The Greatest Athletic Feat Ever? 1
Marathon runners train for years and years to not just compete against other marathoners but themselves, working tirelessly to shave even a handful of seconds off their personal best time. One marathoner put the rest to shame recently, running the fastest marathon ever and completely obliterating the world record.
The most dominant marathon runner of the modern era, Eliud Kipchoge, of Kenya, shattered the world record for marathon running in his most recent race in Berlin on September 16, 2018. He passed the finish line after only 2 hours 1 minute and 39 seconds (2:01:39). The previous world record was 2:02:57.
To put that in perspective, Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in around a couple hours averaging 4 minutes and 38 seconds per mile. It’s one thing to run that fast. It’s another to run that fast for so long.
Granted, this wasn’t Kipchoge’s first rodeo. He is the reigning Olympic gold medalist having won the marathon in 2016 in Rio, which was just one of the 9 marathons he has won since 2013 (not including the most recent Berlin race). That is practically unheard of.
This most recent marathon was his first time, however, to inch so close to the 2-hour mark for an official timed marathon race. (He did run a marathon in 02:00:25 in 2016 for a Nike experiment, however, it was on an optimized track). Read the rest of this entry →
