Video by Lem Fugitt

This is just a quick update on the Tokyo Marathon – it was a huge success!

I’m not going into details now as I’m pretty tired 🙂 but basically:

I ran with my good friend Tom Kobayashi, without whom I never would have taken up running. He’s been amazing throughout our 16 week training program, and today also for the real thing. We lost each other at one point; I was so happy when we met up again by chance.

Our team, led by the very generous, kind mobile-tech pro Steve Nagata at the UStream controls, pulled off a live-streaming sensation. He was joined in our makeshift studio by Technology trainer Christine. We had 4 teams at various locations around the course (see below), who used the GPS signal that one of my iPhones was broadcasting to locate me. I would then be phoned when I was nearing them so I could look out for them.

I also had my own live video stream, broadcasting non-stop from *Twinkle*s brand new iPhone. Initially attached to my special hat, this fell apart after 1km so I carried it the remaining 41km! This live stream was picked up on Twitter, and by the end I was getting 1000 Twitter replies an hour referring to it, and supporting us …as the pain intensified!

Fuji TV, who’d spotted me the day before when I was recording a video diary, interviewed me before, during and after the race. They even filmed me as I phoned mum and dad having reached the goal! That’ll be broadcast tomorrow morning.

MX  Tokyo (TV) will feature the story in their news tomorrow night at 8pm.

There’s an article on the broadcast in the influential IT Media News.

We had a couple of thousand people watching the combined streams by the end. It was all quite overwhelming.

In total, over 13,000 people watched our live videos.

We finished in just over five hours. The rain and cold had taken their toll!

Despite the weather, our mobile live-broadcast teams did a fantastic job of capturing the action.

Team 1:
Pietro Zuco @drzuco Website Flickr
Pepi Valderrama Twitter Webpage

Team 2:
Jonny Li Twitter Website Flickr
Oren the Red Twitter Flickr

Reporter 3
Lem Fugitt Twitter Webpage 1 Webpage 2

Team 4
Nami and Phil Twitter (Nami)

We also had assistance from Glympse and the developer of Tweettalk

…and a lot of other people in one way or another. I’m deeply indebted to you all.

Here’s a little message I recorded a few moments ago:

Joseph