Shizo Kanakuri finished a marathon in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967. That in itself isn’t terribly remarkable. One thing that was remarkable about it was that Kanakuri was 76 at the time. But the reason the Japanese citizen finished that race is a story in itself. You see, when he was a young man, Kanakuri had been one of Japan’s premier marathoners, a person who set international records in the sport.

In fact, Kanakuri had been in Sweden years before. In 1911, he and one other Japanese runner had received their nation’s blessing to represent the empire in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. As a college student, he and his fellow runner had little funds to pay their way by boat and train across Asia to compete in the games. A national fundraiser among other college kids collected enough money to sent the pair to the Scandinavian capital city.

The journey took 18 days of really uncomfortable starts and stops aboard the rail system of pre-war Russia across Siberia. The trip was so difficult that it took Kanakuri almost a week to recover when he arrived at the games. Then, upon arrival, he had to deal with the disorienting affect that the ever-present Swedish summer sun had on his psyche. The only food available was completely unusual to him. Add in a freak heat wave that set records for Stockholm. Then, his coach came down with tuberculosis, leaving the young man without any advice or training prep for the race. All of these factors caused Kanakuri to be completely unprepared for what should have been his defining sports moment.

It all proved too much for the young man. Halfway through the marathon, Kanakuri…simply stopped.

He knocked on the door of the house of a family who lived along the race course. They took him in, gave him water, fed him, and let him rest. Too embarrassed to admit that he dropped out of the race, the young man decided to tell no one that he had quit–not his team, race officials, or anyone else. He slinked back to Japan secretly and quietly. For many years, he beat himself up emotionally for having never finished the race and then stole away without telling anyone. Some reports even came out of Sweden that the runner had simply vanished since no word had ever been received about what had happened to him.

Now, fast forward to 1967, some 55 years later. Kanakuri was invited by Stockholm athletic authorities to complete the race he started but never finished. In doing so, he set a record for running a marathon. In fact, to be exact, Shizo Kanakuri finally crossed the finish line of the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games in a time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 20.3 seconds. Along the way, he later said, he got married, had 6 kids and 10 grandchildren.

But he finished the race.