54 Years, 8 Months and 6 Days: Shizo Kanakuri and the Slowest Marathon Ever
The slowest marathon time ever belongs to Shizo Kanakuri. In 1912 he vanished mid-race at the Stockholm Olympics. In 1967 he finally crossed the finish line. In between: 54 years, 8 months and 6 days, a Guinness record and six children.
By the PacePoster desk · · 3 min · 6 sources
0132 °C, a Garden and a Glass of Orange Juice
Stockholm, July 14, 1912. Kanakuri (sometimes spelled Shiso) lines up for the Olympic marathon. With sprinter Yahiko Mishima, he makes up Japan's very first Olympic delegation. It is around 32 °C, unusually hot for Sweden. Somewhere on the course, he drops out. Where exactly? A mystery: World Athletics says he stopped after 25 km, and the "27th km" you often read about is far from certain. What happens next, though, everyone tells the same way: he ends up at a garden party hosted by locals, who hand him a glass of orange juice. Friendly family, cold drink, and the race carries on without him.
02Reported Missing
Embarrassed, he goes home to Japan without telling the organizers. As far as Sweden is concerned, a runner is still out there somewhere: he is listed as missing for about fifty years. According to Outside, he stayed on the police registers all that time, probably for fear of a second tragedy. Not so absurd: Portugal's Francisco Lázaro had collapsed during that same race, and he died the next morning.
Kanakuri, meanwhile, gets on with his life. He runs again at the 1920 Antwerp Games (16th), becomes a teacher (of geography, according to Outside) and pushes for the creation of the Hakone Ekiden, Japan's great university relay, where a trophy now carries his name.
It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, and had six children and ten grandchildren.
031967: The Finish Line, at Last
In 1967, Swedish television (Sveriges Television) tracks him down in Tamana, in Kumamoto Prefecture, and invites him to finish what he started. He is 75. On March 20, 1967, in Stockholm, he finally breaks the tape, wearing a coat. His comment, reported by Outside and Guinness World Records: “It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, and had six children and ten grandchildren.”
04The Slowest Marathon Time Ever, Officially
54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds. Guinness World Records recognizes it as the longest time ever taken to finish a marathon. Symbolic, obviously: nobody ran for 54 years straight. The real irony is that Kanakuri was fast. At the 1911 Japanese trials, aged 20 according to Outside, he covered the 40 km in a little over 2 hr 32 min, a time hailed back then as a world record (on a course about 2 km short, World Athletics points out). He died in 1983, aged 92.
Sources for this story (6)
Every fact was cross-checked in at least two independent sources. Where they disagree, the story says so.
- Longest time to complete a marathon — Guinness World Records
- Longest marathon in history — Guinness World Records (2019)
- The Olympic Marathoner Who Went Missing — Outside (2020)
- Land of rising run: Japan's father of the marathon — World Athletics (Matt Majendie, 2025)
- Stockholm 1912, marathon : résultats — Olympedia
- 箱根駅伝、野村に「金栗四三杯」 — Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun (2025)
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