V 9 N. 32 Eliud Kipchoge 1 hr 59 min 40.2 sec

                                                                                                    October 12, 2019

Last night a monumental human achievement, the first sub two hour marathon, was completed by Eliud Kipchoge.  My first thought was 'Thank goodness he is not associated with the Nike Oregon Project'.   I'm sure much joy was felt in the streets of Nairobi and on the dusty roads around Eldoret in the western Rift Valley of Kenya.   Next Monday some schoolboy in Kakamega will be running  the six miles to school  thinking, 'I can do that'.  And he will,  just like his sister will also be thinking along those same lines about a sub 2 hr 10 min marathon.

Some will say will say this run is on the same pedestal as  other milestones like Roger Bannister's sub four minutes mile at Iffley Road on 6 May 1954 or Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969.  The difference in the two other achievements compared to Bannister's feat is the support of corporate finance and technological development.
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At this point the technological support in shoe, design, route selection, pavement preparation, pace setters with wind tunnel data, and a vehicle showing everyone the pace with a laser played a significant role in this achievement.   If any major physical performance was ever a forgone conclusion, this was it.  There was only one runner who we thought might do it.  With Bannister, there were also John Landy and Wes Santee pushing human performance levels in that global race to break four minutes.  In space the Russians were competing with  the US in the Cold War, although I don't think they were directly working on putting a man on the moon.

Technology played much less a part in  Bannister's race.  An old groundskeeper or coach was said to have rubbed graphite on his spikes so the cinders would not cling to them and weight him down.  But that was about it for tech assistance.   And once he broke four minutes, that performance quickly became more and more mundane.   Today a group of moderately read high school kids have more scientific information about training and human limits at their fingertips than Bannister had in his medical studies at Oxford in 1954.  Today the kids have better tracks, better shoes, maybe not better coaches, but certainly more opportunity to break four minutes, and they prove that by doing it.

Bannister and Kipchoge were both in a race against time.  There was no one in either of their runs who was trying to break the tape ahead of them.  Kipchoge has demonstrated that the unthinkable is possible.  Thank you Eliud Kipchoge for showing us the possibilities of human performance.   Now let the racing resume.

George Brose

Bruce Kritzler	Sun, Oct 13, 1:34 PM (21 hours ago)
to me

A great training run. That's all it is. Like any other wind-aided or downhill performance in track and field.  Bridget Kosgie's performance more impressive today, even with her two wind-breaking pacers.   Bruce Kritzler.

When I first heard of this amazing break through my sentiments went exactly as Rich Mach. Roger Bannister used what technology was available at that time to his benefit. One of the hardest hurdles any athlete in any sport has to overcome is the mental barrier along with the physical barrier. Kipchoge's run was not only amazing on a physical level but more important, he helped others to mentally realize it can be done. It has been done, therefore, it can be done again. Breaking through the sub 2 hour marathon barrier was just as much a mental race as it was physical. on V 9 N. 32 Eliud Kipchoge 1 hr 59 min 40.2 sec  Susan


Geoff Pietsch of Gainsville Florida has written the following about the event and inspired my effort above.


I did not think this was humanly possible at this stage of our evolution. I never thought I would live to see it. And it is hard to know what to make of it. Remarkable, of course, though the word seems inadequate. 
Eliud Kipchoge is clearly a very nice guy - as the delight of all of the pace-setters after the run showed. What was almost stunning was that he picked up ten seconds in the last couple of hundred meters. Even the enormous elation for the achievement doesn't fully explain his lack of any signs of strain or fatigue afterwards. By contrast, Kenenisa Bekele, after his great 2:01:41 in Berlin two weeks ago - missing Kipchoge's record by two seconds - was obviously exhausted.
For me.... I am vaguely disappointed. I did not want anyone to do this under these circumstances. To me the artificialness of it detracts from the extraordinary accomplishment. Not just the shoes nor having pacesetters - though they are a factor. But
the whole technological effort that made it possible - and made it less the phenomenal effort of one man. If you have not followed this, I am thinking, for example, of the wind tunnel studies which led to the pace setters running in a V in front of him, instead of him inside an upside down V, with two pace setters deliberately trailing on each side to somehow effect the wind flow. And the scientifically determined nutrition and fluids during the run. And the pace car programmed to go at exactly 2:50 per kilometer speed. And the ideal course with the shortest path painted on the road.  
When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile (yes, with a couple of pace setters, but also in the rain and wind on a cinder track) I was 16. But I did not see it. No one did except those at the venue. Later that summer Bannister beat John Landy of Australia, then the only other to have broken 4 minutes, in the British Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. I did see that. It was televised. Both broke 4:00. Although I was disappointed that Landy, the strong front-runner, was outkicked by Bannister, it was an inspiring effort by both men. I wish Kipchoge's great feat had elicited a similar reaction from me.
Yes, my time is past. I would compare Kipchoge's sub-2:00 to Neal Armstrong landing on the moon. And Bannister and Landy to Lewis and Clark crossing the continent, exploring the unknown, and reaching the Pacific. I would much rather have been with Lewis and Clark than with Armstrong.

Geoff Pietsch, Gainesville, Florida   In the wee hours of Saturday, October 12, 2019

G - 

104 x 440 under 69

26 x 4:34 miles

8 x 14:12 5k's

Kind of makes Jim Ryun's 40 x 440 workout mundane

We live in a time of super heroes.

The USA has Batman, Superman and Donald Trump

Kenya has Eliud Kipchoge

Get some sleep...R

This came in from a friend in Canada-  How many know of Alexander Mackenzie?

Hi George

Thanks for the link.  Yes, I was aware of the attempt, and its result.  Have to say, having run a few marathons, it is a remarkable achievement, because all else being equal the man had to be properly trained and then expend the effort, and actually do it to achieve it.  But, with 20 seconds in the balance, there is still for me a nagging doubt that he could have done it on his own, in a race, and without all that help, and all those factors accounted for in his favour.

Another point, although it may be petty, is the reference made by Geoff Pietsch to the achievement of Lewis and Clark “exploring the unknown and reaching the Pacific”.  While most certainly not a small feat, I see this reference is for the benefit of the American public, who apparently don’t know much about any other history than their own.  I know a thing or two about covering ground in the bush, and I can tell you unequivocally that what Lewis and Clark had to contend with getting across the continent to the Pacific was child’s play compared to what Alexander MacKenzie had to deal with.  What Mackenzie had to get through in terms of topography, crossing the hitherto unexplored and unknown BC cordillera, was at least the equal to that of Lewis and Clark, but in terms of brush it was way tougher.  Way tougher.  And Lewis and Clark weren’t the first to cross by land.  MacKenzie successfully completed his expedition eleven years ahead of Lewis and Clark.  I would be very surprised if Lewis and Clark had embarked upon their expedition without the knowledge of what Mackenzie had done and might have been buoyed by the fact that if someone else had already done it once, that it could be done again.  The point is that MacKenzie did it first, just as Kipchoge.  Yet there is no recognition of that feat by anybody in the States.  It seems to have been overlooked.  I wonder why.

Cheers,

Les Disher,  Courtenay, BC

George,
     Les Disher, in his comment on my Lewis and Clark thoughts, makes a legitimate point. That Alexander Mackenzie preceded them by over a decade in crossing the continent. But he is mistaken if he thinks that I, a career American History teacher and lover of the Pacific Northwest, was ignorant about Mackenzie or meant to suggest Lewis and Clark and their company of men were first. The thought never occurred to me. What I did mean to say was that no one but native peoples had explored a large part of the route they took. Unlike those who went to the moon, they were truly exploring the unknown. Entirely on their own. Unless one considers Sacajawea and native peoples like the Mandans and Shoshones and Nez Perce to be the equivalent of  NASA.
    By the way, I may be the very rare reader of this blog who has been to Les's home town of Courtenay. In the summer of 1974. Took the ferry from Seattle, where my mother lived, to Victoria then, with my backpack, hitchhiked up to Campbell River, where the road then ended. Came back south to Courtenay and to the Comox-Powell River ferry. Then down via more ferries to Vancouver and back over to Vancouver Is. and then the ferry to Port Angeles. I still recall that, despite the many tourists (it was August) the only ones to pick up this then 36 year old backpacker were locals with B.C, plates. And my recollection is that my last rides before catching the ferries were from folks who went out of theircway to take me there.
Geoff Pietsch   Gainesville

P.S. I hope you will add this to your blog - or, at least, forward it to Les Disher.

Les,

MacKenzie is not a petty concern.  I think history is full of forgotten heroes and saints and devils.  Each nation creates its own and often fails to look beyond its borders and sometimes even  within.   It is only in recent years that Tesla is being remembered on a somewhat grander scale than his contemporaries, Edison and

Graham-Bell.  Some become heroes without merit like George Armstrong Custer.  Esp. in wartime when a nation needs a hero to sell war bonds or the like.

Okay if I put your comments on the blog?  They might inspire a Yank to look up Mackenzie including myself.  Speaking of running achievements, I met a guy

in May down in Ohio running East to West across the States.  100 km per day.  Assisted by a van and his wife driving and a bike rider occasionally with him. After getting to L.A. they drove up to Vancouver and headed back across Canada and completed the run.  Patrick Malandain, look up his blog.   George

Truly amazing, to run 26 miles faster than my admittedly slow best mile ever. After all the fanfare for Bannister's sub 4 it seems odd that even a casual track fan like me never knew that Daniel Komen broke 8 minutes for 2 miles and no one has done it since.

Thanks George enjoyed your article. I think this will be one of those “ where were you when” moments. but somehow lacking in the romance we attach to the first Four Minutes.  I was very interested to read Richard Mach’s response as i did not know those details about Bannister .  Somehow that does not seem to me to diminish Roger’s transcending magic.  Nothing can take away from Kipchoge the glorious achievement of being the first to break 2 hours but it is rather like a laboratory experiment and one thinks “sterility” rather than “magic”.  What it will do of course is show the top marathoners that it is physically possible and before long we will have a legitimate sub2 record.  You I am sure have seen the efforts by racing cyclists to achieve unexpected speeds by travelling behind a shield towed by a motorcycle.

I bet Pheidippides would have loved to have this kind of support-it may have changed history.

( although this is just to you George-if you feel it appropriate you have my permission to put it in under “Comments”)

Geoff Williams

George

It was 50 years ago this year that Ron (Hill)  and Derek Clayton were the first to break 2 hr 10 in the marathon, 

so the record declined at an average rate of 12 sec (0.15 %) / year. And that’s with the benefit of technology,

 probably less to do with changes in physiology!

How’s my math..?  A painfully slow decrease!

Dave Costill

George Brose <irathermediate@gmail.com>	Tue, Oct 15, 10:00 PM (9 hours ago)
to David

Dave,   .     Clayton's 2 and   1/2 minute jumpwas incredible for its day.    His first one was 52 years

 ago, and  his second was 50 years ago but looks like that course might not have gotten certification.

 You're in the money.

   10 min x 60 sec = 600 sec  div. by 52 yrs.    = 11.8  bloody seconds per year.  George

Do note Richard Mach's commentary in the Comments section below.  George

The Guardian Oct. 12, 2019 by Sean Ingle   clik here