Takigahara SDF Base Wins Mt. Fuji Ekiden Again

Along with Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden another midsummer classic returned Sunday after cancelations in 2020 and 2021, the 47th edition of the Mt. Fuji Ekiden. An eleven-stage race featuring 82 teams of six, the Mt. Fuji Ekiden sees the first five runners on each team work their way up the slopes of Mt. Fuji, first on roads and then on trails. The sixth runners climbs the final few kilometers to the summit 3258 m above the race's starting point, has his tasuki sash stamped by a priest at the shrine waiting there, then begins the descent.

The first five runners then have to each a second time, downhill this time. Some of the downhill stages are wild, with powdery gravel covering steep slopes, and scenes like this one from 2014 at the exchange from the Seventh to Eighth Stage, are legendary. Spectators make the climb to the exchange zones just to see it happen. Doesn't it look like fun?

The video up top is from the last edition in 2019, when the Takigahara SDF Base scored a fifth-straight win. When the city of Gotemba uploads a highlights video from this year it'll be added, but what you'll see is a double threepeat from Takigahara, with the unstoppable base team covering the full 48.19 km roundtrip course in 3:45:56 to the top position for the sixth time in a row. Military teams went 1st through 6th, the top club team being 2019's top club the Shimizu Running Club at 7th in 4:05:44.

Average pace per km for stage winners went as slow as 10:19/km on the ascent and as fast as 2:07/km on the descending version of the same stage. Former Aoyama Gakuin University star Yuhi Akiyama (Top Gear), Toru Miyahara (Takigahara SDF Base), Hitoshi Okuhira (Kokubun SDF Base) and Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) came close, but this year nobody pulled off the holy grail Mt. Fuji double of winning both their uphill and downhill stages. Complete results from the SDF base division are here, with club team results here.

You hate to overuse the word iconic, but what could be more iconic than an ekiden up and down Mt. Fuji? It's almost a given that the organizers don't think that way, but this seems like a race that would be a prime choice for a top international team that wanted to come and give an ekiden a go. Maybe next year, or three years down the road at the 50th.

47th Mt. Fuji Ekiden

Mt. Fuji, 7 Aug. 2022

11 stages, 48.19 km, 3258 m ascent/3199 m descent, 82 teams, 6 runners per team

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (6.54 km, 243 m ascent)

Yuhi Akiyama (Top Gear) - 20:55 (3:12/km)

Second Stage (4.64 km, 345 m ascent)

Shota Kobayashi (Takigahara SDF Base) - 18:21 (3:57/km)

Third Stage (4.54 km, 371 m ascent)

Yoshiyuki Hara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 18:24 (4:03/km)

Fourth Stage (2.84 km, 664 m ascent)

Tatsuya Itagaki (Kannami RC) - 26:35 (9:22/km)

Fifth Stage (4.24 km, 1017 m ascent)

Toru Miyahara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 43:45 (10:19km)

Sixth Stage (4.92 km, 618 m ascent to summit, 618 m descent)

Ryuichi Sato (Rumoi SDF Base) - 41:20 (8:24/km)

Seventh Stage (3.66 km, 1017 m descent)

Tomoki Ito (18th Infantry Regiment) - 7:45 (2:07/km)

Eighth Stage (2.59 km, 664 m descent)

Ryota Yuzawa (Takigahara SDF Base) - 6:38 (2:34/km)

Ninth Stage (4.44 km, 371 m descent)

Hitoshi Okuhira (Kokubun SDF Base) - 11:48 (2:39/km)

Tenth Stage (4.64 km, 345 m descent)

Yoshiki Murase (2nd Infantry Regiment) - 11:55 (2:34/km)

Eleventh Stage (4.88 km, 184 m descent)

Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) - 15:37 (3:12/km)

Top Team Results

1. Takigahara SDF Base - 3:45:56

2. 2nd Infantry Regiment - 3:58:00

3. Rumoi SDF Base - 3:58:48

4. Kokubun SDF Base - 4:01:11

5. 1st Airborne Brigade - 4:02:16

6. Nerima 1st Infantry Regiment - 4:04:27

7. Shimizu Running Club - 4:05:44

8. Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment - 4:10:36

9. Team Kibidango - 4:12:26

10. Hachioji Fujimori Running Club - 4:15:02

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

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How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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