The Longest Marathon: 54 years

A hundred years ago...

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Tsubasa: It took 18 days to reach Sweden from Japan. By Trans-Siberian Railway. It took him five days to recover when he arrived in Stockholm for the 1912 Olympic marathon.

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Akira: But you say he didn’t finish the race.

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Tsubasa: He keeled over, locals took care of him, and when he woke up the race was long finished. So embarrassed, he quietly returned to Japan.

1912 to 1967

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Akira: Just disappeared?

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Tsubasa: Then in 1967, a Swedish TV company invited him to complete the run. He did. Total time elapsed for the race: over 54 years.

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Voice-over

Shizo Kanakuri (1891-1983) competed in two more Olympic marathons: 1920 and 1924. He must have understood Murakami’s “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

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Rugby then and rugby now

 Rugby junkies reminisce on the way things were…

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Wilson: Roy played on the wing.  Trialed for the All Blacks in 1939 but the war intervened. Could have gone to South Africa.

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Colin: A runner?

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Wilson: He was light. Fast. Ran like the wind. Different kind of rugby back then though.

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     laughing,
    running
    and ducking

Colin: Don Clark was a hero of mine in the 1950s. Listening to the All Blacks beat the British Lions ear pressed to the radio in 1959. Maybe his style of rugby was pivotal. End of an era.

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Wilson: In what way?

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Colin: It’s back then versus today. Running versus rucks. Deftness versus drugs.

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Colin: Funny you mention South Africa. That’s where Don Clark ended up. Archetypal New Zealand farm boy ends up there. On the other side. Bit ironical, that.

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Voice-over

Tackle, ruck, maul – is that a sum-up of rugby today? A game that morphed from a laughing, running and ducking game (LR&D) into a tournament of sweat, blood and tears, example, Jonah, first jumbo winger leading to a legacy of lookalikes? But it always was a contact sport. Survival of the fittest.
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Zippedydoodah

Hank gives some advice on jogging to young Fred.

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Hank: Takes ten minutes for the pain to go, then you start to feel good.

Fred: Is it worth all the pain and sweat and exhaustion?

Hank: Adds years to your life.

Fred: Took years off that fellow wrote a book on running, what was his name, Jim Fixx?

Hank: Died at 52, sure, but his father died at 42.

Fred: Anyway, how do you take your mind off all the pain?

Hank: I hum Zippedydoodah. Sun comes out and the birds start singing.

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Voice-over

Instead of Zippedydoodah, maybe an iPod is the modern exercise pain-reliever.

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