Introduction
On May 18th 2025 the Nobeyama Ultramarathon (also known as the Yasugatake Nobeyama Highland Ultramarathon) will be held in Nagano Prefecture. This ultramarathon is part of a series of four races through UNESCO Global Geoparks, which include the Nobeyama Ultramarathon (this run), the Challenge Fuji 5 Lakes Ultramarathon (which I ran in 2024), the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon, and the Tango Ultramarathon.
I love running events like this, but attending these events is quite a major undertaking. This is my second in the series and over the next few years I hope to be able to complete all of them.
With all of the information for these races being in Japanese, I take it upon myself to carefully study the race information beforehand so I don’t get surprised with anything wild on the day.
大会の特徴 (Event features)
The race starts at the foot of Mt Yasugatake, where after 10 km of running you come to a forest road followed by about 15 km of gravel road. The course itself has a combined elevation of 2188 meters.
It’s a little unclear from the course description about whether it is a road, a trail, or a trail like road (I’ll find out on the day).
There are three hot springs in on the race course: 稲子湯 (Inakoyu), 八峰の湯 (Happonoyu), and 滝見の湯 (Takiminoyu). Runners are able to freely access the hot springs during the run by showing their race number and (according to the race page) some runners visit all three hot springs during the race. With a 14 hour cut off time for the race, I doubt I’ll have time to visit the hot springs, but I can see the appeal of this if you are doing one of the shorter versions of the race (there are 42 km and 68 km versions of the run too).
There is an animated version of the course map below:
Course points
The homepage of the course talks about the aid stations having local specialties available like amanatto, soba noodles, and fruit. I remember from the Fuji 5 Lakes Ultramarathon that the food/drink from the aid stations were very good and the staff were very friendly. I will be heavily relying on these during the race and keeping my equipment to a minumum.
Below are the course points on this run:
7.3 km 第1給水 最高地点 (1st water station: Highest point) - Note: This is not the highest point of the course.
11 km 第2給水 県界尾根駐車場 (2nd water station: County boundary ridge parking lot)
17.4 km 第3給水 東屋 (3rd water station: East Pavilion)
22.8 km 第4給水 海尻側林道ゲート (4th water station: Gate of forest road on Kaijiri side)
28 km 第5給水 八ヶ岳カントリー分岐 (5th water station: Yatsugatake Country branch)
34.1 km 第6給水 稲子湯 (6th water station: Inakoyu) - Hot spring!
39.4 km 第7給水 リエックスリゾート前 (7th water station: In front of Riex Resort)
41.4 km 第8給水 八峰の湯 (8th water station: Happonoyu) - Hot spring and 42 km finish point
45.6 km 第9給水 八那池地区 (9th water station: Hachinaike area)
49.5 km 第10給水 小海中学校横公園 (10th water station: Park beside Koumi Junior High School)
54.1 km 第11給水 川又バス停 (11th water station: Kawamata bus stop)
58.5 km 第12給水 北相木村役場 (12th water station: Kitaaiki Village Office)
63.3 km 第13給水 日向区看板手前 (13th water station: Before the signboard of Hyuga-ku)
67.8 km 第14給水 南相木村役場 (14th water station: Minamiaiki Village Office) - 68 km finish point
72.2 km 第15給水 立原公民館 (15th water station: Tachihara Community Center)
73.6 km 第16給水 立原高原キャンプ場 (16th water station: Tatehara Kogen Campsite)
76.5 km 第17給水 馬越峠 (17th water station: Magose Pass)
81.1 km 第18給水 馬越中腹待避所 (18th water station: Magose Pass mid-slope shelter)
84.6 km 第19給水 川上村原公民館 (19th water station: Kawakami-mura Hara Community Center)
90.5 km 第20給水 集出荷場 (20th water station: Collection and shipping area)
94.8 km 第21給水 八ヶ岳歯科前 (21st water station: Yatsugatake Dentistry)
97.5 km 第22給水 国立天文台 ( 22nd water station: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
Final prep
I received my race number and t-shirt in the mail a few weeks ago. I am in wave A starting at 4:55 am. The is a bus from Tokyo which I will be getting on this Saturday and I’ll be staying at a hotel in the Nobeyama area.
Whenever I run these races I tend to run them solo and maybe chat to people on the race that are going the same pace as me. Ultra runners in Japan are easy to talk to since we all have the same mindset. I do have one friend who I run with on a regular basis who is also entering this ultra. He’s probably going to be running this much quicker than me so I’ll probably bump into him at some point. He’s aiming for a 10 hour finish, which might be a bit ambitious, but we’ll see.
This is my last big race of the season. I’ve run a couple of ultramarathons since the Challenge Fuji 5 Lakes Ultramarathon last year, but I didn’t receive a race medal for those. The Nobeyama Ultra has finisher medals so my main aim for this one is (as usual) to finish with a smile…and pick up a new decoration for my wall.
頑張ります (Ganbarimasu)
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Osu!
Anthony
Sounds fabulous!
Get stuck in! 🙂👍