The Fukuoka marathon in 2012 showed, that once again, the level of competition in the marathon is so high that there are no shoe-ins. This photo gallery was created by Chuck Bartlett, the RN Website Director, who does several photo galleries a week (you can find more at www.runningnetwork.com).
The Fukuoka International marathon has been, for many of its years, the de facto year championship of the marathon. Derek Clayton broke 2:10 on the Fukuoka course, then went on to run 2:08:34 for a WR. Frank Shorter won four times in a row, as well as the
Olympic marathon in 1972. Seko, DeCastella, the list goes on.
This year, Joseph Gitau won the race with a huge PB in 2:06.51.
Joseph Gitau, 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.
