The people's champ has done it!! Yuki Kawauchi breaks WR for most career sub-2:20 marathons. 2:18 in 1 degree temps in USA

Ending 2017 Kawauchi ran one extra run that so far has been missed.

Dec. 3: Fukuoka International Marathon, Fukuoka: 2:10:53 - 9th

Dec. 10: Ogawa Washi Half Marathon, Saitama: 1:04:05 - 1st - also ran as pacer in kids' 3 km

Dec. 17: Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, Yamaguchi: 2:10:03 - 1st

The kids must have been thrilled. Now that is how a great runner gives something back to the community. . . . encourage young people to take up the sport by running at their pace.

Looking at Yuki's results just proves that oversea marathons are more difficult and slower than if you'd run locally.

bib 4100

in all of his previous starts the bib numbers may not to add up to 4100!

He also split 2:18 enroute to 50 km before, not included in his total. He's gonna put the 'WR' out of reach.

lkjlkj wrote:

Looking at Yuki's results just proves that oversea marathons are more difficult and slower than if you'd run locally.

Typical LR banter. This post doesn't make any sense whatsoever. None. It's what drives people away from this site.

Neat but can we stop pretending that number of career sub-2:20s is an actual world record? That's only a few steps above the world record for a marathon while dressed as a hot dog.

YEAH BUDDY wrote:

Neat but can we stop pretending that number of career sub-2:20s is an actual world record? That's only a few steps above the world record for a marathon while dressed as a hot dog.

How many sub 2:20s have you run?

Work Commute Track Club wrote:

YEAH BUDDY wrote:

Neat but can we stop pretending that number of career sub-2:20s is an actual world record? That's only a few steps above the world record for a marathon while dressed as a hot dog.

How many sub 2:20s have you run?

Myself I have Zero so far, and after a non running related injury, I have not run since 2004 and my weight has balooned to 250, just by eating the same way as when I was working out every day and weighing 140-155, so that may be the number I finish with.

KnowsBetter wrote:

He also split 2:18 enroute to 50 km before, not included in his total. He's gonna put the 'WR' out of reach.

No records are meant to be broken, somewhere some good but not great runner at some high school or college, will say to himself, I am probably never going to break the World Record of 2:02.57, but I could be like Kawauchi and run Sub 2:20's over and over, Example the University Of Oregon on an average year has 15-20 runners who can do what Kawauchi is doing, but they don't think of that, so after college most quit if they feel they can't contend for World and Olympic Medals.

I mean Kawauchi's best 5000 is 13:58 and his best 10000 is 29:02 those are times the runners at Wisconsin, Oregon, Colorado etc. run multiple times weekly on tempo runs before they are legally old enough to drink a beer or even drive a car, runners at the top colleges could run Kawauchi's 5 and 10k times, probably by the time they are sophomores in high school, but don't only because those distances are not offered on high school schedules.

Have you ever raced a marathon? A 208 guy running 2:18 still takes it out of you.

It's freaken insane that he can bang out a sub 2:20 marathon every other week. And we are talking about many many marathons that are faster than 2:12 here.

Yuki will go down in running history and contrats to him for that.

Dude was incredible today. 0 degrees at start, with ridiculous wind. Incredible, definitely not Rupp-certified. Watch the finish:

https://www.facebook.com/willdcoyote/videos/pcb.10155051760001700/10155051759261700/?type=3&theater

Work Commute Track Club wrote:

Have you ever raced a marathon? A 208 guy running 2:18 still takes it out of you.

It's freaken insane that he can bang out a sub 2:20 marathon every other week. And we are talking about many many marathons that are faster than 2:12 here.

Yuki will go down in running history and contrats to him for that.

Yes I have, 20 times, I am just saying it would not be hard for a sub 9 minute High School 2 miler to run under 2:20, a lot of top runners probably run under 2:20 pace for 40k/25miles every 7-10 days as part of their training.

I am just trying to plant the idea in the minds of college kids at good schools, who never made their teams top 7, that this is a goal they can achieve.

I think Doug Kurtis had 76 sub 2:20.'s and Kjell Erik Stahl of Sweden had a lot as well

He has a 2:08 PB, different story.

Here is stats from May 2017, http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2017/05/sub-x-marathon-and-half-marathon-world.html

douglas burke wrote:

I am just saying it would not be hard for a sub 9 minute High School 2 miler to run under 2:20, a lot of top runners probably run under 2:20 pace for 40k/25miles every 7-10 days as part of their training.

I am just trying to plant the idea in the minds of college kids at good schools, who never made their teams top 7, that this is a goal they can achieve.

I think Doug Kurtis had 76 sub 2:20.'s and Kjell Erik Stahl of Sweden had a lot as well

Not many runners run 40km every 7 to 10 days at marathon pace. That is a mammoth workout even for a 203 guy.

Getting into sub 2:20 shape (especially for non-professionals) takes real commitment even for guys who are very talented college guys. I've seen many very good runners try and fail several times at the marathon before they get it right.

To run this many sub 2:20 marathons - you essentially need to be a 2:12 guy at worst to be able to to handle the training load. You also need pretty good conditions on good courses to run that fast. In my opinion you are vastly underestimating the difficulty here.

Have no fear. I'm sure that someone will say something negative about him here soon enough. This is Letsrun, after all.

douglas burke wrote:

KnowsBetter wrote:

He also split 2:18 enroute to 50 km before, not included in his total. He's gonna put the 'WR' out of reach.

No records are meant to be broken, somewhere some good but not great runner at some high school or college, will say to himself, I am probably never going to break the World Record of 2:02.57, but I could be like Kawauchi and run Sub 2:20's over and over, Example the University Of Oregon on an average year has 15-20 runners who can do what Kawauchi is doing, but they don't think of that, so after college most quit if they feel they can't contend for World and Olympic Medals.

Mr. Burke, I think what you are missing here is Kawasaki-sans ability to recover quickly from these marathon efforts. Very few athletes can do this, this is his special talent. Also his bio mechanics allow him to run consistency at 4:54-5:10 per mile. He uses his energy to move forward and very little energy is wasted with vertical propulsion. The vertical movement requires the muscles to absorb shock, and I believe a lot of the damage to the muscles occurs here.

No, if Doug still owned or co-owned the record we wouldn't be having this conversation. Kurtis had a 2:19:59 that was rounded up, according to rules of stats folks. Argue the point if you want. Soon to be made madly moot by YK.

BTW, Doug is happy for Kawauchi. He's said so publicly.