Yuya Yoshida 's story is really the kind you love to read. A guy who never got to run the big races at Aoyama Gakuin University until his very last chance his senior year, when he dropped a course record at the 2020 Hakone Ekiden in what he was thinking of as his last race. Then a 2:08:30 marathon debut for 3rd at Beppu on his coach's advice. Then a 2:07:05 win at the Fukuoka International Marathon later the same year after deciding to keep going and joining the GMO corporate team. A few years of setbacks, then a 2:06:37 PB in Osaka this spring. And now this. A 2:05:16 CR for the win in Fukuoka, 1:02:58 at halfway and a smoking 1:02:18 mostly solo 2nd half, 2 seconds under the old record set back in pre-super shoe days in 2009 by the great Tsegaye Kebede . Really, what else is there to say? Yoshida was great. In the pack through 25 km, then throwing down at dropping 2:06:31 man Yusuke Nishiyama and everyone else except Israeli Tadesse Getahon , who lasted another 5 km befor...
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