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| Kawauchi wins Beppu-Oita Marathon 2013 in the race record time and his personal best of 2:08:15 |
Yuki Kawauchi capture the limelight and the attention of the world when he became the third overall and the first Japanese finisher at the Tokyo Marathon in February 2011 with a time of 2:08:37. Kawauchi's running style is so intense in a marathon that he has collapsed a few times running marathons. His motto is more like it is ok if I die running a marathon.
Mr. Kawauchi stood out as he dubbed the "Citizen Runner" because unlike most elite-level runners in Japan, who are backed by a corporation, he is an amateur. He works a regular job a full five days a week and pays his own expenses. The key to his success? Working hard, being in excellent condition, but above all having fun. “Working hard for the sake of working hard won’t lead to results. You have to be careful of injury, train efficiently, and remember that you are training because you love to run. I think that an athlete discovers the joy of track when he or she is able to stay injury-free and perform in ways that the athlete wants to.”
The organisers of the 2013 Egyptian Marathon agreed to pay his travel expenses for the January race, but Kawauchi missed his flight after arriving at the airport without his passport. He decided to pay 800,000 yen (US$9,000) for a replacement flight – an amount that equal to a quarter of his yearly salary. The decision paid off and he won with a time of 2:12:24 – the fastest ever for a race in Egypt. Less than three weeks later he ran at the Beppu-Ōita Marathon and he reached the top of the Japanese rankings by winning the race in a personal best of 2:08:15.
The above video shows some of Kawauchi's running journey and his recent win at Beppu-Oita Marathon 2013 with a winning time of 2:08:15 against Nakamoto, who was sixth at last summer’s Olympic marathon, finished 20 seconds slower in second place. A video to watch if you need motivation to run !
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