In ancient times, long before the inventions of the railroad and the field of telecommunications, messages were relayed by the age old tradition of professional running messengers. These highly trained and dedicated couriers, such as the Hikyaku of Japan, who ran for the shogun governments, dressed only in a loin cloth and straw sandals, covered enormous distances over field and mountain in all kinds of climatic conditions to deliver royal commands, legal notices, military orders, love notes and every other kind of message.
The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, which many historians and philosophers deem to be one of the most important in human history, is the source for what many consider today to be the most challenging of all human physical endeavours, marathon running.
According to legend, the first marathon was supposed to have been undertaken from the scene of the great battle between the Athenians and the Persians, where the latter outnumbered the former by four to one. A professional messenger, Pheidippides, was sent to Athens to warn of the impending arrival of the fleeing Persians from Marathon. He reportedly completed the 26-mile journey in about three hours, announced the news of the great victory, “Nenikikamen,” – Rejoice, we conquer—before dropping died.
Today, the tradition of the marathon continues on a professional circuit with large sums of prize money at stake, in much better conditions geared towards producing very fast times. Many big cities around the world, including Boston, London, New York, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, Toronto and Amsterdam have major annual marathon races which attract very large fields, including the elite professionals whose ranks are dominated by the Kenyans and Ethiopians, who battle among themselves and against the clock.
Last Sunday, at the Berlin Marathon, the 2016 Olympic Champion, Kenyan Eluid Kipchoge scaled new heights when he lowered the world record to the unbelievable time of two hours one minute and thirty-nine seconds (2:01:39). Kipchoge had chipped one minute and eighteen seconds off the previous best time, which according to the IAAF, is the largest improvement in the marathon since the Australian Derek Clayton erased two minutes and twenty-three seconds off the record in 1967.
The 33-year-old Kipchoge’s vocalized pre-race goal was to lower his personal best of 2:03:05, which was just eight seconds off of fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57. No doubt he was going for it. The Berlin course, which is considered perfect for racing, is fast and flat, and prior to Sunday, had been the venue the last six occasions when the world record had been broken.
What makes the accomplishment even more astounding was the manner in which it was achieved. Distance runners chasing world records are often paced by other elite athletes who agree beforehand to act as rabbits and push the early pace. Kipchoge and his trio of pacers’ initial target for the 26.2 mile course, was 61 minutes at the half way stage. From the gun, they charged to the front at a blistering pace which no one thought they could sustain. They passed the ten-kilometre mark (6.2 miles) in 29:21 minutes, and just after the fifteen-kilometre mark, two of the rabbits fell off the pace.
Kipchoge and his lone remaining pacer, Josphat Boit hit the half way point in 61:06, and just past the 25- kilometre pole, he was on his own. Now, it was just Kipchoge, the crowd, 17 kilometres of road and the clock.
In a previous attempt at the world record last year, Kipchoge, in an unsanctioned event, in ideal conditions at the Monza Formula One race track in Italy, with 30 elite pace makers in alternating groups nearly every step of the way, had stopped the clock at 2:00:25. Here, in his eleventh marathon, he was on his own. Expected to slow down, he actually picked up the pace, clocking 60:34 for the second half of the race whilst defying all logical explanation.
Kipchoge, who stands 5 foot 6 and weighs 115 pounds, had averaged a blazing 4:38 per mile over the course. The highly disciplined runner, who has never had a major injury, has taken us to a new place in Time. His accomplishment is worth pondering just what the human body is capable of in terms of cardiovascular strength, muscle efficiency, physical and mental endurance.
Where does this performance stand in terms of human achievement? What does one begin to compare it to? Kipchoge was on his own for the last ten miles, in no man’s land challenging the clock. His combination of speed and endurance is impossible to match. He has now quite rightly earned the title of the world’s greatest marathon runner ever, with his tenth victory in eleven attempts (he finished second in Berlin in 2013, his second marathon) at the distance.
Experts on the running and the human body had predicted that the earliest we would see a human being clocking a two hour marathon was in 2075. Kipchoge is knocking on the door, will he pass through it?
The tentative date for the 2019 Berlin Marathon is Sunday, 29th December. The world is waiting patiently for Eluid Kipchoge to dip under the two-hour mark for the marathon.