Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is a relay marathon from Tokyo to Hakone, which is held every year during the New Years holiday. The racecourse is about 108km (67 miles) long. The racers themselves are college students from various universities from around Japan.
.............................................I was able to watch the relay marathon as it passed through Hiratsuka. The race is divided up into 5 parts of which the 4th comes through Hiratsuka. The real hard part of the race begins in the 5th leg, when the runners enter the mountains of Hakone.
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While I did not have a chance to see the runners battle the mountain passes, I did get to see the police scuffle with a drunken old man who wandered into the race. Unfortunately it was a cold day and by the time I had taken off my gloves and gotten my camera out the incident was over.

The race is now in its 87th or so year and while it was no amature K-1 fight. It was still an interesting piece of moden Japan to see.