japan running news

Best-known for taking on a solo 100-miler around a single tree along a riverbank near his home in the early weeks of the pandemic, ultra runner Goshi Osada  was back at it this week with another solo challenge. This time Osada tackled western Tokyo's Mount Takao, a popular recreational trail hike peaking out at 599 m.  Starting on Monday, Osada attempted 50 consecutive round trips of a 4 km loop up and down the mountain, starting at around 240 m, going to the summit, and back down. Running through the night and covering each lap of the partially snow-covered course in about 50 minutes, he completed the 50th lap late Wednesday night for a total distance of 200 km with 18,000 m total climb and double that for total elevation change.  Osada estimated that he slept for a total of 5 hours over the three days and burned over 21,000 kcal. "I was constantly refueling," he said. Post-run he told JRN, "Over the last two years all the races I'd been targeting were canceled...

Last weekend saw what will probably end up as one of the best distance running performances of 2020. In Tokyo's western suburbs, on a riverbank, around a tree, for 54 hours and 40 minutes, 25-year-old Goshi Osada ran 10,667 laps of a 15 m trail with 1 m difference between its highest and lowest points, covering 100 miles, just over 160 km, and climbing higher than Mount Everest and back down en route. Post-run JRN talked to Osada, a rising name on the trail ultra scene in Japan and Asia, about the why and how. Looking at your history, it looks like you started doing ultras after graduating from university. I started doing trail running during the summer of my senior year at Tokyo Kokusai University. The runs were really short in the beginning, about 20 or 30 km. From there I started building up the distance to the point where I could do high-level races, and that’s where I am now after four years. In university were you doing ekidens and track and field? Yes, I used to ...