FKT: Logan Phillips - Tokyo Tree Trek - 2023-03-29

I climbed up the stairs at Shinagawa Shrine, gave a quick prayer, and started the Tokyo Tree Trek run at 6:35 a.m. It was a perfect morning for running. The air was cool and crisp with low humidity. I preloaded the route onto my Garmin but before 5 minutes had even passed I had already made a wrong turn. Throughout the run, there were so many back streets that had two or three different roads that angle off it was difficult to tell which way my Garmin was telling me to go. Considering the complexity of the course and my first time attempting it, I am ok with the number of navigation mistakes I made. I would guess in total they probably added 7-10 minutes to my overall time. I passed several small green spots and parks until I made it to the first major spot, Yoyogi Park. At Yoyogi Park, I used the public restroom and a fountain to get some water. From there I headed towards Shinjuku Gyoen. Everybody there was out to see the cherry blossoms in the park. The street in front of the park was incredibly crowded. From there I headed towards Bunkyo and Ueno. There were a few parks I ran past, climbed mini Mt. Fuji, and I especially enjoyed the view of all the cherry blossoms along the Kanda River. I made it to Ueno Park around 10:15 a.m. This was the most crowded area of the whole course and during the time I was there, there was almost no room to run. Continuing heading east I went through Asakusa and hit the Sumida River and ran along the river for several kilometers. This should have been a good fast spot, it's flat, it has plenty of space for pedestrian traffic, and most importantly no crosswalks to stop at and wait for the green light. However, my legs felt like rocks and I couldn’t take advantage of that section. When I finished running along the river there were only about  14km left. Aerobically, I felt I could keep going all day, but all the stopping and getting back up to speed took a lot more out of my legs than I thought it would. I stopped one last time at a park to fill up a water bottle at a drinking fountain and slowly made my way toward the Imperial Palace. From the Sakurada-mon Gate in front of the Imperial Palace onward, running wasn’t allowed so for the last few hundred meters I speed-walked until the end. It was a fun course through Tokyo. It takes some careful navigation skills and some luck with crosswalks.