The 5th Tanigawa marathon and A&D

The 5th Tanigawa marathon and A&D
Reported by Hiroshi Oyama International Marketing Division

One of the biggest marathon events for amateur marathon runners, the Tanigawa Mari half marathon, was held for the 5 th time this year. On Sunday, January 11, 2004 , the marathon started on the bank of Arakawa River at the northern edge of Tokyo . It was a fine day with temperatures reaching 10ºC, but a strong wind was blowing during the races. Approximately 10,000 runners took part in the races. Starting from a 2km race for families (parents and children), a 3km, 5km and a full half marathon were also held, each to appeal to various levels of athletes.

The marathon was organized to collect money for charity for the removal of landmines buried in former war-zones around the world. Because it is held for a worthy cause, every year the event attracts more and more attention from the public. This attention helps to swell the ranks of participants year by year.

A&D has been supporting the event since its inception. Several of our employees put on their running shoes and take part each year, including our very own Masa Eto, the head of our International Division (read his account of his participation last year by clicking here ). We also set up a booth at the event to publicize our existence.

Among the sixteen A&D athletes who ran this year, we had a guest runner from our US subsidiary. Mr. Jerry Wang, director of engineering (shown center) enjoyed his first half marathon run in Japan together with other A&D associates. "It's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed running here, although it was a bit too windy. Otherwise, it's perfect. My time was something like 2 hours 10 minutes. Not a great record for me, but participation was my major goal of this run. Hope to come back next year." He still had plenty of energy after the run, even though he was suffering from jetlag after a ten hour flight to arrive in Japan the night before.

UC-321

Over at the A&D booth, our personal scales model UC-321 proved a champion at attracting the athletes' attention. We prepared several 321s so that everyone could experience testing how their weight changes by just 50g gain or loss. Lots of runners were curious as to how their body weight changes before and after a run, and visited our booth twice to test it. Since the UC-321 shows changes in weight in increments of just 50g, many were satisfied at how they had lost, say, 150g after the run.

After the races were over, prizes were given to winners and runners-up, followed by a charity auction. The money raised from the auction further went to save innocent lives from abandoned landmines.

Our participation in this charity marathon event will be continued next year too. Perhaps we will see one or two of you there!