On Saturday, Eliud Kipchoge forever stamped his name into the history books.

Kipchoge is already revered as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, and now he can lay claim to being the first person ever to break the sub-two-hour mark for a marathon distance.

One hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds – a simply outrageous time for a 42,2-kilometre race, which was hosted in Vienna, Austria.

Kipchoge was understandably stoked, tweeting that he was “at a loss for words for all the support I have received from all over the world. Thank you to all who gave me the opportunity.”

Let’s see the moment he crossed the finish line:

HISTORY! pic.twitter.com/qjLfofhL5s

— Eliud Kipchoge (@EliudKipchoge) October 12, 2019

Marvellous.

If you take a look at his split times during the race, you get a sense of just how rapidly he was moving:

The average person would find it impossible to run five kilometres in just over 14 minutes, never mind keeping that up for an entire marathon.

For some reference, the average marathon finishing time in 2016 was 4:22:07 for men and 4:47:40 for women, according to Running USA.

There’s also this, via the Guardian:

It was the equivalent of running 422 100m sprints one after the other, every one of them in 17.08 seconds. One can barely comprehend the willpower required. Or the self-belief. Or the imagination. And yet one can, because it is a human achievement…

Someone – probably Kipchoge himself – will break the two-hour marathon mark officially in competition. Someone will run faster than 1:59:40. But nothing will make his feat any less special. It is for such moments that we treasure sport. And it is in such moments that we marvel at human possibilities. As Kipchoge tweeted before his run: “I don’t know what the limits are, but I would like to go there.”

You may have noticed the bit about “officially in competition”, and that’s worth a closer look.

Kipchoge’s achievement shouldn’t be diminished, but it won’t count as the official marathon record due to the circumstances under which the run was held.

The Atlantic has a superb closer look at how the race was run under contrived circumstances:

The INEOS 1:59 Challenge was not a race by any strict definition: It was simply Kipchoge, joined by a rotating phalanx of pacesetters, rocketing along the pavement against the clock.

The planning that went into the event was a fantasy of perfectionism. The organizers scouted out a six-mile circuit along the Danube River that was flat, straight, and close to sea level. Parts of the road were marked with the fastest possible route, and a car guided the runners by projecting its own disco-like laser in front of them to show the correct pace. The pacesetters, a murderers’ row of Olympians and other distance stars, ran seven-at-a-time in a wind-blocking formation devised by an expert of aerodynamics. (Imagine the Mighty Ducks’ “flying V,” but reversed.)

Kipchoge himself came equipped with an updated, still-unreleased version of Nike’s controversial Vaporfly shoes, which, research appears to confirm, lower marathoners’ times. He had unfettered access to his favorite carbohydrate-rich drink, courtesy of a cyclist who rode alongside the group. And the event’s start time was scheduled within an eight-day window to ensure the best possible weather. The whole thing was as close as you can get to a mobile marathon spa treatment—if going to a spa were paired with the worst discomfort of your life.

Such an extensive level of support, combined with the fact that Kipchoge wasn’t actually competing against anybody, pushed the event outside of official marathon conditions and prevented his performance from counting as a true record.

Not official, then, and for some it will always carry a massive asterisk, but credit where credit is due.

Kipchoge’s achievement deserves to be remembered alongside the four-minute mile and other iconic achievements.

Until somebody comes along who beats that sub-two-hour time, whether in an official marathon or not, he reigns supreme.

[sources:guardian&atlantic]