{"id":30089,"date":"2023-10-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=30089"},"modified":"2023-10-05T06:43:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T06:43:53","slug":"sagami-general-depot-hosts-4000-runners-in-east-japan-half-marathon-relay-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=30089","title":{"rendered":"Sagami General Depot hosts 4,000 runners in East Japan Half Marathon, relay event"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Runners in the 7th East Japan Half Marathon, held Oct. 1 on Sagami General Depot, Japan, prepare to take off from the start line. The event, which also included an ekiden relay race, drew more than 4,000 participants. Command Sgt. Maj. David A. Rio, top right, the senior enlisted leader of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, prepares to fire the starter pistol.
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SAGAMI GENERAL DEPOT, Japan \u2013 More than 4,000 runners were here Sunday to compete in the 7th East Japan Half Marathon and Ekiden to the cheers of hundreds of friends, family members and spectators.<\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison Japan Command Sgt. Maj. David Rio, who gave opening remarks and fired the starter pistol to begin the half marathon, called the event a great way for the U.S. military community in Japan to \u201cinteract and share a great experience with the community outside our base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also representing Camp Zama was the Zama Middle High School Junior Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps color guard, which presented the U.S. and Japan flags for both countries\u2019 national anthems before the race.<\/p>\n

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\n The Zama Middle High School Junior Reserve Officers\u2019 Training Corps color guard presents the U.S. and Japan flags for both countries\u2019 national anthems before the start of the 7th East Japan Half Marathon Command, held Oct. 1 on Sagami General Depot, Japan.
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The East Japan Half Marathon and Ekiden has a long-standing tradition of being hosted on Sagami General Depot. Randy Benton, the special events coordinator assigned to Camp Zama\u2019s Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, said the running association that works with DFMWR to coordinate the event always looks forward to continuing the tradition with the Camp Zama community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that USAG Japan provides the citizens of Sagamihara City the opportunity to interact with us in a relaxed atmosphere while also promoting physical fitness,\u201d Benton said.<\/p>\n

Benton said he received a lot of positive feedback from the participants, who told him how much they appreciate the opportunity to come onto a U.S. military installation for a sporting event like the half marathon since the chance to do so for members of neighboring communities is somewhat limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this event annually provides our neighbors, as well as the Soldiers, civilians, family members and local-national employees, a chance not only to interact with each other, but also to stay in great shape together,\u201d Benton said.<\/p>\n

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\n Runners compete in the 7th East Japan Half Marathon Command, held Oct. 1 on Sagami General Depot, Japan.
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Kanako Nishi, who placed first in the women\u2019s general division, said this was her second time participating in the event. She enjoyed the event so much the first time that she said there was no question she would come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI participate in a lot of races in a lot of other places, but I especially love running here because it\u2019s very rare for us to be able to enter a U.S. military installation, and also it\u2019s a wide-open space compared to other places in Japan,\u201d Nishi said.<\/p>\n

Nishi said she hopes USAG Japan will host more sporting events like the half marathon and provide more opportunities for the U.S. military in Japan and its host nation to interact with each other.<\/p>\n

The event also included an ekiden<\/em>, a type of long-distance relay race that is popular in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Runners in the 7th East Japan Half Marathon, held Oct. 1 on Sagami General Depot, Japan, prepare to take off from the start line. The event, which also included an ekiden relay race, drew more than 4,000 participants. Command Sgt. Maj. David A. Rio, top right, the senior enlisted leader of U.S. Army Garrison Japan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30091,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30095,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30089\/revisions\/30095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}