This is my first marathon this year, the most prestigious marathon that I have ever participated in, it is also one of Asia's largest marathon and the thought of running the same route with the world elites that can finish the race in sub 2:10hrs really excites me. It will be an honour if I could catch a glimpse of the current full marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (2:03:59) in the race (sad that he eventually withdraw from the race due to injury).
※検索できる記録は速報のため参考タイムとなります。
Time records are unofficial and for reference purpose only.
Having trained for 11 weeks with hardly any distractions I had high hopes of getting another Full Marathon PB since December 2009 Chiangmai Marathon. Before the race I was pondering on how to go about with the splits, should I go for a negative spits of every 10k at 5:30 pace and up my pace of 5secs on every 10k lap? Well, I finally settled for a 5k per lap splits with 5secs cut down per lap.
It was cold while waiting for the race to start at 10:10am, (Singapore time 9:10am). It is so far the coldest race that I have ever took part in, at about 11 degree Celsius it is colder then Taroko and Chiangmai which were 17 and 14 degrees Celsius respectively.
With all runners placed at their respective start point categorized from A to F. I was cold and alone in category D who is expect to finish the race in 4 hours. At least I could still see the start point some 150m away. The atmosphere around Tokyo Metropolitan Government building was great but just too bad that I could not understand enough Japanese perhaps just enough to know everyone is counting down, feeling excited as my adrenaline rises with the count down.
With clear skies and great weather soon the race finally started, and in the crowd of 32000 runners it took me about 3 minutes before I finally reaches the start line and there goes the start of my long awaited race. I tried to relax and run at an easy pace but to my surprise and without realizing my easy effort was already 5:06min/km for the first 1 km. With that I decide to change my race strategy as I knew I have more energy level within, instead I will go for an even pace of 5:00min/km throughout.
Really enjoy my run as along the way the crowd were great with their support, everywhere you could hear loud cheering of 'Gambateh' and also with lots of food been offered, what a great occasion it was. Very soon unknowingly I soon reaches the 10km mark comfortably in less then 50mins, it was where I met a Canadian who was aiming for a 3:30 finish, we chatted about the marathon, I was told that this year was great unlike last year where it was raining. It was nice to chat while we were running and pacing each other, it lasted for about 7km before he needed to go for a toilet break. I was running alone again but was still doing fine until it was my turn at about the 19km mark for a break. As soon as I was done I up my pace a little to make up for any loss time before returning to my usual pace again.
The next 10km was more of a run with sightseeing for me, felt tempted to stop for some nice looking food offered by the crowd :p. Glad to have pass the 30km mark but soon after 32km I started to feel tired, especially my legs as I needed more effort to keep up with my pace and as usual I would tired to lookout for runners to keep pace with.
As usual the journey from 35km onward was really tough, tired legs and low energy level, hard as I tried to keep up with my 5:00 pace, it was no longer possible, except for a downslope run somewhere around the 38km mark. The last 3km was a torture, glad I was cheered on by a Japanese supporter who reminded me 三キロ! 頑張って! (3km! Gambateh!), I was "dying" but still managed show him a thumbs up.
My last 2km's pace was way out between 5:20 - 5:30, it was only after I finally crosses the 42km mark with 195m to go that I somehow had new found energy to go all out, and with arms raised and my expression says it all on how I felt, feeling so relief, glad and happy the moment when I crosses the finishing line.
It was a great PB from 3:48 to 3:33 (slashing 15mins off), all the trainings were reaping results. The race strategy of 5:00 even pace was great and it paid off as based on my Garmin my average pace is 4:56 from 43.27km. It was a satisfying achievement despite my last minute change of race strategy and based on Garmin it could have been a 3.28.09 finish if the distance is 42.195km instead.
東京マラソン2011
開催日(Date)：2011/02/27
ナンバー(Bib number)：26660
氏名(Name)：GOH HIONG HONG KENNETH
種目(Category)：マラソン男子
| 地点名 | スプリット (ネットタイム) | ラップ | 通過時間 |
| 5km | 00:28:58 (0:25:22) | 0:25:22 | 09:38:58 |
| 10km | 00:53:36 (0:50:00) | 0:24:38 | 10:03:36 |
| 15km | 01:17:38 (1:14:02) | 0:24:02 | 10:27:38 |
| 20km | 01:42:31 (1:38:55) | 0:24:53 | 10:52:31 |
| 25km | 02:06:40 (2:03:04) | 0:24:09 | 11:16:40 |
| 30km | 02:31:57 (2:28:21) | 0:25:17 | 11:41:57 |
| 35km | 02:58:02 (2:54:26) | 0:26:05 | 12:08:02 |
| 40km | 03:25:17 (3:21:41) | 0:27:15 | 12:35:17 |
| Finish | 03:37:09 (3:33:33) | 0:11:52 | 12:47:09 |
※検索できる記録は速報のため参考タイムとなります。
Time records are unofficial and for reference purpose only.
※検索できる記録は速報のため参考タイムとなります。 Time records are unofficial and for reference purpose only. 
| TOKYO MARATHON 2011 Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Champion’s Data | Events | Name | Nationality / Club | Official Time |
| Marathon Champions | Men | MEKONNEN, Hailu | Ethiopia | 2:07:35 |
| Women | ARYASOVA, Tatiana | Russia | 2:27:29 | |
| Men's Wheelchair | SOEJIMA, Masazumi | C's athletes | 1:25:38 | |
| Women's Wheelchair | TSUCHIDA, Wakako | Sanofi·Aventis | 1:40:08 | |
| 10km Champions | Men | MINO, Takashi | Chiba | 0:32:18 |
| Women | IYOTA, Ayumi | Ibaraki | 0:43:38 | |
| Wheelchair (Men) | SHOJI, Kazuhiro | Ibaraki | 0:24:29 | |
| Wheelchair (Women) | - | - | - | |
| Visually impaired Athletes Men | YAGI, Yohei | Tokyo | 0:46:35 | |
| Visually impaired Athletes Women | MIYAGI, Yoshiko | Saitama | 0:52:26 | |
| Intellectually impaired Athletes Men | TAKADA, Taishi | Saitama | 0:37:20 | |
| Intellectually impaired Athletes Women | YUKINAGA, Nao | Saitama | 0:45:37 | |
| Transplant Athletes Men | MORIYA, Hidemi | Tokyo | 0:44:04 | |
| Transplant Athletes Women | INUI, Mariko | Tokyo | 1:01:49 |
