It's still kind of hard to believe that it's come and gone, but you couldn't have asked for a more symbolic choice to win the Fukuoka International Marathon 's final running. Coming to Japan from Kenya in his teens to attend Fukuoka Daiichi High School, finding guidance from Olympic marathoner Arata Fujiwara and working his way up the Fukuoka podium every year, Michael Githae (Suzuki) came through to become the final Fukuoka champion in 2:07:51. In JRN's Inside the Outside - When the World Came to Fukuoka Githae said, "This is my last chance. I'm going to run my best." Just before the start of the race Fujiwara, a 3rd-placer and twice sub-2:10 in Fukuoka, told JRN, "He's really confident. I think his training was better last year when he ran 2:08, but he really believes he's going to do it this time. In these conditions I think it'll go around 2:07:30, which would be in his favor." The pace went out hotter than that, with a 14...
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