Karoki is one of 3 Japanese based Kenyans on the start line. Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka University) who you might remember from last year as the unknown debuting Kenyan in the front pack for a long time before fading to 2:10:00, and Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta), who only has a 2:12 best but it was on debut, in Sapporo (a notoriously slow course, no one has ever broken 2:10 there)