hard workouts. I could not adapt well from marathon race pace tempo runs and long runs. That was my mistake.

And also, I started out too fast. My ideal pace was 3:20-3:15/km considering my training. However, the first 2km was 3:10/km.

It was OK if it was naturally faster and I felt comfortable. But my body also felt that that pace was bit too fast. But, I followed one runner because I wanted a pacemaker. But I should have run alone. That was my second mistake.

The third mistake was, I tried to follow two runners who passed me at approximately 28km point. Only 2,3km got faster and after that I needed to pay a lot for that. I think that I lost 1-2 minutes for only 20 seconds faster. So, totally I lost at least one minute for my wrong decision.

I needed to go for my feeling alone.

The fourth mistake was, I aimed to be top 8 too much. The result is result. We can’t control the result 100%, right?

All we can do is, just doing our best and then the result follows us. But I was thinking that I wanted to be top 8 too much. As a result, my mind was out of the flow state. If you want to do your best, it’s the best not to think but feel and believe.

This is the reason why we need to simulate a race in training and in mind. If we simulate a race in training and in mind, we can run the race without thinking anything, in other words, with clear mind which is called the flow state of mind.

I was thinking about things and analyzed things too much and that made me make the  misjudges and also, tight running style.

Totally, my running yesterday was not so bad. Throughout the race, I kept relaxed running style. But I think I lost some of relaxation because of thinking and analyzing too much.

The reason why I called them mistakes is not because the result was not as good as I hoped, but I made a wrong decision based on probability theory.

I have been running for 20 years and also have coached more than 1000 runners. So, I have huge data and experiences. And based on these data and experiences, I can say what is right and what is wrong probabilistically.

Of course, probability is probability. Even if it’s the right decision probabilistically, you could lose on the next game. It could be.

But the most important thing is, if you choose one decision with knowing that other options have more possibilities to win, you are stupid, right?

So, I was stupid because I made wrong decisions probabilistically. I need to reflect upon my mistakes.

Then the next question is, why I made the wrong decisions.

If I made wrong decisions with knowing that there were not right decisions, there was something. And usually, something is emotion.

Emotion is also very important to make a right decision. If you don’t feel any fears, you can jump off from the top of 100m height building or fight against a lion or a bear.

So, we should use emotion and logic properly. If I use emotion when logic is needed and/or if I use logic when emotion is needed, the result is gonna be bad or wrong.

And then what kind of emotion made me stupid?

That was desire that I wanted a better result.

Wanting a better result or improvement itself is not bad at all.

However, if we really want a better result, we need to make right decisions and focus on it with clear mind. And then we need to stay away from our desires.

Our desires are the engine of our life. And we are drivers to drive our life with desires as fuel. Not the other way around. Many people are driven by emotion instead of driving their life with using emotion as fuel.

So, here’s Japanese saying ‘Start with desires and then stay away from desires’.

You start learning and training seriously because you want to run faster, run as fast as possible, run a full marathon under 3 hours or half marathon under 90 minutes etc. It’s the right thing. If you have no desire, you do nothing seriously and there is no big improvement.

However, if you are now 4:30 marathoner, how many years do you need to run a full marathon sub 3 hours?

I think that you need 3-5 years.

Then if you are trapped by the desire, you cannot keep your motivation. Because your desire is not satisfied in a short-term period.

So, you start running, training and learning with your strong desire. And should keep the desire as strong as possible. Let the desire keep burning in your mind.

However, when you are running, learning, training, let the desire go away and just do your best. In other words, you should let the desire burn as strong as possible and do your best with strong belief without thinking or analyzing things. Don’t calculate things.

I don’t know how it is in your country.

But in Japan, nowadays young people even make love based on analyze. Many young people told me ‘I don’t know which girl (or boy) is fit for me’. My best advice is always ‘Go for someone who you love and do your best’.

While many boys or girls calculate things in their mind before they talk to girls or boys.

That’s why most of them will never take an action and that’s why they finally get less or small success.

Or, I would say, if you are a kind of logical person, then stop calculating things when you are actually taking an action. Because logically speaking, just doing your best without calculating things has the best possibilities to succeed and/or the expected level.

Also, the reason why you should avoid easy pleasure like porn, junk foods, net surfing, alcohol etc too much, you cannot control your emotion and stay away from desires.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying desires are bad, rather desires are very important.

If you have no desire to run fast, there’s no way to teach you how to run fast. But you should be able to stay away from desires when you are actually doing something.

Millionaires became millionaires because they wanted to be a millionaire. But if you calculate things and treat one poor man impolitely because he is not able to pay you much money, you will never be a millionaire.

If you calculate things and treat a woman impolitely because you think that she will never be your girlfriend, you will never be as attractive as possible.

If you calculate things and do not run seriously because you think that you are not talented, you will never reach your potential.

Don’t try to fulfill your desire right away, just keep having desires and do things based on your desire without expecting the return.

That’s why American legend long distance coach Joe Vigil said ‘Love makes you a faster runner because love is, you try to give things as much as possible with expecting nothing.

Again, I think and analyze training and race tactics based on probability theory, but I should run and train with expecting nothing when I'm actually running.

That’s why unsatisfied result like I got from the Nagano Marathon will never stop me and lose my motivation.

Thank you for your reading.

I also wrote how the Osaka Marathon went and things you can learn from the race, if you want to learn more, please click here to read.