by Brett Larner Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10. A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate to return to the top. Anchor Mai Shinozuka had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba. Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in ra...
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