Kameoka Half Marathon

The Kyoto Kameoka Half Marathon is an established winter road race held in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, a scenic city immediately west of Kyoto. Based at Kameoka Sports Park, the event offers runners a markedly different experience from racing through central Kyoto: instead of dense urban streets and major tourist districts, the course takes competitors through the open countryside and rural landscapes of the Kameoka Basin, an area promoted locally as Kyoto’s okuzashiki, or “inner retreat.”

The half marathon starts and finishes at Kameoka Sports Park Athletics Stadium. The 21.0975 km route is an out-and-back course that presents its most significant climbing during the first portion of the race. Once runners have negotiated that early uphill section, the remainder is predominantly flat or downhill on the return toward the stadium. RUNNET lists the course’s maximum elevation difference at approximately 90 metres and notes its reputation among participants as a course capable of producing quick times despite the early climbing.