The Tokyo Marathon Foundation announced today that it's launching a new elite and mass-participation half marathon on Oct. 16, The Tokyo Legacy Half, with a field of 15,000 and a price tag to match, 20,700 yen for the privilege of starting and finishing in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. The course follows a scaled-back version of the MGC and Paralympic marathon courses, downhill at the start, turning around at Nihonbashi and the Imperial Palace, then back up the hill to the stadium. Entries for the first year will be restricted to Japan-only, at least for the mass-participation field, with the note that they might open it up to international tour groups later. More info including course map and elevation here.
When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...

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