Since the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, road races around the world have been beefing up security measures. The Tokyo Marathon, one of the six World Marathon Majors races, will go a step further on February 22: Police officers will run alongside race participants.
Sixty-four police officers will run the 26.2-mile route with 30,000 participants, . That is in addition to the numerous law enforcement personnel who will line the course. Running officers will have special bibs identifying them to runners. The officers will also have cameras mounted on their caps that will stream live video back to headquarters, according to Reuters.
鈥淎ll police officers train as a matter of course, since you never know when you might have to run as part of your daily work,鈥 a police spokesperson told Reuters. 鈥淏ut these will be people who run quite a lot.鈥
Increased security measures follow the that they had beheaded two Japanese nationals, one a journalist.