Nagoya

The Nagoya Women’s Marathon serves as a qualifying race for Japan’s national team for the Olympic Games and the World Championships, attracting top female athletes from both inside and outside the country. The times of recent top finishers have been around 2 hours and 22 minutes. Apart from global championships the Nagoya Women’s Marathon is the world’s leading competition for elite women runners. Participation of amateurs and beginners is also encouraged with a leisurely time limit of seven hours allowed.

The city of Nagoya is located in the centre of Japan, less than two hours west of Tokyo by Shinkansen (the Japanese ‘bullet’ train). There is also a large international airport, making it easily accessible from anywhere in the world.

The route was designed to showcase many of the focal points of the city including Nagoya Castle. The course is wide and mostly flat making it easy to run fast times and set personal bests. The race starts and finishes at a baseball stadium, the Nagoya Dome, where glamorous lighting and music sends runners off from the start and welcomes them back to the finish. This unique concert-like staging effect of the venue is one of the most distinctive features of the marathon.

All finishers receive an exclusively designed necklace by a world-class premium jeweler, Tiffany & Co. The highlight of the race is the finishers’ smiles when, one by one, they are handed a Tiffany’s blue box from men dressed in tuxedos.

The Marathon EXPO, a sport themed fair, is held at the Nagoya Dome. Many visitors come to enjoy the various companies’ booths such as cosmetics makers, sport goods manufacturers and others.