Here's How Fast You'd Have To Run To Keep Up With Marathon Runner Kipchoge
Running season is truly winding down here in Australia following the wrap of Sydney's Blackmores Running Festival over the weekend, and while Aussies are licking their wounds, one man was busy breaking world records in Berlin.
Eliud Kipchoge is now the world's fasted man over 42km, running the marathon in two hours, one minute and 39 seconds, edging ever so close to the elusive two hour mark and smashing 78 seconds off the previous world record in the process.
"He is just head and shoulders above anyone else in the world … I can't see anyone else doing it but I can certainly see him doing it," said Australian marathon great Robert de Castella to ABC.
Kenya's Kipchoge is an absolute machine, especially when you break down the splits of his run. The easiest way to truly comprehend the incredible feat of human athleticism is to break down Eliud's run into 100m splits, a distance understood by most people who attended their primary school athletics carnival.
Essentially, Kipchoge runs the 100m in 17 seconds, over 400 times without rest (maths is not my strong suit, so please don't @ me if that break down doesn't add up). BUT, even that theory falls flat, as Kipchoge got faster as the race progressed.
"Looking at his splits, he was getting faster," de Castella said. "His last 10 kilometres was his fastest, so he's showing no sign of fatigue or exhaustion as the marathon goes on. He's a superhuman athlete."
When you look at the splits above, how long could you hang on to Kipchoge going head-to-head? We put it to the office and our fastest writer would probably only hold on for a cheeky 500m, sprinting at full capacity, with training.
At 33 years of age, Kipchoge still has a few years left in the tank to reach the 2 hour mark, and we're backing him to achieve it!
