14 km Imperial Palace and Olympic Park Run in Tokyo
After a long 13 hour flight, I was more than ready to get out and move my legs. And the run did not disappoint!
| Length: | 14 km |
| Elevation: | 417 m |
| Route type: | Loop |
| Pavement: | Road |
| How to get there: | The run starts and ends at Tokyo Station, a metro/train station that should be easy to get to from pretty much anywhere in Tokyo |
| How to shorten/extend run: | Shorten: You can do just a run around the palace, that would make it quite a bit shorter, like cut it in half. Extent: There is no obvious way to extend the run, other than running through a few more parts of Tokyo, or doing another loop around the palace. |
This run was heavily inspired by a post on japantravel.com, where they talk about the imperial palace route. I did that, and then some more.
I started out at Tokyo Station, one of the busier metro and railway stations in Tokyo. I ran west towards the imperial palace and then turned right to run around the palace counter clockwise… which apparently is required. I did not see any signs that I could read, but I also did not see a single runner running the other direction, while there are plenty of runners on the sidewalk!. After about 5 km, I went off the palace route and arrived at the Adidas RunBase Tokyo. I had read about the RunBase on japantravel.com, and it was a great find. I stopped there, and rented a pair of Adidas UltraBoost 19 for the next 6 km of my run. This allowed me to directly compare my current Adidas EnergyBoost with the new UltraBoost. I had never rented running shoes, and this was quite a unique experience.
With the new shoews, I ran around part of the Olympic Park that is being prepared for Tokyo’s 2020 summer games and then returned the shoes. I then finished the run by closing the palace loop and ending at Tokyo station.
Photos
