Running News Daily

Is Yuki Kawauchi's secret weapon doing long distance runs at a slow pace? He ran 44 mile race Sunday

2018 Boston Marathon winner, Japan’s Yuki Kawauchi, won the Yatsugatake Nobeyama 71K ultramarathon in Nagano, Japan Sunday May 20, taking more than six minutes off the course record in the process.

His winning time was 4:41:55 (6:23/mile for 44.1 miles).  He won by more than half an hour.  According to Japan Running News, Kawauchi is training for the Stockholm marathon, which is June 2. 

Yuki finished sixth place there last year. This was the longest race of Kawauchi’s career so far. Kawauchi is famously unusual in his incorporation of over-distance training at a slow pace into his training, something few world-major elites do.

Some believe it’s his secret weapon, though others are skeptical of its value in marathon training.