After his subpar showing, Kawauchi said he was “ashamed” by the performance. Here is what he told Brett Larner, his agent and the brains behind Japan Running News:
“I just couldn’t move. I had trouble training in the heat in Saitama this summer. I knew some of my results over the summer weren’t great but I thought I had put it all together for this race. I’m ashamed to have run a time like this in Chicago and it only reinforces how much I’m looking forward to leaving my job so I can go away somewhere cooler this summer and do the kind of training that will let me be competitive in a race like this.”
Kawauchi’s struggles weren’t a surprise to us or Larner. Prior to the race, Larner pointed out that while Kawauchi has broken 2:11 an incredible 20 times in his career, he’s never done it during a fall marathon as he has always struggled to train properly in the heat (and with a full-time job he can’t relocate to a cooler climate).
I'm proud of Yuki for finally openly admitting his crap job is holding him back. OK, maybe not crap but time-sucking day job. He's so Japanese in terms of following though with his duties and seeing his responsibilities as an act of service that I never thought I'd hear this. It is freaking hot and humid in Japan in the summer and increasingly so with climate change. An American would've quit this job like 8 years ago!