9th at the season-opening Izumo Ekiden and 8th earlier this month at the National University Ekiden Championships, Toyo University ran Sunday's Koedo Kawagoe Half Marathon as a workout in prep for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, where they hope to place among the top teams. 4th-year Yusuke Kodama took 1st in 1:03:52. Former H.S. 5000 m NR holder Kosuke Ishida was 2nd in 1:04:00 in his debut, with Takaya Kumazaki making it a Toyo sweep of the top 3 in 1:04:03.
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Toyo runners took 9 of the top 10 places. All of them ran in thin shoes instead of Nike's thick carbon plate racing shoes. Despite that, the course's countless undulations, and windy conditions, all of the top placers finished within their target time range. Head coach Toshiyuki Sakai explained, "As part of the process for adapting to using thick shoes, today we didn't use them. In comparison to the thick shoes, this this impacted their level of fatigue." Winner Kodama understood what Sakai was after, saying, "We were told that today we wouldn't be able to use the shoes to just ride along in comfort."
The First Stage at the 2022 Hakone Ekiden was unusually high-level, and Kodama was 12th there. He had expected better performances this season, but at Izumo he was 13th on the First Stage and at Nationals 10th on the Third Stage. "It's my last Hakone Ekiden, so personally I want to give winning the First Stage another shot," he said. "But I'm prepared to run whatever stage on whichever day gives the team the best chance."
In his rookie season last year Ishida won the Fifth Stage at Izumo and the Fourth Stage at Nationals. But at Hakone he didn't make Toyo's starting roster. He's highly motivated to make his Hakone debut this season. Kawagoe was his first time running a half marathon. "I did the bare minimum here today," he said. "My runs at Izumo and Nationals this year didn't help the team at all, but I'll definitely make up for that at Hakone. Coach Sakai was optimistic about Ishida's chances, commenting, "He's the kind of runner who belongs on a Day One leg."
Third-year Kazuki Matsuyama ran Hakone's most competitive leg, the Second Stage, his first and second years, placing 4th and 5th. In late August he got injured, resulting in him missing this season's Izumo and Nationals. He was also a DNS in Kawagoe. "He is back to training, finally," said coach Sakai. "There's a possibility he'll be on Second again, but also that he'll be switched to another leg. Or that he won't run."
Toyo is based in Kawagoe. After the half marathon, team members ran the 5 km back to their dorm as a cooldown. With this race behind them, all that is left is the last stretch of training focused entirely on the team's 81st appearance at the Hakone Ekiden.
Translator's note: This is the second article in a week about people choosing not to use carbon plate shoes. Too early to call this a trend, but it's interesting.
translated by Brett Larner
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