Executive director, Japan Ultrarunners Association
    Manager, Japanese 100K/24H/48H national teams
    RD, Jingu Gaien 24H Challenge Run (Tokyo, Japan)
    Overseas invitation director, Soochow International Ultramaratahon (Taiwan)

At 06:04 09/09/30, Chihping Fu wrote:
>This really depends on the countries or areas.
>
>My limited understanding (haven't been to many places) is that USA has the
>best trail running environment in the world with its so many runnable
>trails. In some other countries such as Taiwan where I'm from, there are way
>too many trails and they are really wonderful, but few of them are runnable.
>Most of the trails there are extremely technical based on the USA
>trailrunning standard. Rope rappelling, steep/rooted sections, rock
>rambling, creek crossing, ladders, crawling at all fours are usually seen at
>a typical trail adventure - yet another flavor of trail experience! Can
>check my video clip -  http://www.facebook.com/v/1214529443772 - http://www.facebook.com/v/1214529443772  in which I
>fast hiked (because it's not runnable) with friends on a popular trail in
>Taiwan this summer. I believe this is similar in Japan. In such cases, road
>running becomes much more popular in terms of ultrarunning.

In Japan, trail running has been getting really popular in recent years,
and also together, road running/jogging is getting much more popular, too,
because of the launching of Tokyo Marathon a few years ago (this year, over
310 thousands people applied for the lottery in which 35,000 runners will be
picked (including 5,000 for 10K).

Recently, many of ordinary Japanese people start running on roads casually,
and relatively easily step into trails, and as a result, limited trail 
running races
in Japan becomes tough to be on their entry lists. For example, the premier
Hasegawa Tsuneo Cup called "Hasetsune"

---
 http://www.hasetsune.com/ - http://www.hasetsune.com/ 
October 11-12=this weekend, substantially a Japanese trail national 
championship,
44 miles, well mixed with runnable and technical trails at lower altitude , 
Scott
Jurek was invited in 2003, course record was set last year with just under 
8 hours,
Tsuyoshi Kaburagi=2nd at 2009 WS100= was the second behind the winner/CR
holder last year.
---

The race has 1.7 thousands participants this year, but the entry was shut out
within less than one hour at the Internet application system. Similar thing
happened for the entry of 2010 Umstead as I heard, which is unimaginable to
me who only took part in Umstead in 1999 (I might have entered a few weeks
before the race without any problems). A huge typhoon is closing to Japan
Islands incuding Tokyo this week,and it may hit the Hasetsune race site on
Thursday. I hope that the course is not damaged much by the typhoon.
We have to accept muddy trails anyway.

When I was racing in the US trail ultra races in 1990s, the term "trail running"
was not yet even recognized, and I chose to improve road ultras in Japan
at first when I came back (1999-), but after Hiroki Ishikawa came to the US
for racing at elite levels (2001/2002-), and brought knowledges/system back
to Japan, the circumstances had become more favorable to trail running,
in fact, Hiroki has produced some nice trail races here. In September 21-22,
there was the inaugural Shinetsu Five Mountains Trail 100km
( http://www.sfmt100.com/%29 - http://www.sfmt100.com/)  of which course is designed by Hiroki. I did not run
the race by myself, but according to comments from the participants on the
Internet, it was quite well organized, and has a beautiful course. The 
initial course
record was set with about 9.5 hours which tells that the course is well 
runnable,
I think. One epoch-making thing was that the race officially allowed pacers 
for the
first time in Japan's trail races. Since a lot of people cannot be official 
entrants
due to limitation of the field, I believe that participation as pacers has 
possibility
to be becoming popular even here in Japan. Let's see.

At 06:04 09/09/30, Chihping Fu wrote:
>See how strong
>Japan team was in Spartathlon and other world cup road races.

Ryoichi Sekiya was third in 2001 Spartathlon, and won in 2002.
His winning this year was the first time in 7 years. In those 7 years,
Ryoichi won IAU 24h WC four times (2004, 2006-2008), but he was
behind Scott Jurek in 2006 Spartathlon, and we all Japanese ultra
runners respect Scott. His time of 2008 is truly amazing.

I., by myself, organized the fourth annual Jingu Gaien 24H (IAU Bronze 
Label) several
weeks ago (September 12-13, and we had good performances there.

 http://sports.geocities.jp/jpn24rt/09jingugaien24h_results.htm - http://sports.geocities.jp/jpn24rt/09jingugaien24h_results.htm 

Men
1. Shingo Inoue  160.8 miles
2. Kazuhiko Ozawa  151.2 miles
*3. Jun Onoki  146.2 miles
4. Ryo Abiko  143.7 miles
*5. Yasuhiro Hiura  142.0 miles
6. Tomohiko Yukawa  141.2 miles

Women
1. Kiyoko Shirakawa  139.5 miles
2. Takako Furuyama  129,6 miles
3. Yoshiko Matsuda  126.5 miles
4. Yoko Nagase  126,1 miles

(50 entrants/49 starters, all categories)
* non-JAAF-registered runners (not eligible to qualify for the national team)

I was reading the discussions on the list about Jamie Donaldson's
200km record on a track with some interest because of three reasons.

First, I have actually worked as a volunteer for 1998 and 1999 SCMT Ottawa
24H races which was probably held in a different track from the one for
this year. Second, I watched Jamie D. running "on-site" at the latest two
IAU 24h WCs in 2008 (Seoul, South Korea) and 2009 (Belgamo, Italy), and
really admired her VERY consistent racing strategy in each one. (5th in
2008, and 4th in 2009, both were done in coming-from-behind fashion)

Finally, just about 200km records. During the Jingu Gaien 24H mentioned
above, the leading lady, Kiyoko Shirakawa, passed the 200km mark at 20:40:55
(distance is accurately measured). The race is a road event (0.824 miles/lap).
The current Asian 200, 000m record is 20;34:07 set by Sumie Inagaki, 2009
Spartathlon winner, in 2007 Soochow 24H (on a 400m track in Taipei). The
current world record of 200,000m must be 18:31:43 by Edit Berces of Hungary
in 2002 (Verona, Italy). The split time of 200km/200,000m should be
automatically recorded during races on 400m tracks (just 500 laps), but since
it is not a standard distance for keeping record times, and not marked on road
courses. I hope that the distance is paid more attention even in road ultra 
races.

By the way, among the top-rankers in this year's Jingu Gaien 24H, there is
only one who has been on the Japanese 24H  delegation team before (Takako
Furuyama, 2007 and 2008). All others have never raced in WCs, but some
of them will be selected for next year.

Please note that the 2nd and 3rd female runners completed Spartathlon two
weeks later (Takako Furuyama and Yoshiko Matsuda).

Yoshiko Matsuda came in the 2nd ahead of Lisa Bliss. Yoshiko did the 24h
race as a "training" for Spartathlon?!  Actually, some others did the similar
thing. Takehiro Matsush*ta ran 71 miles (in 11 hours) in Jingu Gaien 24H,
and quit to avoid having excessive fatigue, then eventually finished 4th in
Spartathlon.
It seems that 24H and 250km RR are linked, and populations are overlapped.
Yuji Sakai, bronze medalist at 2009 IAU 24H WC in Italy, was 11th at this year's
Spartathlon (not really good for him).

By the way, a guy who finished together with Lisa Bliss running together
in the last 10 miles or so is Masayuki Otaki who won Spartathlon in 2000
for the first time as an Asian, and won Surgeres 48H (France) in 2007
with an Asian record of 264 miles. Masayuki also held former 24H Asian
records of 168.4 miles set in 2004 Soochow 24H in Taipei.

The discussions regarding 50+ runners on the list, it reminds me of our
50+ runners in the Jingu Gaien 24H. Yoshiko Matsuda is 55 years old,
and more amazingly, Takako Furuyama, 56,  won Trans-Europe Foot-Race
a few months ago (April-June). She is still running at world-class levels.
Jun Onoki, 54, keeps his fitness as well (3rd overall at Jingu-Gaien), and
I would like to mention that Jun finished Trans-America Foot-Race back
in 1995 racing with David Horton et at. when he was 40. Of course, we all
know that David is still quite active in challenging to make/renew FKTRs
for longer trails. Transcontinental runners are really tough, mentally and
physically.

It was quite exciting to follow the live update of North Coast 24H last
weekend. Congratulations to all runners who survived through the 24hrs.
I would be interested in which race Phil McCarthy and John Geesler choose
to participate, IAU 24H WC or Surgeres 48H, both in France, only a week or
so apart each other next May (you cannot do both due to the restrictions).
In this year, Phil took 24H (Italy), and John took 48H (France). At any 
occasions,
I will be glad to see them in France, particularly John who has been a very good
friend of mine, since we competed in 1998 Nifty Fifty in RI (also in 
several ATYs).