LAKE BIWA 100
LAKE BIWA 100 is an authentic 100-mile race comparable to overseas 100 mile race in full-fledged mountains. The course runs through a technical and beautiful ridgeline of the 1,200m class mountains (e.g. Suzuka Mountains, Hira Mountains) in renowned mountainous areas in Kansai, which requires runners, not only running ability, but comprehensive ability to run through the mountains and risk management skills.
Runners can enjoy the mountains surrounding Lake Biwa, which offers various and exciting challenges, and beautiful scenery along the course. After going through rough mountainous area in Suzuka Mountains, runners enters Shiga Prefecture on the Tokai Nature Trail where runners can enjoy running in a relatively flat section, and proceeds to the mountainous area again. From the trail overlooking Lake Biwa, the runners proceed to famous Mt. Hiei Enryakuji Temple in Kyoto, head north while enjoying traditional buildings of Japan, and enter the rugged mountain range. After conquering this mountain area, the runner reaches the last aid station set at a shrine called Modoroki Shrine, where people pray for their safely return. The runners pray for finishing the race safely, and then faces the last challenge, climbing the long steep climb of the Hira mountain range to the ridgeline. From there, Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, and the Suzuka Mountains located across the lake can be seen. Then, the runner go down a steep descent of 1000 meters to Lake Biwa, at once, runs along the lake shore, and finishes at a beach of Lake Biwa. Many runners enjoy Goal & Dive, where the runner dive into the lake celebrating their achievement. The Cut-off time is set for a relatively long time, but the course is challenging. Also, the route is marked but not that many (some sections have only few markers), so you need to be able to self navigate with your GPS watch and the offline map on your mobile phone every now and then.
Each aid stations have plenty of drinks and nice Japanese food and snacks. Aid station staffs are very friendly and provide great hospitality.
For runners from overseas, this is a unique opportunity where you can experience the beautiful nature of Japan, steep and challenging mountains, and Japanese cultures.
This race is a qualifier race for the Everest 135 mile race in Nepal in May.
The male and female winners of the LAKE BIWA 100 will be invited to the Everest 135.
Finishers of the LAKE BIWA 100 will also be eligible to enter the Everest 135.
※To participate in the 135 mile race, you need to have an experience of hiking over 5,000m high. If you don’t have an experience of over 5,000m mountains, you can run 100km race instead.
13 Nov 2024
2025 LAKE BIWA 100 will be held on 10-12 OCT. Entry starts 1 MAY 2025. This web page has updated to 2025 ver.
The 4th edition of the 2024 LAKE BIWA 100 has reached its successful finish on Sunday 13! We would like to thank all the runners for their enthusiastic running and all the organizing committee members and volunteers who worked so hard to make the event a success. This year we were blessed with fine weather on all three days, but the daytime temperatures were probably a little too hot for the runners, but even so, 326 runners turned out, with 245 finishers and a high finish rate of 75,2%. We would like to thank everyone who took part in the event, whether they finished or DNF. Your achievement in completing the tough course was a great pleasure for us as well. Running this 100-mile course is not easy. We salute you all for your hard work and passion. We hope that this experience will help you in your future running life. The excitement created by this event will surely stay with us for a long time. We look forward to seeing all the runners and volunteers again next year. This event would not have been possible without the cooperation of all the sponsors, partner organizations, people who allowed us to use their facilities, and local authorities. We are truly grateful for their support. We will use the experience gained from this event to make it even better. We will upload next year’s schedule, official results and photos taken by the official photographers as soon as possible, so please follow us on the official SNS. We look forward to seeing many of you again next year at the LAKE BIWA 100. Executive Committee Chairperson / Race Director Kaori NIWA
1 Sep. 2024
Entry list is now available on our website. Please make sure that the items listed are correct. If there are any mistakes, please contact the following email address ASAP. info@lakebiwa100.com If the Bib distribution place field is blank, please check the e-mail we sent you two weeks ago.
13 June. 2024
We have made the minor route change after A7.
The gpx file on our web page has been updated. Please download the new version.
1 May. 2024
2024/5/1 (Wed) – 5/19 (Sun) Pre-Registration is now open! Please check the 2024 LAKE BIWA 100 Overview page. Selection results will be sent by e-mail by Friday, May 24. Please complete the main entry (including payment) by June 10 (Mon).
9 Mar. 2024
Announcement from the LAKE BIWA 100
Pre-entry will open again this year on 1 May.
In response to the large number of entries we received last year, we are starting an initiative to make the draw ticket-based and give tickets to the following people to increase their chances of winning.
Tickets for those who helped as volunteer staff during the race-1 ticket
Tickets for those who helped with trail work (maintenance activities) and course marking. 1 ticket per day
For those who were not selected in the lottery (those who did not meet the entry requirements will be excluded)
This applies from the time of this year’s draw, so those who volunteered last year, helped with maintenance, etc., and those who were not selected in the draw have been granted a ticket.
We will also ask you to fill in the entry form just in case.
Please note that even if you have lots of tickets, you will not be selected if you do not meet the entry requirements.
Tickets will be reset when you are selected. The number of tickets will accumulate until you are selected.
The LAKE BIWA 100 maintenance team will be active soon.
Trail work and other announcements will be made on the official FB page, so if you are interested in, please follow the page and await announcements.
We look forward to your participation.
6 Dec. 2023
The whole web page has been renewed for 2024 edition.
The detail of entry is in the LAKE BIWA 100 overview page.
This is very tough race, so please read all the information carefully before you enter.
Due to the logging work, we are told not to enter the trail between 2km after A7 and Mt. Ryozen (the first peak after A7) after May 2023, so please do not try to run this section before the race. We only have permission to go through on the race day.
