> heavy rain, Yuki frontruns entire first 35k with almost suicidal ~14:45 first 5k and ~29:45 first 10k > gets caught by group, but hangs in > still stays with the front when it gets serious, one of four to break away > battles Suguru Osako, Japan's best marathon runner in the last few years, for final (provisional) Paris spot > narrowly looses out, but still finishes in front of dozens of corporate runners with better PBs and much better speed
Yuki is the best
Yeah so brave that he ran a stupid race
so so brave
If only he'd recognize the vast amount of running knowledge some people post here have and do what they think he should maybe he'd have some decent times and performances.
Could he have made the top 3 with a less aggressive race?
No. He’s not good enough to get top 2 that way. What he needed was the pack to slow down too much and let him win because no one wanted to chase him down until it was too late. That didn’t happen: Osako pulled the pace to catch him way up at 30k. But if they had waited longer, say 35-36-37k to pull the pace to catch him, or they slowed down more in the middle, he wins easily. It’s a great strategy in terrible conditions because all it takes is the chase pack to start looking at each other and chase down the last spot rather than someone reeling him in to make sure they have a chance at 2. It didn’t work out, but considering he had a near 0% chance on a normal day, it gave him a chance.
Yuki is somebody I can attest runs clean. Nobody looks so facially torturous in a marathon only to be taking drugs to run it. Just doesn't fit with each other this way.
Yuki has proven many times that he can run fast in any conditions, as well as recovery being a myth in his case. He doesn't draft behind bigger runners either. He doesn't runs on pure hate, but something like that in a happier manner.
Could he have made the top 3 with a less aggressive race?
No. He’s not good enough to get top 2 that way. What he needed was the pack to slow down too much and let him win because no one wanted to chase him down until it was too late....
He was interested in showing his guts. Everyone else was interested in finishing in the top two.
Well, and he still did better than 58 of his competitors, many of whom had faster PBs, so his strategy clearly wasn't the worst. He archieved a much better result than he should have had on paper, in fact this has to be his best showing (by far) against one of those huge domestic fields since pre super shoe times (even when he ran 2:07 earlier this year and in 2021 he was handily beaten by ~10+ of his countrymen).
Also it's pretty clear what he intended by going out fast in bad conditions (just like he did in Boston 2018): To make it very uncomfortable for everyone else, as, unlike him, most probably don't like running fast in such weather. And this approach obviously was working, since most of his competitors ended up running significantly larger positive splits compared to Yuki himself.
Seconded. And that's what makes Yuki so much fun. Those "stupid" strategies that sound good but never work ("just run harder"; "take the lead and don't look back"; "surprise them with an early move") actually work for him.
I'd find it hard to criticize a guy for using the exact same strategy that won him the Boston marathon. Especially seeing that he overperformed with it again. I don't think Yuki is stupid; he knows what works for him and does it, just like anyone else. I'm still going to criticize anyone else who tries it.
The dream is a race between Kawauchi, Sammy Wanjiru, and John Ngugi in terrible conditions. Yuki is obviously the weakest of the three, but I'm pretty sure the world blows up halfway through anyway.
Oddly if Paris turns out to be really hot, he might actually be one to do well so who knows, stranger things have happened.
Can you name any marathon he ran well under "really hot" conditions?
2018 Boston was cold and rainy, not hot. He was 29th in Doha, 18th in Moscow and 17th in Daegu. The only time he finished in the top ten at World Championships was 2017 London, which I assume was not hot.
What pure hate has he? He is pure love on the contrary lol! He finishes all his runs either almost in tears, or bowing incessantly at everyone, or otherwise apologizing for whatever expectation he failed to live up to. A doper or cheater doesn't do such things, no way in this universe or in our dimension of space and time. There are some things in this world that cannot lie to your eyes and Yuki is one of them.
Tripping. He didn't turn pro until after his prime years, usually back at work on Monday after marathons. Accepted no sponsor money either. Ran a pair of 208s 14 days apart with old school shoes and unimpressive track marks. He just simply loves running and it shows.
Easy to root for. I like that he is not in Nike. Extremely unusual in Japan. I didn't watch, so does anyone know if the entire rest of the field wad Nike-shod? I assume so.
Oddly if Paris turns out to be really hot, he might actually be one to do well so who knows, stranger things have happened.
Can you name any marathon he ran well under "really hot" conditions?
2018 Boston was cold and rainy, not hot. He was 29th in Doha, 18th in Moscow and 17th in Daegu. The only time he finished in the top ten at World Championships was 2017 London, which I assume was not hot.
Kawauchi has said himself that he doesn’t handle heat well
Can you name any marathon he ran well under "really hot" conditions?
2018 Boston was cold and rainy, not hot. He was 29th in Doha, 18th in Moscow and 17th in Daegu. The only time he finished in the top ten at World Championships was 2017 London, which I assume was not hot.
Kawauchi has said himself that he doesn’t handle heat well
I also remember him saying he did not like the heat and was excited to go pro because he could escape having to train in the summer heat. (Just because you don’t like training in the heat doesn’t automatically mean you won’t race well in the heat, but he seems to do his best when it’s wet and cold).
The reason why I jumped out at this MGC is, in addition to the factors already mentioned in the article, the strong influence of Estonia's Tallinn marathon, which I participated in in September. It's been a long time since I experienced a prize race in Europe without a PM, and I was getting shaken up a lot at the water station and on the slopes, so I thought it would be better to develop a race that I'm comfortable running.
I'm not looking for up votes lol? Are you serious right here? I just speak what I know to be the truth in the most efficient manner I think possible.
Yuki still doesn't engender one ounce of hate I feel. A runner fueled by hate might as well just take drugs lol! These 2 evil are of the same frequency resonance.
Did you see the race video? He led the race from the start till the 35th km. There was a storm pouring over them the whole time. He still managed to go 2'09 low in those conditions. I dont think he is that much far away from a 2'05 in ideal conditions
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