From Brett Larner's recap and the overall race results, for me there were a couple of interesting aspects:
The super-achievers:
1) From the 10km first stage: 12 HIGH SCHOOL boys at 30 minutes or better, 28th place on the stage was 30:28...wow...
The depth:
2) From the 8+km 3rd stage, where the race was really broken open, the Kenyan kids took the top three spots, (including the stage winner in 22:58!) and top 6 overall broke 24 minutes, with at least 3 more just outside
3) On the 8+km 4th stage, again a bunch under 24 minutes (at least 8), with the "also-rans" in 15th going sub-24:30
I know the focus on the 5km times before this race, but these results I think show the depth that comes from the higher mileage focus of Japanese training - I don't know whether all these runners were in the same category as the first stage runners, but I guess there's also some race strategy employed here in selecting who runs these stages - The Kenyan ace from the winning school crushed this stage and sent his team on its way.)
The in-between stages:
4) The second stage (3km) saw a quick winning time (sub-8), decent times for the other top places (814 & 818) and 16 guys at 830 or better (47th on the stage was 850, FWIW) - I guess this would put them pretty close to 9min 2-mile - so this stage alone is an equivalent in depth to the best high-school 3200m/2mile races in the US (like Acadia) - BUT these runners weren't on the prime stages, and they probably aren't top guys for their teams.
5) The other 3km stage (5th stage of the race) was slower, with only 16 guys going under 9 minutes (out of the 58-team field) - I guessed this must have been the weakest stage of the race, but the final 2 stages were not much different in terms of performances and depth.
The final stages (the 5km legs)
6) 6th-stage winning time was 14:41, 7th-stage was 1439, good times but nothing out of reach for the top high-schoolers in the US. Depth-wise, there were 8 guys 15mins or better on stage 6, and 9 on stage 7, with a cluster of times just over 15 minutes. Again, good times, surpassing the Footlocker results overall, and certainly indicating the top Japanese boys teams are in a different league compared to the US...but it would be interesting to see an XC-style match-up, rather than the relay format, for the Japanese schools and against top US schools.
I like that Brett points out how these high school teams stack up well against pretty much any D1 program (keeping in mind the XC is a different animal than the roads), but I also look at the results of the 5km and 3km stages, where yes there are an abundance of sub-15 and sub-9 times, I think that there isn't necessarily a huge gap between these Japanese runners and the US, at least in terms of these race results (not comparing PBs) While the top Japanese teams would probably beat the top teams at the team nationals, the top individuals wouldn't necessarily beat the Footlocker winners. The overall depth is extraordinary, but not beyond what potentially exists in the US.
Other Notes:
I wonder sometimes why Brett, who provides such a complete overview and great insight into the Japanese running scene, chooses to use phrases like:
"Kenyan ringer Paul Kamais did his duty on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, easily taking the lead and running a superb 22:58 just shy of the 22:40 course record set 10 years ago by the late great Samuel Wanjiru of Sendai Ikuei H.S."
He's giving props, yet at the same time it's kind of derogatory towards this athlete. Of course, he is in a better position to know about the debate that must go on about bringing foreign athletes to school in Japan, and I'm certain his view is a far more complete, nuanced perspective that what any of us can have from the outside, but it just seems a bit petty to subtly dismiss a performance like that, no different from the prevailing attitude among the lily(white) fanboys here - and I'd like to think Brett is better than that.
A final Wow...
"Funabashi took the lead on the Second Stage as its 800 m specialist Renya Maeda became just the second runner in history to break 8 minutes on the 3.0 km stage"
An 800m runner going sub-8 for 3km on the roads...how the heck does that happen? Surely his best event isn't 800m? Could this guy be an 830 2-miler? Or close to a 4-minute mile?