In a highly publicised event, Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ran a 2 hour and 25 second marathon in Italy on Saturday the 6th of May 2017. While the time was more than two and a half minutes faster than the official world record of 2:02:57 set by Dennis Kimetto in 2014, it won't count as a new record due to several factors.
a) He was joined by teams of pacers which isn't allowed in a normal marathon.
b) The team of pacers adopted an arrowhead formation behind a Tesla electric car with a giant clock timer on it. This would have greatly reduced the wind resistance.
c) Kipchoge was given sports drinks delivered by helpers on mopeds, another practice not allowed in major marathons.
NIKE are reported to have spent in the region of 2 million dollars in the sub 2 hour marathon attempt with Kipchoge alone said to have got $1 million to participate in the attempt instead of doing a major city marathon.
As you can see, the pace was an incredible 4m 26s per mile for 26.2 miles. He was on course at the half way mark with a time of 59m 58s but slowed slightly in the second half.
Afterwards, Kipchoge said in an interview “This journey has been a long one. It has been hard. It has taken seven good months of preparation and dedication but I am a happy to run a marathon in just over two hours. I think the world now is just 25 seconds away.”
While the time was not an official record, it shows that the current record is under threat. Kipchoge is expected this at some stage in the future.
Closing stage of attempt...
got up at 04.45 Sat morning to watch this and while he didn't crack the 2 hour barrier it was an amazing feat of running, the whole set up from the pace makers to the fluid intake was done with unbelievable precision. I do think when Kipchoge runs his next marathon and they are on world record pace he will have a huge advantage over the others knowing he has run at this pace before.
ReplyDeleteI would much prefer if the first ever sub 2 hour marathon will be run in a valid road race. That said, after reading the first comment I do respect Kipchoge for his effort.
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