Early last Saturday morning, in the Prater, an amusement park in Vienna, Austria, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge became the first man to complete the marathon, a distance of 26.2 miles, in a time of less than two hours.
Kipchoge’s astonishing time of 1: 59: 40.2 (one hour, 59 minutes, 40.2 seconds) has sparked a debate over whether his time should be recognized since it was not achieved in a race sanctioned by an official body, and the contrived conditions, under which the event was conducted, heavily involved the use of technology.
Kipchoge bears the credentials of arguably the world’s best marathoner of all time. He is the current world record holder, after stopping the clock at the 2018 Berlin Marathon in 2: 01:39, whilst clipping one minute and eighteen seconds off of the previous record, the largest improvement in the record in 41 years. The 2016 Olympic champion has won eleven of the twelve marathons he has run, whilst finishing in the runner-up position at the 2013 Berlin Marathon. His victories include four London Marathons, three in Berlin and one in Chicago. Kipchoge is yet to enter the other three of the Big Six marathons, namely, Tokyo, Boston and New York.
This was Kipchoge’s second attempt to crack the two-hour time barrier in controlled circumstances. Two years ago at the Monza Formula One race track, Nike, the sports apparel manufacturer organised its Breaking2 race, in which Kipchoge, and elite marathoners Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa and Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, assisted by thirty world class pacemakers challenged the clock. Kipchoge won the event in a time of 2: 00: 25, as the other two runners fell off the demanding pace.
Last weekend’s event branded as the INEOS 1:59 Challenge was sponsored by INEOS, a UK based chemical company which is owned by Britain’s wealthiest man, Jim Ratcliffe. No expense was spared in the preparations or the marketing of the challenge. The organizers, after an extensive worldwide search, selected a six mile course along the Danube River, which was flat, 90 per cent straight and close to sea level; as close to perfection as one can find. A world class team of meteorological experts had been chosen to select the optimum weather conditions for the occasion; a temperature between seven and fourteen degrees Celsius, humidity below 80 per cent, dry conditions and not too much wind.
Once the date was narrowed down to between the 12th to 14th October, Kipchoge and his training team were flown to Vienna on the 8th October from their training base in Kenya, where they had been training for four months. On Friday afternoon, the start time of 8:15 am, Central European Summer Time, was selected and the world began its patient wait to see if history was going to unfold.
As in the previous attempt, Kipchoge benefited from a team of 41 world class pacemakers, who accompanied him in groups of seven, running in a wind blocking V-formation, designed by an aerodynamic expert. The team was led by a pace car which projected a disco-like laser which displayed the required blistering pace of approximately four and a half minutes per mile.
In addition to the car, the pacemakers, and unlimited access to his favourite carbohydrate drink from a cyclist riding alongside the group, Kipchoge was equipped with a special pair of running shoes which none of his pacemakers were privileged to have. The unreleased running shoe has become a source of controversy since the event, sparking a heated debate as to whether it provided an unfair advantage. The shoe, manufactured by Nike, an upgrade on the Vaporfly 4%, is believed to contain a mid-sole cushioned with three carbon-fibre plates and extra build up of ZoomX foam, and two new stacked chambers in the forefoot which maybe filled with air, fluid or foam, or some combination thereof.
As the large crowd lining the course egged Kipchoge on, the five rotating groups pacemakers (there were six reserves) guided him to a previously considered unattainable mythical time barrier, the world watched history unfold on the internet.
Where we do place Kipchoge’s achievement? The IAAF will not recognize the time since it was not a sanctioned event. Call it what you may, time trial or exhibition marathon, Kipchoge’s effort of pushing himself to the extreme mental, physical and psychological limits are right up there with all outstanding human landmarks. As to the weak argument of the intervention of technology, every sport now benefits from technology in one form or another, whether through preparation, equipment or execution. A quick glance at the modern cricket bat or the state of Formula One cars is enough to dismiss it.
The 34 year old Kenyan compares the historic run to “walking on the moon.” Two achievements worthy of similar comparison are, the then reigning World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov’s defeat of the IBM Deep Blue computer in 1996 and the current world record high jump of eight feet and a half inch in 1993, by the Cuban Javier Sotomayor, still the only human being to clear eight feet.
Will we see a two-hour marathon in a race any time soon? Kipchoge’s rival, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele clocked 2: 01: 41 in September to win the Berlin Marathon this year, missing the record by two seconds. Surely Bekele and Kipchoge can get there within the coming year.
Hats off to Eluid Kipchoge, on his monumental achievement, of running 26.2 miles in under two hours.
