Pune: Eliud Kipchoge always had in him something more than the long distance runners of his era--be it fellow Kenyans Wilson Kipsang or Amos Kipruto—he was destined for bigger things not just because what he achieved in Berlin on Sunday.
Since becoming World Champion over 5000m in 2003 Worlds in Paris, Kipchoge has shown he was born for the long distance runs—no wonder he had then beaten the best in the business at one stroke.
The Kenyan had clocked 12 minutes 52.79 seconds to beat 1500m world champion and world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj (12:52.83) of Morocco and the reigning 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele (12:53.12) of Ethiopia in that very race. Both El Guerrouj and Bekele later in their careers achieved more greater feats, but Kipchoge was always class apart.
Twelve years later he won Berlin Marathon before going on to win Olympic Marathon gold in 2016 Rio de Janeiro. That feat essentially caught the eyes of everyone who works on stretching human endurance—Nike and a team of scientists were the ones who decided Kipchoge was the man they wanted to work with.
Breaking 2 Project
It was on May 6, 2017 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, the historic Formula One racetrack nestled in the woodlands in the northeast of Milan, Italy, that witnessed something which was never attempted. Kipchoge was chosen to break 2-hour barrier over the marathon distance in ‘made to order’ conditions.
He had 30 pacemakers, all among the best runners in the world, six of whom would drift wide at the conclusion of each 1.5 mile lap and three fresh pacers would merge in from either side to form the arrowhead led by Kipchoge.
That day, as the laps went by there was palpable expectation of ‘breaking 2’ happening. Many expected him to reaccelerate as the finish was closing in and though he fought all the way, Kipchoge crossed the line in 2:0025.
There was no doubt it was a watershed moment in pursuit of human limits. No doubt future marathon times would be compared in light of what Kipchoge did wearing Nike’s Vaporfly shoe that were specially made for the project—which gave mental edge to Kipchoge from knowing he was wearing the fastest shoes ever tested.
Towards the end there was no one running—in a head-to-head race he could have summoned the finishing kick that is nearly always seen in the world record runs. More glory awaited Kipchoge—a few months later, he again won Berlin Marathon—a course that seemed destined for him to set record book times.
