Running News Daily

Running News Daily is edited by Bob Anderson in Mountain View, California USA and team in Thika Kenya, La Piedad Mexico, Bend Oregon and Chandler Arizona.   Send your news items to bob@mybestruns.com  Advertising opportunities available.   Over one million readers and growing.  Train the Kenyan Way at KATA Running Retreat Kenya.  (Kenyan Athletics Training Academy) in Thika Kenya.  Opening in june 2024 KATA Running retreat Portugal.  Learn more about Bob Anderson, MBR publisher and KATA director/owner, take a look at A Long Run the movie covering Bob's 50 race challenge.  

Index to Daily Posts · Sign Up For Updates · Run The World Feed

Share

2018 Boston Marathon champion Yuki Kawauchi perhaps is Japan’s most famous marathon runner

During the past decade, Yuki Kawauchi has been perhaps Japan’s most famous marathon runner. He’s been known as the “Citizen Runner” or the “Civil Service Runner.”M

But he no longer carries these catchphrases when he runs.

Kawauchi became a professional runner on Monday, meaning he will be able to devote all his time to the sport.

While he has taken pride in his accomplishments as an amateur runner, Kawauchi is excited about the dawn of his new full-time athletic career. He believes that he can now commit himself 24/7 to the sport, which was not possible when he was a Saitama Prefectural Office employee working full time at Kasukabe High School.

The 32-year-old said that he began thinking about turning pro in 2017, when he competed at the IAAF World Championships in London. It was his third appearance at worlds. He barely missed a top-eight finish, placing ninth.

While he regretted the result, the experience to stay in England for 10 days to prepare for the race opened up his eyes.

“I had never had a chance to be away from home for nine nights or for 10 days,” Kawauchi told The Japan Times after a Tokyo news conference to announce his advisory role for sporting apparel company Asics on Tuesday. “And spending nine nights, my condition went up as the time wore on.

“And then, I asked myself what kind of potential I would have if I spent a month, a year or two years.”

The idea of becoming a pro dwelled on Kawauchi’s mind later the same year at the Fukuoka International Marathon, where he participated along with his younger brother, Yoshiki. Kawauchi said that his brother, who had just turned pro after working for a private company for three years, impressed him by improving his personal-best time by five minutes.

“I had not come up with a new personal best for a long time either,” said Kawauchi, whose personal record is 2 hours, 8 minutes, 14 seconds at the 2013 Seoul International Marathon in 2013. “So I made up my mind to become a pro runner. I decided so by watching my brother’s performance.”

On Tuesday, Kawauchi was ecstatic while appearing before the media and talking about what he will do next. He said that now he would be able to do a lot of things he “had envisioned” he could do as a pro.

The Tokyo native, who grew up mostly in Saitama Prefecture, announced that he plans to hold a two-month training camp in Kushiro, Hokkaido, starting in June.

To make up for a lack of practice time as an amateur, Kawauchi competed in races nearly every weekend, treating them like training sessions. But he admitted that he was sacrificing his body, which could not fully recover before the next race. That said, he’s thrilled to now have proper time for medical care if needed.

Interestingly, Kawauchi, who has completed 92 full marathons in his career, insisted that he would have less pressure on his shoulders as a pro because he would essentially compete for himself.

(04/06/2019) Views: 1,819 ⚡AMP
by KAZ NAGATSUKA
Share
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon

Among the nation’s oldest athletic clubs, the B.A.A. was established in 1887, and, in 1896, more than half of the U.S. Olympic Team at the first modern games was composed of B.A.A. club members. The Olympic Games provided the inspiration for the first Boston Marathon, which culminated the B.A.A. Games on April 19, 1897. John J. McDermott emerged from a...

more...


Running News Headlines


Copyright 2024 MyBestRuns.com 3,142