One can argue the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games did not end until fifty-five years later, in 1967. Blame Japan’s ‘father of the marathon,’ who vanished during the race.

Halfway through the marathon, Shizo Kanakuri withdrew. Many things made the race hard for Shizo, foremost of which might have been the weather. It was hot enough that only 34 of 68 runners finished, and one even died from heat exhaustion.

So, credit Shizo for knowing when to take a break. If only he told the race officials. Embarrassed, he went home, leaving a mystery behind him.

“It’s the morning after my defeat. My heart is aching with regret for the rest of my life…. But failure teaches success, and I can only wait for the day with fair weather after the rain so that I can clean up my shame. If people want to laugh, laugh. I showed the lack of physical strength Japanese people have and their immature skills. I can’t fulfill this burden, but dying is easy, and living is hard. To wipe off this shame, I will work with all my strength to brush up my marathon skills and raise the prestige of our country.”

Shizo Kanakuri’s journal.

Half a century later, a Swedish television station welcomed Shizo to the 55th anniversary of the games and, as a surprise, asked him to finish the race he started decades earlier. He did so in record time: 54 years and 8 months 6 days 5 hours 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.

Shizo commented that “it was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren.”

The gold medal belongs to Ken McArthur from South Africa with a time of 2 hours 36 minutes and 54.8 second. He has his own fun anecdote: Not only did he never lose a marathon race — going six for six — but his teammate, Christian Gitsham, was in the lead and stopped for water. Rather than join him, as Christian expected, Ken ran ahead.

Christian earned a silver medal, arriving 57.2 seconds later. Bummer.