The 2013 Tokyo Marathon (Japanese: 東京マラソン 2013) was the seventh edition of the annual marathon race in Tokyo, Japan and was held on Sunday, 24 February. An IAAF Gold Label Road Race, it was the first World Marathon Majors event to be held that year and represented the first occasion that the Tokyo race was part of the elite-level marathon series.[1]
The 2013 Tokyo Marathon featured marathon races for runners and wheelchair racers. A 10-kilometre race was also held for the disabled and runners under eighteen years.[2]
Dennis Kimetto won the men's race in a course record time of 2:06:50 hours. The women's winner, Aberu Kebede, had a time of 2:25:34 hours, which was six seconds off the women's course best.[1] The mass races set a new participation record with a total of 28,721 runners entering the race over 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards), and 36,676 people taking part in the day's races as a whole.[3]
Pre-race build up
A day prior to the race, the International Friendship Run was held with a distance of roughly 4 km. The non-competitive race between athletes, organisers and registered marathon entrants began with warm-up radio exercises and took place in Shiokaze Park and Odaiba Seaside Park.[4] The 2013 Tokyo Marathon EXPO was also hosted that day.[5] Organisational changes improved the charity fun running aspect of the race: 3000 entries were reserved for charity runners, tax relief was given to charitable donations, and role of sponsors and corporations in raising funds was expanded. An estimated 1.7 million people were spectators to the city race.[6]
Building on the race's inclusion with the World Marathon Majors circuit, race director Tadaaki Hayano invited numerous elite international marathon runners with fast personal bests. In the men's race Dennis Kimetto, James Kwambai, Dino Sefir, and Jonathan Maiyo all entered the race with personal bests below two hours and five minutes – a first for a Japanese race.[7][6]Irina Mikitenko was the fastest entrant among the elite women, following by Bezunesh Bekele, Aberu Kebede and Caroline Kilel.[7]
