The course was different than how it had been in the past. Typhoons have knocked down many trees and made it too difficult to run in the mountains so the course sticks close to the river and uses the river access roads. I ran the 13 km distance and the first half was downhill on mostly graveled road with some horse trail mixed in. The second half was dirt road or horse trail running along the river until the last 3 km or so, which took you through the forest and back uphill to the finish. There were about 4 river crossing and some deep mud in spots.This year I volunteered as a translator and interpreter as they had a couple come from Malaysia. They said that it was a nice change to run in such cold weather! Us Hokkaido runners were all happy that the weather was so warm!
There were about 150 people at the event and there were about 45 men in the 13 km distance. The organizers had prepared some gifts to give the winners and prepared enough items for everyone who stayed through the lucky drawing to be able to take something home. Sports drink were given to runners at the finish and there was a small shop setup that was selling food and snacks. The run itself is now based at the Shikaoi Geo Park. It seems to be a place where you can learn about geology and enjoy the outdoors. There is a Park Golf course there, a parking lot and a lot of nice well kept lawn.The Shikaoi Trail Run does all (?) of its promotion on Face Book. The town of Shikaoi is in Chinese characters but the title of the run is in hiragana and katakana. So if you want to like their page to get updates, you'll best find it searching for it like this: しかおいトレイルラン
Or, follow this link:
https://www.facebook.com/%E9%B9%BF%E8%BF%BD%E3%83%88%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3-554384901282649/