World's most famous amateur runner

At just 30 years old, Yuki Kawauchi is in a distance running category of his own.

As of January 1, Kawauchi—one guy—has run more sub-2:10 marathons since 2011 than the whole United States put together. Kawauchi’s best time for 2017—2:09:18—was two seconds faster than the fastest marathon of the year by any U.S. man, which would be Galen Rupp, who ran a career best of 2:09:20 in Chicago. Rupp, like most athletes at that level, ran two marathons in 2017. Kawauchi ran 12. 

His singularity continues. Distance running at the top levels is dominated by East Africans; he’s Japanese. Most elite marathoners train with a group and a coach, with corporate sponsorship that allows them to train full-time. They run twice a day, spend time at altitude, and have access to the latest equipment, nutrition, and sport science. Kawauchi has neither coach nor training group nor corporate sponsorship. He fits once-a-day workouts around his full-time government job. He made his own home gym, and is more likely to look at the methods of great runners of the past than the training philosophy du jour.

He’s wildly popular in Japan and is one of the few distance runners anywhere with a truly global fan base.