Ineos 1:59 Challenge II: Results
On Saturday, the world watched as Eliud Kipchoge landed on the moon, running a full marathon in a time of 1:59:40.2, becoming the first person to do so in under two hours. It isn’t an official record, because of the nature of the event - pacers swapped in and out, multiple cars broke the wind for Kipchoge the whole way, and it wasn’t really a race per se. Regardless, Kipchoge’s achievement is a monumental one, maintaining a blistering average pace of 2:50/km is a true testament to his endurance, and the limits of human ability in general.
The atmosphere in the Prater was electric - thousands of people lined the 4.3km stretch of road, and raucously cheered every time Kipchoge and his team of pacers strode past. There were interviews (including from the Vice President of Kenya, the Mayor of Vienna, and Chris Froome), music (most notably including Stronger by Kelly Clarkson, allegedly one of Eliud’s favourite songs) and big screens showing his progress and kilometre splits. People were running and cycling on the adjacent paths for the whole event, and it felt like a party atmosphere, a festival to celebrate running and the possibilities therein.
I predicted that Kipchoge would do it, as did pretty much everyone else I have seen make a prediction, including the friends I travelled to the event with. I still had some doubt though, I wasn’t 100% sure he would make it, until roughly 90 minutes in. For the first handful of times that we’d watched the formation run past us, Kipchoge had looked laser-focused, in the zone, contemplating only the task at hand. But as he ran past us after approximately 30km, to a voluminous cheer from the surrounding crowd, he had an entirely different look on his face - a smile. They say that when he smiles, that is his way of dealing with pain, and it is a sign he is struggling, but from where I was standing, it certainly didn’t look like that. It seemed to be the smile of a man who knew exactly what he was about to accomplish, and that he was on the brink of making history, that nothing could stop him now. Up until that point, we thought he would probably do it, but we didn’t know - I think he, however, knew from the moment he stood on the start line that there was only one possible outcome.