This is part three of my Tokyo Marathon blog or diary I guess, take a look at my day 1 and day 2 blogs to see how I have been adapting so far. Let me know what you think of them in the comments below, is there anything you don’t like, too wordy, too many photos or don’t you even read it, just scroll past for the photos?

After feeling tired and jetlagged last night, I got a good sleep, I went to bed straight after posting the Day 2 blog and slept through to around 6:30am. Feeling much fresher and more like myself I was out at 7:15am on my first run in Tokyo. Today’s plan was a 35min fairly easy tempo run to get the legs moving again. 5 min warm-up, 10 min at 7:35/mi, 5 min recovery, 10 min at 7:35/mi and a 5 min cooldown. Nothing too drastic at this stage.

It was still raining when I went out this morning, but with a chance of rain in the forecast for the race, it is good to get a feel of what the race conditions may be. I just ran locally around the hotel, marathon start area, and a little park nearby.

As you can see from my Garmin map, the GPS tracking went slightly askew around the high rise buildings near my hotel and Government building. I knew about this in advance and had the same experience for parts of the Chicago Marathon. Nothing you can do about it so no point worrying, we are all in the same boat, just means we will have to run to feel for parts of the race.

After my run, I went back to the hotel to shower off and grab some breakfast from the all you can eat buffet. We must have the elite runners staying in this hotel, it was obvious that the table next to me was four professional runners, they were all fully kitted out in Nike gear and just had that super-fast runner look.

After breakfast, I went across the road to spend 10 minutes in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building observation deck. It had stopped raining by now but was still a little hazy which meant I could not see out to Mount Fuji.

Next, I ventured back on to the trains and headed south to the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, I found out it was closed when I got there so a wasted trip. Well not totally wasted, I had finally figured out how to navigate around the rail system here. The good sleep last night was paying off. This was the closest I got to the Palace.

With my new found rail confidence I went for a bigger trip and travelled across town to see the Tokyo Tower. I remember seeing this red & white tower on TV as a kid so I just had to go and see what it looked like in person.

I did stumble across an old shine whilst at the Tokyo Tower, I am not sure what this one is called but it was really nice and so peaceful walking around the gardens.

Tokyo is such a city on contrasts, you have the old buildings in amongst the modern skyscrapers. You have the peace and tranquillity of the shrines and the busy modern city life.

Nothing summed this up more than my next stop at the Shibuya Crossing. Billed as the busiest road crossing in the world with up to 2,500 people crossing at each change of the lights.

There is also a statue of a dog called Hackiko outside Shibuya station. This dog used to come to the station each day to wait for his master after work. Then when his master died the dog continued to come every day for nearly 10 years before his own death. Just goes to show, dogs really are mans best friend.

Whilst getting lost in the crowds at Shibuya, Damien text me asking if I wanted to go to the Tokyo Skytree with him. I was only 20mins away from him, so met him for a lunchtime Starbucks and went off to the Skytree. At 635m it is the second tallest building in the world behind the Burj Khalifa.

The sun was starting to come out now, the views from the observation decks were breathtaking, Tokyo spreads out as far as the eye can see in all directions. This city is huge!!

And who doesn’t want to go and stand on the glass floor at that height!!!

Once I had changed my pants after that experience, it was back to the hotel for a shower, I hadn’t actually shit myself, it was time to get ready and head out to the Robot Restaurant.

I stopped off for dinner at Shake Shack for a tried and tested Shack burger & fries. I was running late so I wanted something quick and easy and somewhere I knew the way to. That is my excuse. Whilst in there I bumped into two of my Instagram friends Lauren & Jonathan Barr or @Laurenbarr1 and @JBFrontrunner as us Insta runners know them as. It was great chatting and catching up, last time we bumped into each other was at the Chicago Marathon last year.

After dinner, I made a quick dash over to Kabukichō to watch the Robot Restaurant show. I had watched loads of YouTube videos of this place and it just looked like the typical Japanese madness. It is expensive and the biggest tourist trap here, but I still had to go to see it. The reviews on YouTube had all said the food is small and not great so I skipped that, hence going to eat before going to a restaurant.

The show was every bit the Japanese madness I had expected, it was great fun, the 90 minutes flew by. Lots of costumes, flashing lights, loud music, everything you would want from a crazy night in Tokyo?

After the show, I came back to the hotel so that I could get this blog typed up for you, I have committed to a daily schedule so I have to stick to that commitment. I guess I am a dedicated social media type running person now right? I am not sure what the official term is for that. Certainly not going with the word “influencer”.

I will hit the sack now and hopefully get another good sleep. Tomorrow the focus switches from being a sightseeing tourist to running. I have a 45min run on the plan which I am going to get done early on, well before 8 early, not stupid o-clock.

I may head over to watch the Friendship Run, which is the official 5k run. Then come back to the hotel to get everything planned out and sorted ready for race day. The rest of the day is just going to be a matter of hydrating and eating properly, the traditional pre-race pizza and an early night.

See you tomorrow.