There was a world record, a surprise victory, and plenty other noteworthy performances from Sunday’s Berlin Marathon. But if you scanned the full results, you might find an interesting name you’ve seen somewhere else before: Ricardo Leite—or as he’s better known as—Kaká.
The Brazilian soccer legend, who played for AC Milan and Real Madrid during his illustrious career, finished the Berlin Marathon in a net time of 3:38:06 in his marathon debut. Kaká went through the halfway point in 1:47:07 before a 1:50:59 split for the second half of the race to take down his pre-race goal time of 3:40.
He finished the race with his arms raised and fingers pointing to the sky, just like his signature goal celebration.
In June, Kaká raced the Rio Half Marathon, where he ran a time of 1:39:33. The 40-year-old, who retired from professional soccer in 2017, posted to Twitter afterward: “Amazing, Berlin!!! What a great atmosphere during the all 42KM. Very proud of becoming a #BerlinLegend.”
“My time will be different from the professionals of course, but this is something that’s great about the marathon,” he said before the race. “As an amateur, I can run and play on the same ‘field’ as the pros. You can’t do that in football.”
Dan is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and before coming to Runner’s World and Bicycling was an editor at MileSplit. He competed in cross country and track and field collegiately at DeSales University.
