The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
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I'm looking for running groups to join. I wondered if you had suggestions of running groups around the Tokyo area that welcome others to explore japan through running! Your help is much appreciated!
April
Namban Rengo is a good place to start if you are new to Japan as it is international in nature and free to newcomers. If you want something more Japanese, try Harriers, Restart or Second Wind, but all three of those are paid clubs with only Japanese-language staff. All four should come up with a google search.
I just moved to Shizuoka (closest city is Kakegawa) and I was just wondering if you knew of any running clubs or groups in the area that are more into long distance running.
Any advice on how I might go about finding a club in this area would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Maho
http://smileyangel-ac.com/
Hope that is helpful.