Slowest marathon?
By AndrewR
10 comments
You see all sorts of people in fancy dress running the marathon, but there’s no-one as slow as this bloke.
During the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Kanakuri Shizō, a Japanese marathon runner, went missing during the race. He stopped at a party taking place in a villa on the marathon route in order to quench his thirst, then caught a train to Stockholm and left the country the next day. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. 50 years later, after being invited back by the Swedish authorities, he completed the race with an (unofficial) time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.
15 Feb, 2014
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Comments
Fancy that!
16 Feb, 2014
I thought you were joking at first Andrew, I think its fantastic that they tracked him down and invited him back to officially finish his race, bet thats one for the Guinness Book of Records.......
16 Feb, 2014
Brilliant....
16 Feb, 2014
Lol hilarious :-))
16 Feb, 2014
Brilliant, talk about getting side tracked!!!!!!!
16 Feb, 2014
Ha ha.
17 Feb, 2014
And let's not forget...he finished. Lol.
Hilarious blog, Andrew!
17 Feb, 2014
That's brilliant. I will let my (slow) marathon running twin daughters know about this - it will make them laugh and make them realise that their times are not so bad :)
17 Feb, 2014
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HB - back in 1912, all competitors were amateurs, often with little if any training. It was another world, and we mustn't equate it with the attitudes of today. For him, it was probably a unique opportunity to visit somewhere outside his native land, and if one of his hosts invited him to join them for a drink, he would have jumped at the chance.
16 Feb, 2014