by Brett Larner Japan is unique in having one of the most highly-developed elite running systems in the world, an enormous and growing population of amateur runners, and mass popularity among the general public in elite racing as a spectator sport. But like anywhere else there is separation between those elite and amateur worlds, the university and corporate teams, out of sight except for their televised races and rarely interacting with the public. A university-aged pacer in a blue and white Otona no Time Trial singlet leads amateur runners in an early heat. One feature of the elite circuit is the time trial meet. Time trial meets are day- or weekend-long series of long-distance track races finely graded by target time. The largest of the them, Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials series, had 45 heats of 5000 m in 14 hours in one edition last year, each heat with 30-40 runners ranging from serious amateurs in the early heats to Olympians and national ...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007