by Brett Larner It's the best time of year for distance running fans in Japan: time for the Hakone Ekiden . Hakone is the championship event for Kanto region-based university men's teams, essentially those in the Tokyo area. The race covers 217.9 km in ten stages spread over two days on Jan. 2 and 3 every year. But it is much more than a regional university race. The race is broadcast live nationwide, fifteen hours of coverage between the two days, with nationwide viewership ratings of 30%. Hakone runners are respected more than any others but Japan's Olympic marathon medalists and have a degree of fame pros in other countries can only imagine. Now in its 86th year, more than any other race the Hakone Ekiden is engrossing, dramatic, and symbolizes what is good about distance running. So much so that it has become a problem for Japanese men's marathoning, where performances have waned over the last few years just as performances at Hakone and related races have waxed to ...
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