Slowest Marathon Ever

My marathon last December was one of my slowest, though not as slow as the one I suffered through in 2007 (which taught me never to run another marathon in warm temperatures).  I look at every marathon as a victory if I merely cross the finish line, and plenty of younger, healthier men and women, some of them celebrities praised for having run a marathon, have run slower than 5:17:08.  There is even some stubborn pride in having run so slowly.

But today I came upon the story of the world's slowest marathon time, held by a Japanese runner named Shizo Kanakuri.  Kanakuri was actually an excellent runner who has been celebrated in Japan as the "father of the marathon,"  He set a world record in 1911 of 2:32:45 and was invited to attend the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.  However, according to Wikipedia, he is best known for his disappearance during the Olympic Marathon.  Like me (and that is probably our only similarity other than having run the same distance) he encountered warm conditions - 104 degrees F at the start - and like over half the runners in the event he suffered from hypothermia.  He lost consciousness (which I nearly did in 2007 under less trying circumstances) and dropped out of the race, returning to Japan.  But he returned to his native country without notifying Swedish authorities, who considered him missing for 50 years.  In the meantime, he had competed in other marathons, married,, and raised a family.  In 1966, he was offered the chance to complete his long-unfinished marathon in Stockholm, and he did so, clocking a time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, and 32 minutes and 20.379 seconds.  He is quoted as having said after the race, "It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren."  Kanakuri died in 1983 at the age of 92. 

It was indeed a long trip, as is every race..  But he was a finisher, and therefore a victor.