On Feb. 7 the Himeji Castle Marathon announced that it has been canceled for the third year in a row. A total of 6200 people had been entered to run in the full marathon and accompanying fun runs on Feb. 27, but with no end in sight to the rise of new cases in the coronavirus' 6th wave organizers were forced to cancel. Runners who had already done almost all of their training and local residents who had been excited about the race's return could only shrug their disappointment off with a sigh.
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"Up until a few weeks ago I really thought I was going to get to run this time," said a 54-year-old local resident who had been entered. "The course is mostly flat and very easy to run, so this was a very popular race. I might do the virtual race instead, but I want to see if my friends are going to do it too first."
Another entrant, a 42-year-old who owns a specialty shop making shoe insoles, has been training hard since December in the belief that the race would happen. "I kind of expected it to canceled too since lots of other races around the same time have been canceled, but still, it's really disappointing. I haven't been able to run a full marathon for almost two and a half years, so it's getting hard to stay motivated."
Akiyuki Kinugasa, 60, head of a local agricultural co-op that tends bright yellow rapeseed fields along the course to welcome passing runners, shook his head in disappointment, saying "The fields are in full bloom this year. All we can do now is plant them again for next year."
Mayor Hidemasu Kiyomoto, 58, commented, "Our priority is to protect the well-being of our citizens. The burden on our medical services from COVID is projected to be even higher at the time of the race, so it was my personal responsibility to make the final decision to cancel."
Translator's note: In its last edition in 2019 the Himeji Castle Marathon had 6,938 finishers.
translated by Brett Larner
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