Skip to main content

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Reia Iwade

Reia Iwade

age: 24
sponsor: Under Armour
graduated from: Toyokawa H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:23:52, 5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

PB: 2:23:52, 5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:42.50 (2015) 10000 m: 32:13.21 (2015) half marathon: 1:09:45 (U20 NR, 2013)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:23:52 – PB
4th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:26:28
5th, 2017 Sendai International Marathon, 2:31:11

other major results:
1st, 2019 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:09:46
6th, 2018 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:13:11
9th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:35
4th, 2016 Berlin Marathon, 2:28:16
5th, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:38
5th, 2016 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:53
7th, 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:29:16
3rd, 2015 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:13
3rd, 2014 Yokohama Women’s Marathon, 2:27:21
4th, 2013 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:45 – PB, U20 NR

Iwade was a teenage wunderkind, going straight from high school to a 1:09:45 half marathon U20 national record right after her 19th birthday in 2013 and on to a 2:27:21 marathon right before her 20th. Japanese women who excel that young rarely last, but in the years after that Iwade made progress, first as part of the Noritz corporate team and then as an independent sponsored by Under Armour.

At last year’s Nagoya Women’s Marathon Iwade qualified for the MGC Race with a 2:26:28 for 4th. This year she came out strong, winning the Osaka Half Marathon 1 second off her PB in 1:09:46 in January and then running the fastest Japanese women’s time of the year so far, a 2:23:52 PB, for 5th in Nagoya. Since then she has focused on training with male training partners, tweeting this week that her last 40 km training run before the MGC Race was the fastest she’d ever done, better than before Nagoya.

The only woman in the field operating outside the corporate team system, with everything seeming to line up perfectly Iwade has to be seen as one of the three heavy favorites to make the team come Sept. 15.

Next profile: Chihiro Miyawaki (Toyota).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
photo © 2016 Dr. Helmut Winter, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...