10X Half Marathon Round Trip: Possibly the Most Iconic Event in the Japanese New Year

Rice cake, Japanese Shinto shrine, special meals for New Years Day (Osechi), etc. We can have lots of fun in a few days since the beginning of the new year. Yet, is that all? Are there other ways to have great days without taking too much carb and fat, and visiting too busy traditional landmarks to get something like charms? For those issues, we have a fantastic solution. Especially if you are a sports freak, we are sure you can’t move at all from TV for two days (you might be frustrated even for your kidney; there would be no time to pee). That event, so-called Hakone Ekiden, would make your first few days of the year wonderful if Japanese TV would available for you.

If you are a big fan of Japan, You would know the Name of Hakone, one of the most popular Japanese spa resorts. You’ll get envious eyes from your Japanese friends if you spend your new year’s day high-quality Japanese inn in Hakone. Also, when you have a gorgeous time there, you’ll see a strange scene; young Japanese (sometimes non-Japanese) runners run across the inns and climb up to the lake Ashi at the top of Hakone. I want you to remember that Lake Ashi is about 800m in height above the sea. So, needless to say, it is cold. the temperature can be around zero even in the daytime. However, since that crazy workout is a part of the competition, they never have heat packs. Instead of something to make them warm, they have a sash with the name of their University. This is a kind of icon of Hakone’s new year: tourists with warm clothes cheer up runners challenging against the incredibly hard way to the goal. Yet, still, why do students do that? when did it get started? And why?

This climbing workout is just a part of the big race from the city center of Tokyo, more Than 100km away from Hakone. This long journey between Tokyo and the edge of the Kanto region is divided into five sections (each of them has almost the same (sometimes longer) distance as that of a half marathon). Five student runners head to Hakone on the second day of January, and the other five runners return to Tokyo, doing reverse runs on the same sections as the previous day (this means the 6th runners, starts from the Lake Ashi, would run down by more than 800m!). This round-trip competition has been held every year since more than a century ago, even after the ww2!

Reminder: all runners are university students, not professional athletes. Nevertheless, each team has 16 runners (It includes reserve members) capable to run half marathon with a stable pace faster than 3mins/km. Isn’t that amazing? Although each of the Japanese long-distance runners is, as an individual, not enough to compete in international meetings against (mainly) African runners, I believe the average level of runners participating in this traditional competition would be pretty great.

After the establishment of Hakone Ekiden in 1920 with the ambitious vision; raising Japanese runners enough to work against foreign athletes, this meeting has sent out lots of Olympians, even to the 2020 Games in Tokyo, with making the founders’ wish come true. Not only for the athletes, but also spectators like me, this meeting is a kind of drama, dream, and exciting festival at the beginning of New Year. Even in the great difficulties soon after WW2, and Great Tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, students run with their sash. This continuity would be what express the uniqueness of this Ekiden the most.

Running is, of course, a good workout for our health. If you should have a chance to see that game via YouTube (hopefully via the real-time broadcast), you would add one component to your review of the word “running”; the most suitable and beautiful way to express passions, bonds, and beauty included within human beings. It’s not just a student meeting. It could be like a grandiose drama that shows us what humans are.