Weekend Road and Track Streaming and Preview

With championship ekiden season right around the corner there aren’t many weekends this time of year that aren’t busy ones in Japan. This one is another one. Saturday is the 85th Tango University Ekiden in Kyoto, the 8-stage, 74.4 km season-ender for Kansai Region university teams.

This year a few of them had the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden qualifier in October to try to achieve the hopeless task of beating even one Kanto Region team for a spot at the 100th Hakone in January, but with none achieving that goal they’re back for their own regional championship. It’s an interesting situation as some teams like Ritsumeikan University and Kantaiheiyo University just made the challenging Hakone qualifier - National University Ekiden double, and others like Kwansei Gakuin University opted to focus everything this season on a Tango win. And this time there’s actually a Kanto Region interloper in the form of powerhouse Aoyama Gakuin University, making a special one-time appearance at Tango without counting in the standings. Streaming is scheduled to start here at 8:20 a.m. Saturday local time.

The main race on Sunday is the legendary Ageo City Half Marathon in Saitama, the race that virtually all Hakone-bound teams except Aoyama Gakuin use to thin down the ranks of contenders on their roster for the final Hakone lineup. Hundreds of collegiate men run times that would win a lot of other half marathons, with the top two Japanese collegians earning an invitation to March’s United Airlines NYC Half in a program set up by JRN. The race has become a go-to in Asia for people looking to break a national record, and this year marathoner Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh will be taking a shot at the Mongolian women’s NR as a tune-up for December’s Taipei City Marathon. Streaming will be on the Teletama Youtube channel starting 9:00 a.m. local time Sunday. As always, JRN will be on-site in Ageo from the lead car.

Also Sunday at Tokyo’s National Stadium, hundreds of other collegians will be running a series of 10000 m time trials put on by Hakone organizers KGRR. Just a few years ago it was a big enough deal for someone to break 29 minutes that the KGRR offered scholarship money to anyone who did it at this meet, but it’s a sign of how much things have changed that the fastest men’s heat is set to go at 27:45 pace this time. There are also 3 women’s heats along with the 10 men’s heats, so expect fast times there too. Streaming starts above at 11:15 a.m. Sunday.

Less of an elite race, especially since the pandemic hit, the Kobe Marathon Sunday actually features a decent men’s field with current sub-2:10 runners Hamza Sahli (Morocco), Wilfred Kimitei (Kenya), Barnaba Kipkoech (Kenya) and Junichi Tsubouchi (Japan/Kurosaki Harima). The women’s field is weaker, with no internationals and only two Japanese women who have run under 2:40, late-career veterans Misato Horie (Sysmex) and Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita).

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

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