By Rahul Arora ‘23, Sports Writer

On Saturday, October 12th, 2019 in Vienna, Austria, Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s best marathon runner, set out to break the two-hour marathon barrier. There were many major running records that had been broken at this point, such as the four-minute mile and ten-second hundred-meter sprint, but the two-hour marathon had yet to be breached. After months of preparation, Eliud set out at 8:15 am. Eliud had been trying to break the two-hour mark for the past few marathons, but he just missed the record by running a 2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018. On October 12th, he managed to run 1:59:40; however, this did not officially count as a world record either because of his use of water and pacemakers. Still, he did break this milestone and set a new unofficial record for humans to pass with a pace of sub-4:34 per mile.  

Eliud grew up in a poor town in Kenya where he would run two miles to and from school. He never had a passion for running until he met his trainer, Patrick Sang. After years of hard work and training, Eliud competed in multiple marathons in the Olympics and majors. Eliud usually came in first, but he never broke two hours. During one attempt when Eliud teamed up with Nike in the Breaking2 project, he ran a 2:00:25 which was twenty-six seconds shy of breaking the two-hour barrier. In his record-breaking marathon, Eliud teamed up with INEOS, a privately owned chemical company, in the INEOS159 challenge and finally set a new record. INEOS partnered up with Eliud’s team and made sure that his pacemakers would give him the optimal chance of achieving this goal.  

When the day arrived, more than 500 million viewers had tuned in to watch live streams of Eliud attempting to break two hours. Thousands had gathered on the streets where Eliud was running to watch him in person. This event was a historic moment that many did not want to miss. Regardless of the weather outside, Eliud pushed himself even with fog and 90% humidity. The organizers were getting nervous as this feat would be written down in history if completed. Thankfully, everything went just the way they wanted it to. 

The plan was for Eliud to be protected by the pacers in an open-V shape, which many were skeptical about. Aerodynamic experts had designed this formation to reduce the drag on Eliud to take off up to a minute off of his time. This was very crucial as Eliud had just missed breaking two hours by 26 seconds and a minute off of his time would make it very likely that he could achieve his goal. Many of the pacers with him were Olympians and high-caliber athletes. Eliud finished the marathon with 19.2 seconds to spare. Eliud made history and is aiming to do it once more in an official marathon.

Eliud’s motto is that “no human is limited,” which is something that athletes need to recognize in order to push themselves to their fullest potential. Many teams have encountered great successes by pushing themselves to these limits, especially in cross country where a constant goal is to push past your previous successes and set a new personal record. Eliud Kipchoge’s determination inspires athletes and allows them to recognize that there is never a final limit.