Tokyo

city · earth

The capital of Japan and the largest urban agglomeration in the world by population. Its marathon course reads the city's two levels directly: the Yamanote uplands to the west, where the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and the Shinjuku start stand on a terrace, and the Shitamachi lowlands to the east around Tokyo Station and the Sumida river, where the course now finishes. Running from the terrace to the lowland is why the course is net downhill and why the 2017 redesign, which abandoned the exposed waterfront leg for a Tokyo Station finish, made it faster. It is a canonical city object and is not defined by the marathon.