Takigahara SDF Base Unstoppable Again at Mt. Fuji Ekiden

For the 7th edition in a row, the Takigahara SDF Base team dominated the 48th Mt. Fuji Ekiden, a 11-stage, 48.19 km race up Mount Fuji and back down, with 3258 m elevation gain on the way up, 3199 m loss on the way down, every runner having to handle both an uphill and downhill leg, and the top men averaging 10:39/km on the steepest climb and as fast as 2:10/km on the steepest of the descent.

Takigahara faced challenges early on from last year's 8th-place Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment team and, in its debut, the pro Eldoreso team featuring 100 km NR holder Jumpei Yamaguchi. The anchor stage winner last year, Moriyama's Toshihiro Hayashi pulled off a rare double stage win this time, leading on the 6.54 km, 243 m uphill First Stage and winning the 4.88 km, 184 m downhill Eleventh Stage. Eldoreso's Takumi Kato duplicated that feat, winning the 4.64 km, 345 m uphill Second Stage and passing Moriyama to move into the overall lead, then winning the 4.64 km, 345 m downhill Tenth Stage.

But as the climb got steeper Takigahara's experience came into play. Last year's Third Stage winner Yoshiyuki Hara passed both Moriyama and Eldoreso to put Takigahara into the lead in stage-winning time, and from there they were untouchable. In thick cloud cover that limited vision to a few meters Takigahara's Yuya Kawasaki and Toru Miyahara won the Fourth and Fifth Stages, with 664 m and 1017 m climb the two steepest uphills of the race, putting them almost 7 minutes ahead of 2nd place.

Hara had the best placing of Takigahara's downhill runners at 3rd on the 4.44 km, 371 m descent Eighth Stage, but in the end Takigahara's winning time of 3:51:11 was 8:30 up on 2nd-placer Moriyama. Moriyama's performance was a major improvement on its 8th-place finish last year, its time 10:55 better than in 2022 compared with Takigahara running 5:15 slower. Another year of that and Moriyama could break Takigahara's hold on the event.

The Rumoi SDF Base team was 3rd again this year in 4:00:42, 1:54 slower than last year. Eldoreso's middle two runners Takashi Horiguchi and Kaito Iwasa struggled, dropping the team to 46th overall, leaving last year's 2nd-place club team Team Kibidango to take the top non-military spot at 10th in 4:08:14, a 4:12 improvement event though it lost one place from last year.

48th Mt. Fuji Ekiden

Mt. Fuji, 6 Aug. 2023

11 stages, 48.19 km, 3258 m ascent / 3199 m descent, 97 teams, 6 runners per team

complete results

Top Individual Stage Results

First Stage (6.54 km, 243 m gain)

Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) - 20:59 (3:13/km)

Second Stage (4.64 km, 345 m gain)

Takumi Kato (Eldoreso) - 18:15 (3:56/km)

Third Stage (4.54 km, 371 m gain)

Yoshiyuki Hara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 18:49 (4:09/km)

Fourth Stage (2.84 km, 664 m gain)

Yuya Kawasaki (Takigahara SDF Base) - 26:26 (9:35/km)

Fifth Stage (4.24 km, 1017 m gain)

Toru Miyahara (Takigahara SDF Base) - 45:08 (10:39/km)

Sixth Stage (4.92 km, 618 m gain to summit, 618 m loss)

Shotaro Nemoto (1st Airborne Brigade) - 41:04 (8:21/km)

Seventh Stage (3.66 km, 1017 m loss)

Tomoki Ito (18th Infantry Regiment) - 7:54 (2:10/km)

Eighth Stage (2.59 km, 664 m loss)

Kazuki Isobe (Itazuma 34th Regiment) - 6:52 (2:39/km)

Ninth Stage (4.44 km, 371 m loss)

Takato Azechi (Eldoreso) - 11:27 (2:35/km)

Tenth Stage (4.64 km, 345 m loss)

Takumi Kato (Eldoreso) - 11:34 (2:30/km)

Eleventh Stage (4.88 km, 184 m loss)

Toshihiro Hayashi (Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment) - 15:33 (3:11/km)

Top Team Results

1. Takigahara SDF Base - 3:51:11

2. Moriyama 35th Infantry Regiment - 3:59:41

3. Rumoi SDF Base - 4:00:42

4. 1st Airborne Brigade - 4:00:42

5. 2nd Infantry Regiment - 4:04:31

6. Kokubun SDF Base - 4:04:49

7. Nerima 1st Infantry Regiment - 4:05:17

8. 18th Infantry Regiment - 4:05:35

9. Engaru SDF Base - 4:05:58

10. Team Kibidango - 4:08:14

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

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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How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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