The twelve months from
October 2019 to October of this year have been strange and eventful for Eliud
Kipchoge, and not just because of a certain global pandemic.
However you view his two key
running performances that bookended the past twelve months, Kipchoge remains by far and
away the most successful marathon runner of all time. He needs no introduction
to anyone who has any interest in running. But despite the explosion in the
popularity of running among the general public in recent years, the elite
stars at the top of the sport get minimal attention in comparison to stars from
other sports. So Kipchoge needs some introduction, despite the fact that his achievements
are, in my opinion, far more impressive than those of any other elite sports star, ever.
Eliud Kipchoge
Born in Kenya in 1985,
Kipchoge first made his name as a cross-country and middle distance track
runner in the early 2000s. He won gold in the Junior Cross Country World
Championship in 2003 before going on to win gold again at 5,000m on the track in
the World Championships of that year, and silver in the same event two years
later.
But in 2012 he moved up
distance to the marathon and it’s there that he’s been making history ever
since. In ten World Marathon Majors since 2013 (the ‘majors’ include the city
marathons of Tokyo, London, Paris, Chicago, New York and Boston) Kipchoge has
won eight and lost only his very first and his most recent, in London on
October 4th of this year. In the Marathon Majors Series competitions
(where athletes are awarded points based on their performance in each of the
majors for a year) he has won an unprecedented four consecutive titles, from
2015 through to 2019.
Oh and he’s also the world
record holder for the marathon, running the 42.2 km in a time of 2 hours, 1
minute and 39 seconds at the Berlin marathon of 2018. That equates to a pace of
approximately 4 and a half minutes per mile. Most reasonably fit people would
not be able to maintain that pace for more than a few hundred metres, let alone
for a full 26.2 miles or 42.2 km. And Kipchoge’s world record also reflects the dramatic progress that has been made in the marathon over the past century with the
winning time at the London 1908 Olympics (the first marathon at the 42.2 km
distance, see earlier blog: https://sportyman2020.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-first-marathon-as-we-now-know-it.html) of 2 hours 55 minutes being an attainable goal nowadays for
most strong club runners.
Aside from his many
achievements on the track and on the road, Kipchoge is widely respected in the
running world because of his humility and sportsmanship. And despite the almost
unbearable pain that he must endure when banging out marathon after marathon,
he has a practice of smiling in the face of such pain. His wisdom and insights
are also starting to be quoted within and outside of running, with perhaps his
most famous epigram relating to discipline: ‘Only the disciplined ones in life
are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your
passions’.
A
marathon in under two hours?
Considering Kipchoge’s
glittering achievements, it was no surprise then that he was included by Nike
with two other elite marathon runners (Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea and Lelisa
Desisa of Ethipoia) to have a crack at running a marathon in under two hours,
as part of the 2017 Breaking2 project.
Opinion on this race was
divided in the running world. On the one hand, some people saw it as a genuine
attempt to see how far human endurance in the event could be pushed, with
potential spin-off benefits for the popularity of long distance running.
Against that, there were those who saw it as a thinly veiled attempt at
advertising and marketing by Nike, who were using the event to launch their new
‘Vaporfly Elite’ running shoe.
Whatever the opinions, the
running world could not look away from the spectacle. Held at the Monza Formula
One racing track in Italy on May 6th 2017, it was a highly organised
event with the ultimate focus being on getting home in under 2 hours for the
first time in the history of humanity. Because of a number of factors such as
the rotation of pacemakers (thirty of the world’s leading marathon runners were
utilized), the hydration available for runners (more than the usual stations in
a city marathon) and the fact that it was run as multiple circuits of a track,
the outcome would not count as a world record.
Desisa lost the 2 hour pace
at 16 km and Tadese was spent by the 20 km mark. But Kipchoge sped along,
keeping up the searing pace to the 25 km mark and being only 1 second off the
pace by 30 km. The images of the last few hundred metres are tinged with disappointment but suggest promise for the future. Despite the cheers of the crowd and his
last pace setter group, his best effort fell just short and he crossed the line
25 seconds after the elusive two hour mark. But Kipchoge's performance meant that the
two hour barrier was breakable.
And so our story arrives at
October 12th 2019, and a track in Vienna, Austria, for a race that
was called the INEOS 1:59 Challenge. Just like the Breaking2 Project, there was
some scepticism about the motives behind the race and, again because of the
very controlled conditions, the ultimate time would not stand as a world
record. But again the whole running world looked on. And this time Kipchoge
nailed it. As he crossed the line in 1:59:40, there wasn’t a dry eye in Vienna.
And after Vienna began his strange and
eventful twelve months, with multiple races cancelled or deferred because of COVID. Then just a few weeks ago, on October 4th
in London, Eliud Kipchoge was beaten into 8th place in a time of
2:06:49 in the London marathon.
That London result may have
been a once off blip or it may have been the beginning of the end for him.
Whatever the case, and whatever
the next twelve months hold for Eliud Kipchoge, he remains the greatest
marathon runner of all time.
