Yuki Kawauchi will win today’s Boston Marathon. Update: Yes he just did it.

100 percent in favor of Kawauchi win and the way he goes about his business.

but if he peaked and worked on his middle distance speed, i got to wonder what this guy could have done.

but then again, i like the way he's done it, making a total mockery of our ideas about training, recovery and the marathon.

love it.

Yuki is now the FAVORITE for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Gold!

it seems to me that Yuki would rather run more marathons reasonably competitively than peak for a championship season.

I mean just look at his behavior

When the streams were blocked at home and I went to do a TMill tempo, I was very fortunate to find the race on a channel I did not know was carrying it--versa or something like that. I got to see the late stages of Desi's win and then elated as well to see Yuki tailing Kirui, blowing by him, and gutting his way to the win. To the OP, you nailed this all right. Great job. This was certainly a day where the toughest athletes shined the brightest. On the women's side, eight out of the top ten were Americans. Probably felt like the kind of day to bag it in favor of a perfect day in London or the like, if you were not used to the conditions. This is long in coming for both Yuki and Desi. Congratulations to them!

[quote]no way Hasay wrote:

Jordan Hasay needs to take a lesson from Desi and Kawauchi. That's what being tough is all about, NOT dropping out because you think there is a possibility of being injured sometime in the future.

THAT attitude is why Americans suck at distance running.

Wrong.

yea bad call, anyone with a lingering foot issue/connective problem should not run a thon to prove they are tough if they want to stay competitive in the years to come

This race could not have possibly made me happier.

The two most annoying forces in distance running, the NOP and all the random Kenyans went home utterly devastated.

An American woman won, and not just any American woman but Desi Linden who bravely called out Dathan Ritzenhein on his suspect past shortly before the race.

And finally the most likeable, heroic marathoner alive, the only man reminiscent of the working class pure guts runners of the 70s, Yuki Kawauchi, took it away in thrilling fashion.

What a day. Reminds me the feeling I had after Brexit.

I'm not sure about that but, nonetheless, very happy for the Japanese running community. It's suprising how big that community is!

http://www.runningotaku.com/an-educated-guess-on-the-number-of-age-group-runners/

Congrats to Yuki! This is a miraculous result for one of the best dudes in all of running! I can't even find a suitable comparison for how unlikely and satisfying this win is - maybe a combination of the 1980 US Hockey Team and a Japanese amateur winning the Masters golf! In his nice Japanese way he spits in the face of 2 major principles of modern marathoning, 1- that one must be a true pro to be successful, and 2- that 2 marathons a year is the maximum for the body! This guy has a regular 9 to 5 job and he runs a marathon once a month!

I obviously agree with all posters that he is normally not a threat to run the 2:05 needed to win majors, but on this day in these conditions he won Boston and no one can ever take that away. Japan has a huge running community and this will be an even bigger story there. He joins the legendary Tashahiko Seko 1987 as a Boston winner and with his unique personality, multiple marathon records, and now slaying the Americans and the Africans in the middle of a Noreaster puts him on the Mount Rushmore of Japanese marathoning.

Truly unbelievable and couldn't happen to a better man!

Best Boston Ever wrote:

This race could not have possibly made me happier.

The two most annoying forces in distance running, the NOP and all the random Kenyans went home utterly devastated.

An American woman won, and not just any American woman but Desi Linden who bravely called out Dathan Ritzenhein on his suspect past shortly before the race.

And finally the most likeable, heroic marathoner alive, the only man reminiscent of the working class pure guts runners of the 70s, Yuki Kawauchi, took it away in thrilling fashion.

What a day. Reminds me the feeling I had after Brexit.

Very well put, I agree 100%.

Tremcc wrote:

Holy crap I picked Desi and Yuki to win in the prediction contest! Did anyone else?

If true, you are our winner for sure. NOBODY could have garnered more points than you on the women's side and by pairing that up with Yuki, I'm calling it. You da man!

When I saw Yuki make that surge from the start, I thought he was just trying to keep this an honest race and stick to his own pace rather than shuffle like the rest. When he got swallowed up but was able to stay near the front and then kept doing the surges, I had a feeling that he was loving this weather, like it was just another marathon much like many he had run before. He is the type of runner that rarely drops out and always grits it out and did that legendary solo sub-2:20 at Marshfield New Years Day in freezing temps, so this could be his day. And when Kirui started to falter and look back and Yuki could smell the blood, it was over. You can't stop a freight train, and the great Yuki does not know how to stop.

Unbelievable. Inspiring.

Letsrun wrote:

We've turned this into the official thread as before the race started a poster called Luki Yuki started it and predicted a victory for Kawaruchi. We've merged a bunch of post-race threads into this one.

This board is never going to be anything but chaos and nonsense no matter what because of how you guys "manage" it, but it's really irritating when you just decide to merge somewhat related threads based on what seems logical to you in the midst of your latest brain fart. Guys in their 40s with Ivy League degrees, however unearned, should not be using "official" to describe unofficial things, just as people need to quit using "literally" to mean "figuratively."

Please consider it.

Used to live in Japan and Kawauchiさん came and ran in the local small town 1/2 marathon where we lived (the Ota Subaru 1/2 marathon - 上州太田スバルマラソン) just as he does at so many local races in Japan. And you would have thought the Beatles showed up at the race. He was absolutely mobbed by everyone there.

He was gracious with everyone with autographs, talking to folks in general (as much as he normally could given he was being mobbed by fans), gave a speech to all the runners, got people fired up, and then went out and decimated the field as a weekend fun run for him.

He is now elevated to demigod status in running crazed Japan.

So awesome!

now this is one athlete i can believe in ... ...

he aint nike he aint kenyan or ethiopian , he aint on the sauce ... ...

the speed peptide has ruined track but not this man .

Man does Yuki make the American marathons look soft. They say you can only run 1 a year - this guy runs what 1 a month and his PR is faster than any current US runner. Maybe they should take a lesson from him and step to the line a bit more

Yuki owes this one to Nike's outerwear department.

I was watching the NBC broadcast shortly after Yuki's win, and am I recalling correctly that as Yuki was being interviewed that he non-chalantly asked them to hurry up with the questioning as he was about to black out?

Lol, that is so awesome