The Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is the most overlooked part of Japan's late winter marathon season, far from the nearest airports in the Asahi Kasei corporate team's remote hometown of Nobeoka, Miyazaki. Traditionally it's a race for people debuting or at the end of their career, but with Beppu-Oita, Osaka and Tokyo all catering to way faster times it's also now the best choice in the season for people looking for a race where they can run 2:09-2:11. New Zealand's Caden Shields found that out last year when he came to what ended up being a 2:09:43 race won by Jin Yuasa and finished 5th in a 2:11:35 PB. This time around Nobeoka counts toward qualification for the L.A. Olympic trials marathon in the fall of 2027, already the only thing anybody in the system here cares about, so pacing up front will be aimed to hit the sub-2:09 criterion for the winner to qualify. The field is the usual mix of people on both ends of the career spectrum, 2:08 PB runners Daiji Kaw...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007