http://www.runnersworld.com/new-york-city-marathon/citizen-runner-yuki-kawauchi-takes-on-the-nyc-marathon
An amazing story to enlighten a runner's Christmas. The race frequency of Yuki Kawauchi, and the amazingly high level he keeps running these marathons at, is totally without compare in high level marathoning. The closest I can recall is an Italian guy of about 10 years ago who ran a similar number of annual marathons as Kawauchi, but was knocking them out in 'only' about 2.15 to 2.19, with a PB of 2.13 set in a less frenzied racing cycle. One of the most obvious questions to Kawauchi would be why doesn't he follow a more traditional racing pattern and see if he can get down towards 2.05/06 - the Japanese record is in mid 2.06 zone, and a national marathon record would be a big deal in that marathon-obsessed nation.   The postscript to the article, from November, is that Kawasaki added two more 2.10s in December, both in Japan and just 14 days apart.
It's fascinating stuff, and with Kawasaki still on the young side of 30 when the Rio Olympics happens in 2016 I wonder if there'll be any changes to his plans.
 
Happy New Year.