Mie Matsusaka Marathon 2025 Race Report: 2:48:03 Finish

Hi there! I’m Runshu.

On December 21, 2025, I ran the Mie Matsusaka Marathon 2025, held in Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture. It’s a full marathon I can do as a day trip from home, which is why I signed up this year.

This is my race report from the Mie Matsusaka Marathon 2025.

What This Race Meant to My Season

In 2025, I had entered a 10K in November, then a half marathon and full marathon in December. When I registered, the plan was to peak for the half and treat the full as a fitness check.

Then in November 2025, I suddenly hit a rough patch and couldn’t produce any decent times. The 10K I ran that month was well below what I’m capable of.

I also developed a foot injury around the same time, so I dropped back to easy and moderate running for a while. It took a long time to start feeling like myself again.

It wasn’t until the week before the full marathon — when I ran a half marathon on December 14 — that my foot pain started to ease. I held back in that half, running it in 1:18 at around full marathon effort.

Over the following week, I tapered down to under 70% of my normal training load. My foot held up through the half and kept improving through the taper.

Heading into the marathon, I hadn’t done any marathon-pace training or race-specific workouts at all.

I wasn’t in shape to chase a time goal, but I figured it was a good opportunity to see where my fitness actually stood.

Race Goals

My goal for this race was sub-2:40. Even with rain making conditions tough, I believed I had improved enough from last year to set a personal record.

For race strategy, I expected to lose time on the steep climb near the 30 km mark, but with the downhill that follows, I thought I could run even splits overall.

Running at 6:02/mile (3:45/km) pace would get me under 2:40, so that was my target — roughly 18:40 per 5 km.

Race Report

Morning Prep to the Start Line

I woke up at 3:30 AM. I’d gone to bed earlier than usual the night before — around 8:30 PM — for just under seven hours of sleep, which is normal for me.

First thing, I checked the weather forecast. It had looked like we might miraculously dodge the rain, but overnight the forecast had flipped back to heavy rain. That killed my motivation right away.

As usual, I measured my body composition with the InBody Dial right after waking up: 64.2 kg, 8.5% body fat. What caught my attention was my weight. I’d been carb loading all week, but my weight hadn’t gone up as much as expected.

I’m not sure why. I had definitely cut my training volume and added Palatinose on top of my normal diet. But the bottom line was that the carb loading hadn’t gone as planned.

I had my usual pre-race breakfast: a mix of pressed barley and white rice (50/50), two eggs, and natto. After breakfast, I managed my pre-race bathroom routine successfully and felt ready.

Here’s what I wore for the race.

The moment rain was in the forecast, I locked in the METASPEED EDGE TOKYO. That said, I was genuinely on the fence about it right up until race day.

Training runs in the EDGE TOKYO had felt fast, but I kept noticing a discomfort in my glutes. I suspected it was the lack of stability at footstrike, or the way the shoe forces a longer stride.

But with rain, I wanted a shoe with solid traction. The options I had with good grip were the PUMA DEVIATE NITRO ELITE 3, ASICS MAGIC SPEED 5, and the METASPEED EDGE TOKYO.

The NITRO ELITE 3 was heavily worn and the midsole had broken down. The MAGIC SPEED 5 fits true to size, which is too snug for 42 km. That left the EDGE TOKYO.

The Mie Matsusaka Marathon is close enough for a day trip. I left home at 5:20 AM and took the Kintetsu line from Nagoya Station to Matsusaka.

Based on my research, catching the first express train wasn’t possible even from the first local connection. The limited express that runs next requires a reservation, and when I checked ten days out, it was fully booked.

I settled on an express arriving in Matsusaka at 7:33 AM. When I reached Kintetsu Nagoya Station, I found that the 5:50 AM train had been extended to Matsusaka as a special service, so I’d arrive earlier than planned.

The 5:50 AM express had plenty of seats — my worry about not being able to sit down turned out to be unfounded. Every runner on the platform got a seat, which was a relief given the roughly 90-minute ride.

The ride to Matsusaka takes about 1.5 hours — your backside gets sore, but no transfers makes it easy.

We arrived in Matsusaka. It was raining.

I had planned to walk to the venue, but I followed the shuttle bus signs to the wrong exit and had to cross back over the tracks. If you’re walking to the venue from Matsusaka Station, use the south exit.

It’s quite a walk from the station — about 25 minutes even at a brisk pace. With rain on top of that, the stress was building fast.

On the way to the venue, I stopped at a Lawson convenience store and bought a coffee. I mixed in a coffee stick I’d brought from home and 30 g of Palatinose, creating my own high-caffeine concoction — 180 mg of caffeine plus Palatinose.

I finally reached the venue and met up with a friend. With the rain, even getting changed and organized was a hassle. The bag drop area was the large car park of a shopping complex including a MaxValu supermarket.

There was no designated area to get ready. The MaxValu store was open to runners, but you were sitting on the floor. Honestly, for a race of this size, the facilities weren’t great.

Here’s what I brought for race fuel.

Of these, I actually used five gels during the race.

The Speed Gel has 25 mg of caffeine and the Aminosaurus Gel has 50 mg. Total additional caffeine from gels: 100 mg.

I don’t rely on gels for cramp prevention. Taking a few gels isn’t going to stop cramping. As long as my legs have the endurance and I don’t run out of glycogen, cramping shouldn’t be an issue.

Bag drop closed 30 minutes before the start. I dropped my bag around 8:25 AM and headed to the start area, planning to use the toilet on the way.

That was a big mistake. The toilets near the start were backed up with massive queues. The mixed-gender cubicles outnumbered the men’s, and the lines weren’t moving. It was clear I wouldn’t make the 8:45 AM corral cutoff.

Still, I hadn’t used the toilet since leaving home, so I had to go. I joined the queue, but it quickly became obvious I wouldn’t make the cutoff.

After a lot of hesitation, I gave up and went to my corral to make the 8:45 AM cutoff. My plan: use the first portable toilet on the course right after the gun.

I later found out that runners who stayed in the toilet queue past 8:45 were still allowed into their corrals without being moved to the back. So the people who followed the rules missed the toilet, while the people who ignored them got both the toilet and their corral position.

I have questions about the race organizers here. If you’re going to announce that runners past 8:45 go to the back, you need to actually enforce it.

So I arrived at the start with no toilet break and zero warm-up — not even a single running drill. Even accounting for my own slow start, failing to use a toilet in the 30 minutes before the gun points to a real logistics problem.

Fortunately, it was warm enough that the cold wasn’t a factor. I lined up with no preparation whatsoever.

From the Starting Gun to the Finish Line

And just like that, my final race of the season was underway.

My first goal: find a toilet. Fortunately, there was a portable toilet just a few hundred meters into the course with no queue. I’d been holding it for a long time, so it took longer than usual.

After the toilet stop, my marathon finally began for real. I’d already lost roughly 90 seconds.

Stopping near the start meant a huge wave of runners — including many casual participants — had passed me. The crowd was so thick it was hard to weave through, but I kept picking my way forward.

No warm-up, stuck threading through crowds — it was not a great start. But my heart rate wasn’t spiking, which was at least reassuring.

Because of the early delay, I spent the next 25 km constantly passing people. Ideally I would have settled into a small group, but every runner around me was targeting a slower time and I couldn’t match their pace.

I ran by feel, periodically checking my heart rate to stay below the ceiling I’d set for myself.

I took my first gel around the 6 km mark, then one every 7–8 km after that. I finished my last gel near 30 km — since carbohydrates take roughly 30 minutes to absorb, taking more beyond that point wouldn’t help.

My first 5 km came in at 20:40, exactly 1:30 behind my target 5 km split of 19:10. The effort level was fine, but weaving and surging through the crowd burned extra energy.

From there to about the halfway mark, I settled into 6:10/mile (3:50/km) by feel rather than by pace. Since I was constantly overtaking people solo, I never got into a stable rhythm.

My pace dropped from 25 km onward as the hills began. I still had some energy, but I’d decided in advance to ease off on the climbs. The entire course is undulating, but the 25–31 km stretch is particularly brutal and not the place to push.

Here’s the actual elevation profile of the Mie Matsusaka Marathon course, corrected using my COROS watch and POD2.

The official course map and elevation chart don’t reveal the sheer number of rolling hills. I strongly felt the race should provide more detailed elevation data.

Splits from 25–35 km were 6:18–6:26/mile (3:55–4:00/km) — a deliberate choice not to push. The course peaks between 31–32 km, and around 32 km you enter the famous projection mapping tunnel.

The tunnel marks the start of the descent, and your body starts to feel slightly refreshed. I could see why the projection mapping is so well-received at that point.

But by the time I hit the descent, my legs were already failing me. I expected the downhill to bring my pace up, but I couldn’t get faster than 6:10/mile. Even the predominantly downhill 30–35 km segment averaged only 6:23/mile (3:58/km).

Beyond 35 km, my legs were completely gone. The rain picked up just after the tunnel, making conditions as bad as they could be. I couldn’t make my legs move no matter how hard I tried. By 40 km, I could barely manage sub-3-hour marathon pace — the 35–40 km average dropped to 6:42/mile (4:10/km).

For the final 2.195 km, I had nothing left — no motivation, no leg strength, just cold and miserable and desperate to finish. But you don’t get to go home without crossing the finish line, so I kept moving.

With about 400 m to go, there’s another steep climb. My legs were completely finished. A slow jog was all I had. The final 2.195 km average dropped to 7:02/mile (4:22/km).

My final full marathon of 2025 finished in 2:48:03.

Post-Race Reflections

As you can see, I finished in 2:48:03 (net). I had underestimated the pre-race chaos, missed the toilet, and had absolutely no warm-up.

Within a few hundred meters of the start, I ducked into a portable toilet, then spent the next stretch threading through the crowd. That cost me roughly 1.5 minutes.

Even accounting for that, I was only on track for around 2:46 — and with the rain making conditions difficult, that’s still not a result I’m satisfied with.

There are two things about this result that really frustrate me.

Failing to Peak at the Right Time

I had months to prepare for this race. But from late October, I hit a bad spell and picked up a foot injury, and I just couldn’t produce the times I needed in the road races that mattered.

No matter how good your training is, it doesn’t count if you can’t deliver on race day. The only race this year where I felt like I actually ran well was a team time trial in October. Everything else felt off.

There’s a clear problem in how I transition from base building to race-specific work. I keep carrying my base phase volume into the sharpening phase. Quality goes up, volume stays the same — the total load becomes too high and I can’t peak.

High Mileage, Disappointing Results

I consistently run around 500 km per month (approximately 310 miles/month). The fact that my race times don’t reflect that is genuinely frustrating — almost disappointing.

I think the reason is clear: I’m training with more load than I can recover from. No matter how many kilometers you log, if your body can’t adapt to the stress, you won’t get faster.

I thought I was monitoring my recovery from every angle — resting heart rate, sleep data, easy jog performance — carefully watching for any deviation from baseline.

But there are clearly things I’m missing. Maybe I’m too data-driven, trusting the numbers more than how my body actually feels.

If you’re reading this, you might also be one of those runners who puts in the work but can’t seem to see it reflected in race times. I’m in that group too.

But honestly, isn’t that what makes long-distance running interesting? Sure, there are elite amateur runners who clear 2:30 with apparent ease, but everyone hits a wall somewhere.

The 2:30–2:40 zone where I’ve been stuck feels like the crowded space where intermediate runners are trying to break through to the next level. I want to work through that with you — keep experimenting, keep improving, and get to sub-2:30 together.