Amazing Feat/Feet

You might have missed it on Saturday but the world of athletics was shaken up. Not by a big disclosure of performance enhancing drug abuse but the lowering of the world record for the men’s marathon. And an attempt at going under 2hours for the same race. #breaking2

However if you read between the lines there is inspiration for all of us not just for some of us that geek out over the times, the splits, the speed….

But Eliud Kipchoge, a 32-year-old Kenyan, ran 26.2 miles faster than anybody in history, finishing the time trial in 2:00:25.

Yes it was…

• A time trail, so not one of the big time marathons from around the world.
• A bit of a publicity stunt by Nike. (don’t worry Adidas is attempting it soon with its stable of runners).
• As many of the controllable conditions were controlled.
  • Running on the Formula One track at Monza, Italy (the fastest in the world), with the least amount of turns.
  • Numerous pacers to help the 3 designated athletes.
  • A carefully chosen start time and day for weather purposes.
  • The food and fluid handed to them so they could keep moving.
  • Some new amazing shoe developed of course by Nike.
  • …..

The list goes on. And from that the haters, doubters and purists were everything from skeptical, even mad. The old record, set at the Berlin Marathon back in 2014 of 2:02.57 might/will still “stand” and the IAAF hasn’t decided if it will ratify this record yet.

BUT…. all the explanation aside, this is an amazing feat. Kipchoge managed to hang on and while not smash the 2hrs mark (which experts predicted that humanity wouldn’t reach this time for another 75years) showed what is and can be possible.

And while he didn’t reach the sub2 goal, look a while and what he did do. He smashed the old record. All because some people got together and said lets try this, we won’t know unless we try. And if they didn’t start with that thought of lets try this they would be still sitting on the couch now talking about it. The old record would still be there and not a revised goal of 2:00.25. Sure they didn’t get there but they got somewhere and closer.

Makes you wonder how much we sit around and wonder but then don’t even try. If we don’t get to ‘our goal’, we got somewhere and that was better than where we were.

In case you are wondering thats 4.34mins/mile. Try doing that once. Then repeating 25 more times… IN A ROW.

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