[image]
[title]By Nick Narigon
Three days after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Takashi Takekawa was on a plane to New York for business.
‘I felt like I was leaving something important behind in Japan,’ says Takekawa, who felt the March 11 earthquake from his office in Tokyo. ‘In the States, there was a lot of sad news. The tsunami ripped up Tohoku. People kept asking if I was okay. I felt like I had to do something.’
An experienced runner, Takekawa attended the 2011 Médoc Marathon in France, which draws in not only competitive runners but also spectators who enjoy the food, wine and scenery. There he met with the president of the organising committee, who lent advice and support to start something similar in Tohoku.
In 2014, 1,300 runners competed in the inaugural Tohoku Food Marathon & Festival in Tome, Miyagi, a rice farming community just inland from where the tsunami devastated the coastal towns of Ishinomaki and Kesennuma.
On March 24 and 25 this spring, the festival expects 50,000 spectators to be cheering on more than 7,000 runners while enjoying the cherry blossoms, local Tome beef sticks and hatto soup, fresh scallops and oysters from Sanriku, and 138 types of sake from all six Tohoku prefectures.
‘The marathon is a tool to gather people from outside of Tohoku and throughout the world – not to just enjoy the race, but also all the food and vegetables and fish and sake,’ says Takekawa. ‘Maybe 30 years from now, Hong Kong runners will be able to buy Tohoku sake in Hong Kong.’
Taipei native Charles Chen first ran the Tohoku Food Marathon & Festival in 2016, and is already signed up for the 2018 race. Chen, who has run marathons in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin and Vancouver, says the Tohoku marathon is special because of the local food provided along the route, as well as for the chance to meet local volunteers.
The festival hosts visits to rice fields and a local sake brewery, and Chen took the tour to see the restoration efforts in the small coastal village of Minami-Sanriku, which lost more than 1,200 people to the tsunami.
‘I got to know what happened during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and how resilient the people are,’ says Chen. ‘The marathon and festival connected me with local people and made me fall in love with this place.’
In addition to the full marathon, the Tohoku Food Marathon & Festival also includes a half marathon, 5km race, kids’ race and more.
Takekawa says anyone can take part in the running, as long as they’re between 0 and 80 years old. This year’s edition will also see a race for handicapped people that is expected to draw more than 50 participants.
‘We are gradually creating a lot of fans of Tohoku,’ says Takekawa. ‘The key is we have the trust and confidence of the local people. They are the volunteers and staff. Now they feel [like] it is their marathon.’
For more details and how to take part, see tohokumarathon.com/en
