Entry

I registered my application for Tokyo Marathon at last together with my wife yesterday on the Internet.
In the registration form, there was a question box asking our fastest marathon time. Since we have never run a full marathon, I wrote my wishful thinking of 6 hours. Following the question was another question asking our target time. So I made it 30 minutes shorter off the top of my head and wrote 5 and half hours. Why asking those questions? Is there any preferred treatment for us slow runners? No hope. It says entrants will be selected by random lottery drawing if the number of subscribers exceeds that of their planning. But I wonder if they carry out the lottery completely randomly. I suspect there will be some operation of the lottery to evenly distribute, say, age groups or a better mix of fast and slow runners. That's what the authorities always do. I hate this kind of intentional balancing.
I knew that we had to run the whole 42.195 km within 7 hours. But I didn't know there was cut-off times at each check point. It means that we need to pass through each check point before the cutoff time or we must end the marathon. It makes sense considering limited time of traffic control and security operation. Roughly speaking we have to run 5 km within 45 minutes which is a bit harder than running 42.195 km within 7 hours. Anyway my goal is to run the whole distance; no disqualification by the cutoff times. Our training will be only gaining momentum after the lottery result is notified to us in the middle of March 2009. By that time we will have to extend the distance of our daily jogging from 3 km to a somewhat longer milage... after it gets cooler... It's not a comfortable season to run... This is how I always put off things until I am really pressed^^