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Hakone Dreams Unrealized - JRNPremium Issue Five

JRNPremium has returned from summer vacation with issue five. July and August are the peak of the gashuku season, the intensive summer training camps which are one of the hallmarks of Japanese distance training for both its university and corporate athletes. In this issue we bring you an interview with Eiji Kobayashi, a former Josai University runner who talks about gashuku, injury, and not realizing the dream of making the Hakone Ekiden. Kobayashi talks in detail about the kind of training top Hakone runners put themselves through complete with detailed daily training menus from his time on Josai's ekiden team, about the mental and physical toll on those trying for the Pyrrhic victory of a spot on their school's Hakone squad, and about the injuries that cost him his dream.

For all that you hear from those who succeed sometimes there is more to be learned from those give it everything they have and fail. Nowhere is this more true than among those trying to become one of the lucky few to run the world's most competitive university men's race, the Hakone Ekiden. It's a one-of-a-kind look inside, and available only to subscribers to JRNPremium, our regular series of in-depth interviews. For more information on subscribing, click here. Subscribers click here to log on.

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How it Happened

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