Skip to main content

Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line Marathon Set for March 2010

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/trend/090528/trd0905282331012-n1.htm

translated by Brett Larner



On May 28 Chiba Prefecture governor Kensaku Morita announced plans for the Aqua-Line Marathon, a new race which will join Chiba with the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture via the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line bridge and tunnel system. Details are currently under discussion in conjunction with Kanagawa Prefecture governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa.

The first running of the new marathon is planned for March next year and will accept 20,000-30,000 runners. Current plans call for the race, which will include both a half marathon and full marathon, to start and finish at Chiba's Sodegaura Civic Sports Complex. Runners in the half marathon will turn around at the Aqua-Line's Umehotaru parking area, while marathoners will travel through the Aqua-Line's tunnel to Ukishima in Kawasaki before returning to Chiba. Both prefectures intend to work together to make the plan a reality.

Although many details such as the interruption of traffic flow on the Aqua-Line system have yet to be worked out, if the race is successfully launched it may surpass the Tokyo Marathon as the largest marathon in the country. Governor Matsuzawa commented, "I'd like to run it too."

Translator's note: The above video shows what will be the second half of the marathon course. According to the Wikipedia article linked above, the tunnel section of the Aqua-Line is 9.6 km long, the longest underwater automobile tunnel in the world. This means that after cresting the bridge's 30 m high span in the first 10 km, marathoners will run the next 10 km in a tunnel 60 m under the water, surface briefly in Kawasaki, turn around, run another 10 km through the tunnel, then climb the bridge again in the final 10 km before finishing back in Chiba. The above-water sections will be exposed on all sides to the winds on the bay, which can be considerable in March.

Comments

Brett Larner said…
More sensory deprivation is just what the marathon needed.
Roberto said…
Some years ago I ran a shorter (5K, maybe?) tunnel race in Hong Kong. I was at the front and didn't experience any problems, but I was told that in the mass pack, the air temperature inside the tunnel really skyrocketed (very quickly). All that body heat, in a space not designed to diffuse heat quickly. Interesting, and very likely not considered by the Aqua-Line race organizers ...

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...