The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
It's about 2 1/2 hours til the start of the Tokyo Marathon. I don't think it's going to be a fast day - it's 14 degrees C and cloudy, but winds are about 35 km/hr and from the south so on the course there will be a headwind from 8 to 15 km and again most of the way from ~27.5 km to the end. There's supposed to be a storm later in the day, but before that it's going to get warmer and windier.
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Thanks for all of the leadup to this race!