As at Lake Biwa up the road a ways, this was it for any Japanese women who wanted to make the 2020 Olympic marathon team and be one of the three to hopefully line up in Sapporo this summer. Like last week's Tokyo Marathon cut down from a mass-participation event to an elite-only race as a measure against the novel coronavirus, the Nagoya Women's Marathon had clear criteria to make the Olympic team: be the first Japanese woman across the finish line, and do it under the 2:21:47 that Mizuki Matsuda ran to win January's Osaka International Women's Marathon. Right after she won Matsuda said, "There's nobody else in the country who can beat that time." But there were some willing to try. Despite cold temperatures, rain and wind, from the gun the race was out on the hot side of a planned 3:20/km, 2:20:39 pace, and while the projected finish time fluctuated around 2:21 it never came within 20 seconds of Matsuda's mark and spent more its morning on the ...
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