I thought the field was deep at some US races

[Nate Page]

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/deeper-and-deeper-goes-greatest-half.html

This is absolutely crazy where sub 70 gets you top 400 in a Half.  The running scene in Asia is crazy, it'd be fun to go over there and do some races (and get my ass handed to me)
10th place: 1:03:53
25th place: 1:04:20
50th place: 1:04:45
100th place: 1:05:28
200th place: 1:06:43
300th place: 1:08:09
400th place: 1:09:48
500th place: 1:12:59

[Jake Krong]

Wow that is nuts. The deepest 1/2 in the US is probably the Philly Distance Run, and when I ran 1:12:28 there (5 years ago) I was in the top 75.

[Jon Allen]

Jake, you would have been 114th at that race from your TOU time.  That is crazy. 

[Jake Krong]

Thank you for completely humbling me Jon! 

[Andrea North]

Jake - I'm pretty sure you could run a little faster than that now!

Nonetheless, that race is incredibly fast. It doesn't happen to be extremely downhill, does it?? 

[Jake Krong]

Mostly flat loop course, apparently "precise to the millimeter." I dug up this Letsrun thread ( http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2766272 ) about the race, and this very same topic actually came up on the Fast Run Blog board a few years ago.

Imagine if you took NCAA XC Nationals, added in all the pros who race on the roads, and made it a half-marathon road race. You'd probably get something similar. But the depth in Japan is still definitely staggering.

[Colby]

Does anybody know if this is a new trend in Japan? I guess with the cultural discipline running would fit in nicely.

[Paul Petersen]

No, this is nothing new for Japan. Running has been much deeper there in the U.S. for years, due to greater emphasis on the sport, greater public appreciation, and a huge interest in corporate running teams. The top-end in Japan is no better than in the U.S., but the depth is unbelievable. If the U.S. looked at running the same way, we would have races with fields like this too.

[steve ashbaker]

If you can conceive you can achieve..