Starting times: Jan. 2 at 8 a.m. (Tokyo to Hakone); Jan. 3 at 8 a.m. (Hakone to Tokyo)
The runners: 20 all-male college track and field teams from the Kanto region (around Tokyo), each with 10 runners.
How to participate: Teams that finish in the top 10 are entitled to compete again the following year. Another nine are selected through a qualifying race in October, in which 45 teams competed this year. The final team allowed to take part is picked by the Kanto university runners' association, and features individual runners from different universities whose teams did not qualify to compete. The 2009 race will have 23 teams, a bonus of three more than usual, to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the first running of the event.