Even those who are not sports fans have heard of the famous 42 km race called “marathon”. For professionals, running in this modality is something they prepare for for years, taking care of their diet, taking exams and training body and mind to achieve the best performance. And among the thousands of athletes who are dedicated to completing the race, some names stand out, such as Eliud Kipchoge, who recently achieved what no other human being could until now: crossing the finish line of a marathon in less than 2 hours! !
His performance was remarkable and forever changed the history of the race. However, the time of 1h59m40s of the Kenyan cannot be counted as a record, since the race was not official, but a fully organized and funded event for the desired result to occur. We will further explain what happened throughout this article.
The origins of the Marathon
Legend has it that the sport was named after the soldier Philipides, who died of exhaustion after going from Marathon to Athens to convey the message that the Athenians had won the battle against the Persians. Can you guess the distance between these two cities? Yes, just over 40 km.
The fable finally served to justify the name, but the truth is that there are records of long-distance races that were practiced hundreds of years before, in Egypt. There are accounts that the King of Kush organized 100 km races to keep his army in good physical condition. Today, sports organizers bring this tradition to life with the “Pharaonic 100 km” race, an ultramarathon where participants must make the journey between the Pyramid of Hawara (El Fayoum) and the pyramids of Saqqara (Cairo).
Whatever the reality behind all this story, Philipides was honored in 1896 with the creation of the long-distance running event at the Modern Era Olympics . Today the training is much more demanding … you think it is quite different from training for e-sports .
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The world marathon record
Many years have passed, the sport has evolved and even managed to have a federation to establish rules, control, guarantee their authenticity and award, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, for its acronym in English). Records have only been recognized and validated by the institution since 2004 and must meet a specific set of standards.
To give an example of how strict the rules are, in 2011, in a race in Boston, Geoffrey Mutai achieved the best marathon record in the world, with a time of 2h3m2s. The IAAF even recognized it, but did not record it as an official marathon record because the distance between start and finish exceeded that allowed by the federation and the topography had a difference in level between the beginning and the end higher than it should have. But since we are talking about a “superhuman”, the current world marathon record is still held by Eliud, who finished the Berlin race in 2018 in 2h1m39s.
Why is the Vienna Marathon record invalid?
Remember when we talked about how the time achieved by Eliud Kipchoge in the “INEOS 1:59 Challenge” in Vienna is not considered a record by the IAAF? Well, to begin with, the race was not official. In addition, the Kenyan did not have to deal with several factors that are a constant concern for professional runners, since he had: 41 “rabbits” to face the wind and stimulate the ideal rhythm, a laser that marked the ideal position where it should be running at all times, the absence of opponents, a completely flat course, Vaporfly footwear (special shoes created by Nike that improve momentum and reduce energy expenditure) and an ideal temperature of 9 ° C.
Eliud Kipchoge, what is your story?
Although not officially recognized, this achievement is historic and indelible. And Eliud was, without a doubt, the clearest bet to achieve what he proposed here: to finish a marathon in less than 2 hours. The Kenyan was world champion (2003) and Olympic (2016) and winner of the Chicago and Rotterdam marathons in 2014, and London and Berlin in 2015.
His unparalleled track record made Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the Ineos chemical company and sponsor of the effort to achieve the milestone, choose him for the “job” that was ultimately successful! Beyond the technicalities the marathon record was broken once again …
