ah yes, of course the course was short, they were on drugs and they had a tailwind the whole way.... NOT!!
ah yes, of course the course was short, they were on drugs and they had a tailwind the whole way.... NOT!!
Are you talking about Biwa lake course?
Biwa race course's start point and finish point is same.They are neither uphill nor down hill.
Japanaese marathoners are not so fast on track (above sub 28:00 are rather great for Japanese)but they sometimes run 2:07.I'm sure that men's marathon time is not so high level.
Jason's remark was correct.And of all the ekiden,most important one is Hakone ekiden ,in which 10 ekiden runners run more than 20km in each section.Load and long distance .And Hakone ekiden is popular and about 30% of Japanese see it .
There are several reasons why Japanese are not bad in marathons .One of them are the ssystem which most long distance runners change marathoners.If you think it is good or not depend on what you think much of .