Tomomi Bitoh

About

Tomomi Bitoh is a Japanese professional ultrarunner and coach born on December 11, 1990, in Tokyo, who made one of the more striking career pivots in the sport — transitioning from teaching at a nursery school to becoming a full-time professional athlete in 2017, after a friend's gym invitation sparked an obsession with endurance sport. She ran her first marathon in 2018 with a sub-four-hour goal and within three years had reached the women's podium at the Marathon des Sables — one of the most demanding self-supported desert races on Earth. In 2021 she was runner-up overall in the women's race at the Marathon des Sables, and in 2023 returned to finish third overall and become the first Japanese woman to win prize money at the race in two consecutive years. She won the Spartan Race Ultra 50K Elite in Honolulu in 2022 — the first Japanese woman to claim the overall women's title — and placed first in Asia at the Spartan Race World Championship in Dubai in 2021. In 2025 she completed the World Marathon Challenge — seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days — placing runner-up in the women's overall. A coach and influencer alongside her racing career, Bitoh is one of the most internationally visible Japanese women in endurance sport.

Notable Wins

• — Marathon des Sables 2021 2nd (women's overall)
• — Marathon des Sables 2023 3rd (women's overall
• — first Japanese to win prize money consecutively)
• — Spartan Race Ultra 50K Elite Honolulu 2022 1st (first Japanese women's overall winner)
• — Spartan Race World Championship Dubai 2021 1st in Asia
• — World Marathon Challenge 2025 2nd (women's overall)

Race History