Canadians love the California International Marathon. But will the Japanese?
CIM race director John Mansoor, who had more than 300 Canadian runners in his field last December, said race officials have targeted Japan as a potential source of entrants for the 2009 marathon, set for Dec. 6.
"We are going to go to the Tokyo Marathon for the first time," Mansoor said. "We've had great success with Canada .. now we've said, 'Let's take a shot at Japan.'"
Mansoor said California has directed a lot of advertising toward Japan, so "we thought we'd piggyback."
But the focus on Japan might not last long. Mansoor said Canada tops the list of international visitors to the CIM's web site with 8,000, followed by Great Britain at 5,000.
"Next year, we'll probably go to London," Mansoor said.
