Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon runs each February in Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, on Japan's Shikoku island. The course starts and finishes at Kagawa Prefectural Marugame Stadium, heading out along the Sanuki plain to a turnaround near the 10.5-kilometer mark before retracing the same road back to the stadium. It holds World Athletics Elite Label status, the first Japanese half marathon to receive that classification, and draws a competitive field of invited East African runners and Japan's top collegiate and corporate-team half marathoners. The race began in 1947 as a full marathon and has run at the half marathon distance since 1997.