The Longest Marathon Ever: Shizo Kanakuri’s 54-Year Race (And Why He Didn’t Lose)

If running a marathon is one of the most grueling athletic challenges, then Shizo Kanakuri deserves to be called a true ironman among marathoners. Kanakuri didn’t just run one marathon in his life – he started it in 1912 and incredibly finished it a mind-boggling 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours and 32 minutes later!

Born in a rural town on the island of Kyushu in 1891, young Shizo was no stranger to running long distances, trekking nearly 4 miles to school every day. In November 1911, 20-year-old Kanakuri ran the domestic trials for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, reportedly setting a marathon world record of 2 hours, 30 minutes, and 33 seconds, though the course was only 40 km (25 mi). This achievement made him one of the first two Japanese athletes ever to qualify for the games.

The path to Stockholm was arduous from the start – to raise funds for the long voyage, Kanakuri’s classmates organized a nationwide campaign that collected 1,500 of the 1,800 yen he needed, with his eldest brother covering the rest. The journey itself took 18 grueling days by ship and train across the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Upon arriving in Stockholm weakened and struggling to adapt to the foreign environment, conditions for the Olympic marathon turned nightmarish. Held during a sweltering heat wave, the race was so brutally hot that the reigning Olympic champion Johnny Hayes decried it as “a disgrace to civilization.” One runner, Francisco Lázaro, collapsed from heat exhaustion and tragically died, becoming the Olympics’ first fatality.

Kanakuri himself succumbed around the 16 mile mark, stumbling away from the course dazed and delirious until he found himself at a garden party where he gulped down orange juice for an hour. Too embarrassed to return to the course, he slipped back to Japan unannounced, with his name being added to Sweden’s missing persons list for the next 50 years!

While Kanakuri’s Olympic debut ended in disappointment, his marathon story had only just begun. He would go on to compete in the 1920 Olympics, finishing a respectable 16th, and to establish the famous Hakone Ekiden marathon relay in Japan that has been held annually since 1920.

Most incredibly, in 1967 at age 76, Kanakuri received a chance to finally “finish” his marathon in Stockholm when Swedish television brought him back to complete the race course after a Swedish reporter discovered him working as a geography teacher in Southern Japan. Immediately upon arriving in Sweden, eagerly “jumped off the plane”, and “jogged around the tarmac” to warm up his legs, and “showed great vigor” according to the Associated Press.

On March 20, 1967, he Kanukari finished the marathon, with an official time of 54 years 8 months 6 days 5 hours 32 minutes 20.3 seconds! He commented, “It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren.”

Celebrating at the same garden villa where he had guzzled orange juice in 1912, Kanakuri inspected an old Japanese scroll he had given the family to thank them for their hospitality, only to sheepishly admit it was just “an old customs form.”

His time may have been the slowest ever, but his perseverance, humility and passion for marathoning made him a true legend of the sport. Today, the top prize of Japan’s iconic Hakone Ekiden marathon is fittingly named after Shizo Kanakuri, the “Father of Marathon” in Japan whose incredible story epitomizes the philosophy of “It’s not about the time, it’s about the finish!”

Sources: 1, 2