Training Log-- Yuki Kawauchi

Professional running in Japan is a far more competitive-- and lucrative-- career path than professional running in America. If you run well in high school, then you get recruited for a top-tier university team, similar to America. Unlike America, however, your goal as a collegiate runner is not individual accolades or times, but to represent your University at long-distance relays called Ekidens. If you run well in an Ekiden in college, then after college, you get hired by corporations to run for their Ekiden teams and represent the corporation at marquee marathons like the Tokyo Marathon. As an employee, you're entitled to a salary and benefits (like athletes in the NBA or MLB or NHL but distinctly unlike American distance runners).

This seems like a pretty cool career path to American runners on the outside looking in, but to Yuki Kawauchi, it seemed rather stifling. Yuki ran well in high school, but not well enough to get recruited to a top university. He spent most of college studying for his municipal exams, and while he ran well his final year of college and received a few offers for a professional running career, he decided it would be a waste to forget all the time he spent studying. He took the exams, got a job as a high school administrator, and continued to train in his spare time.

In 2011, he shocked most of the Japanese running world by finishing third at the Tokyo Marathon in a time of 2:08, beating all the other professional, corporate-sponsored Japanese runners in the field. That same year, he came in third at Fukuoka International Marathon-- one of the oldest and most prestigious marathons in the world. What's most surprising, however, was that Fukuoka was his fourth marathon of 2011 (he ran five before the year was through). In 2012, he ran nine marathons. In 2013, he ran eleven, four of which were under 2:10--that's more than the entirety of America that year, and two of those were within two weeks of each other. He also wins a lot. In particular, he won the Boston Marathon in 2018, in the worst conditions that race had ever seen.

Had Yuki been training with a professional group, he might run 150 miles a week at a prescribed pace with daily workouts and race two or three times a year. Instead, he runs closer to 80 miles a week, mostly easy jogging with a single weekly workout, and races almost every weekend. He inspires the world with his rictus grin as he powers through finish lines; though his face may not show it, Yuki loves racing, and his love of racing makes him, well, great at racing.