Marathon in Japan is Achievable, and isn’t always 26.2 miles

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If you’ve checked out my About page, you know that I’ve done a fair amount of running.  Even if I’m not the fastest, racing has always been fun for me.  I like setting a goal and accomplishing it.  With friends, even better. When I moved to Japan, I needed my fix.  Though much the same, sometimes it’s tricky to figure out how to enter a marathon in Japan. Then you add in the confusion that not all marathons in Japan are what you imagine.

[Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July of 2018 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.]

When a Marathon isn’t a Marathon

First of all, if you see advertisements at the train station or in town, don’t let them fool you.  Sometimes, a marathon in Japan is NOT a marathon.  Which is kind of a plus for all my friends that say they’d rather die than think about running races in Japan, let alone a marathon.  Come on over to Japan, you can run a “marathon” that’s only a 10K.  Hell, I think I’ve seen them as 5K before. 

Not as much of a stretch, the Yokosuka Seaside Marathon, which was my first road race in Japan tops out at a half marathon distance. It’s an out and back course along the water with quite a lot of participants. Bonus when you can walk to the start of the course, makes the morning not so early!

Don’t worry, if the distance you are looking for is a marathon in Japan, there are plenty of those around as well! Including Tokyo Marathon which is included in the six largest marathons in the world that is the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Another that I’ve enjoyed – especially for the views of Mount Fuji is the Shonan International Marathon.

How do you say marathon in Japanese?

If you’ve been reading for while, you know that I love throwing in some basic Japanese to make it easier to research Japan for a trip, or just because you’re interested! The word for marathon in Japan uses the katakana マラソン (ma-ra-so-n). Foreign word, “foreign” syllabary (I explain that more in my post about Japanese written languages).

But as discussed, this more times than not it seems just equates to “road race”. If you are looking for specific details you’ll want to get in the weeds a bit more to make sure what distance you are actually signing up for!

Marathon in Japan: How do I get in?

One of the juxtapositions in Japan: you see a lot of smokers (I was super happy to see they are starting to implement anti-smoking laws ahead of the Olympics), but nearly all of my coworkers I know that smoke, also run.  What I’m trying to say, is whereas in the US the “big” races are hard to get into, all road races in Japan are hard to get into because even those you might not see as runners – run! One caveat to that is if you can find smaller, more local options.

In order to get into many of the various road races and marathons in Japan, you’ll have to look out for raffles. Especially for the “big” races, because if you are coming from overseas, I’d imagine that’s what you are going for.

One good thing if you are looking for an international running trip? To help promote tourism, Japan races tend to have spots set aside for foreigners – first come, first serve. Or have smaller “international lotteries” as they do for the Tokyo Marathon. (You do sometimes pay for the privilege though).

The act of applying itself isn’t always easy. Sometimes it is tricky to find on the website how to actually pay. The way I’ve found is the easiest to sign up (though there are some others), is to go to JTB Sports. They have an English site now which makes it much easier but some races are only on the Japanese side so make two accounts and watch them both. (Google Chrome translate function is your friend).

For the bigger races, and how I got into the Tokyo Marathon, there are often times all-inclusive trips set up by travel agents that include the entry fee into the race.  This option by all means was very expensive, but I also ended up staying in one of the nicest hotels in Tokyo because of it, and was completely worth it.

What’s the cost of a race or marathon in Japan?

I’ve found overall, that the cost of a marathon in Japan and other distances of road races are extremely reasonable compared to how they are getting some places in the states for the big-name races.  For instance, you can nail an “overseas” 2019 Tokyo Marathon entry for 12,800 円. The New York marathon costs nearly $300 and bumps that up to $358 for overseas applicants.

My local half marathon in Yokosuka is around 4800 円 or about $48 USD depending on the current conversion rates.  Back stateside, I always ran the Shamrock Marathon with my friends. The half marathon entry for the Shamrock starts at $80 at the time of writing this and increase to well over a $100 the closer you get to race day. 

On that note, I haven’t seen that methodology in Japan, of increasing the price depending on how close you are to race day. I’m going out on a limb and thinking it is probably because they sell out so fast.

The 5K Ekiden (駅伝, a type of relay race) I run with some of my Japanese friends around the Tokyo Imperial Palace (side note, that is just a great running route for anyone that loves Japanese castles!) is around $20.

The Bling and Course Support

My friends and I used to joke (and even made shirts for it one year) that we ran marathons solely for the bananas at the end. If there was beer – even better! Running a race is surely about getting out there and meeting a goal, whether it be just finishing or hitting a PR. But let’s be honest, it’s also a plus to have all that course support in the form of hydration, food and spectators.

The “hey I did this thing!” t-shirts or technical shirts, participation medals and finisher items don’t necessarily hurt either.

For the course support, you might be surprised at what you are able to partake. My experience with running races and marathon in Japan, you are more likely to see umeboshi than a gel packet. What’s umeboshi? A pickled, very sour plum which lots of salt to help with you electrolytes. You’d think that would be a bit odd to work on while running – watch out cause sometimes there are pits! – but it works and delicious. You’ll see other “real food” as well like nuts and bananas.

For the marathon in Japan I’ve run, that each had about 30,000 participants, there were technical shirts as part of your race packet and you also received a finisher medal. Fun fact – some of the races in Japan will automatically send you your race packet so there is no reason for you to go to the expo and pick up your bib number and other goodies. To that end, sometimes there isn’t an expo so it just makes it easier for pick up anyways.

Possibly the nicest touch was during the Shonan Marathon in Japan, you could get your race time ON YOUR SHIRT! Being my best personal record (or PR as we like to say) to date, you bet I got that done! For the Tokyo Marathon, we received towels as our finisher items.

Spectator support is also very high in Japan which makes the experience of running a marathon in Japan that much better. I think for the Tokyo Marathon I spent the entire time high fiving people as I ran by.

What about after parties for races in Japan?

Sadly, post-race provided beer like you see at many of the races in America (or at least the ones I like to do) isn’t generally a thing.  However, a lot of times you will see coupons to promote local bars, and beer in Japan is generally pretty cheap cost-wise if you go with the big name companies. If all else fails, there are always convenience stores to grab a quick drink from if you don’t want to be sweaty in a izakaya. 

Instead of a race sponsored after party, after our yearly ekiden (4 person relay around the palace in Tokyo), my running team likes to go out for a nomikai (drink party). Before that though? We hit a 銭湯 or Sentou, which is a public bath house to soak after our hard work. I’ll talk about the differences between an onsen and sentou in another post but the concept is the same. Take a shower to wash off and then dip in a nice warm bath.

For the party part of it, we like to get monjayaki which is Tokyo’s version of the popular okonomiyaki.

What’s your next race?

Have you run a race in Japan?  What was your experience?  If you haven’t, are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments!

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