That was his time in a special marathon organized for the purpose of seeing him finish in under 2 hours.
He had help from a flat course, ideal conditions, high-tech shoes, and a small army of pace-setters. But this is a stunning achievement.
1:59:40 equates to a per-mile time of 4:34 (over 26.2 consecutive miles). At a rough estimate, perhaps 1% of humans are capable of running 1% of that distance at that speed.
I saw his pace makers backing off towards the end - where they there through the course or did they change them? Because they would have all been under 2 hours as well.
They swapped pacers in and out throughout to help maintain the pace, guiding them with lasers off the car in front to ensure maximal coverage for Kipchoge.
Whilst an impressive achievement, it’s not been done in a race and has been done with a bunch of contrivances (including shoes that aren’t generally available to the public as well as the pacers stuff and a variety of other things). He’s proven it can be done but it’s difficult to say what this performance would actually be in normal circumstances. Arguably, he’s just run 2:02 but everything else has taken him over the line. This is still amazing! But I’d want to see this happen without all the bells and whistles I think.
I have been influenced in my thinking. Here’s a podcast I listened to last week that covered misgivings about this before the attempt happened. I agree with the logic laid out:
Yeah, I think the part that makes it really dubious is that the pacemakers who shelter him from air resistance are not part of the race, they just come and go and are not racing the full distance. It’s pretty fake to do that, giving the false impression that these are like pacemakers in a real race. If the pacemakers don’t need to race, why even use humans - you might as well shelter him with a fairing mounted on the lead vehicle.
That’s basically what they did for his previous attempt - there was a car in front with a giant clock on top of it, ostensibly to show the time but actually it also provided a fair bit of shelter from the wind.
Cumbrian is right, which of course is why it’s not an official record time. Still very impressive, and it proves that it probably will be achieved in race conditions in our lifetimes - you just need five or six runners all as good as Kipchoge, then they can act as their own pace setters.
I saw the headline about this and thought it was impressive. Now it’s still impressive but less so.
Im more impressed by this guys 4:34 beer mile
I might be impressed by that, if I had any idea what a beer mile is. Running while holding a beer? Running while drunk? The link doesn’t say, either.
Yes, we already know he can run under 2:02 under proper race conditions - and it’s utterly astonishing that a human being can do that. That’s the world record, and that’s his real achievement. Some artificial aids to put up a non-record in an under-a-round-number time doesn’t add anything for me.
Some research indicates it is drink a beer, run 1/4 mile, repeat.
Brian
I was wondering if any one else was paying attention to this.
In my mind, it’s not as impressive as his 2:01:39 at the 2017 Berlin Marathon (or, for that matter, Lelisa Desisa’s 2:01:41 this year), for all the reasons cited - the pacers, the car, the lines painted on the roundabouts in the course, to show him the fastest routes. Still, the man basically sprinted for twenty-six point two miles. That’s an amazing feat, regardless. So yeah, I’ll say that Kipchoge is the greatest marathoner ever.
I think his next goal will be to do it in a world-record eligible race. Next year’s Berlin should be something to watch.
There are ten runners this year who’ve gone under 2:05.
…until you get to a mile, or puke.
As mentioned above, here are the official rules.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
If someone can run 26 miles in a go, averaging 13 MPH, consider me impressed.
I would like to see this happen in full competition conditions. I’m not even sure I would be able to count this as an official record. Did it?
No. Because of the car, the pacers, the closed course, the race is considered “marathon distance”, but not an actual marathon.
Kipchoge does, however, hold the official men’s marathon record of 2:01:49.
I’d accept use of a projected laser dot, or the like, for pacing, and markings on the road showing optimal turns. The human pacers (who break the wind for him), though, is definitely artificial. Sure, he’ll have people ahead of him for at least part of a real race, too, and could even have people who are only in the race to improve his time, doing whatever they best can to ensure that. But in a real race, if he’s going to break a record, at some point he’s going to have to come out in front of everyone else.
This was more like setting a land speed record than a record breaking race time.
More along the lines of, it’s a “world best” but not a “world record.” Road races like the marathon are the only events where anyone really cares about the difference, as opposed to a 100m “world best” that’s not a record because it was wind-aided.
IAAF-recognized world records in the marathon are relatively new (I want to say they started in 2004, but I am not 100% sure), because it took that long to come up with a set of conditions under which a record would be recognized.
You may be thinking of Kenenisa Bekele - he ran 2:01:41 in the 2019 Berlin Marathon (Sep 29th).
Desisa’s personal best is 2:04:45.
Actually 2:01:39 (2018 Berlin marathon).