Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 marathon run is truly insane when you break down the numbers: https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1704337865113817342

▫️4:35 per mile pace (the record for one mile is 3:43 and he kept the pace 26x)

▫️OR 2:50 per KM pace (he did it 42x and each kilometre was within 2:48 to 2:52)

▫️The average men’s marathon time for 5km is ~30 mins (Kipchoge’s 5km pace was 14:13 mins, which he did ~8x)

▫️The world record 10km run is 26:11 (Kipchoge’s 5km pace was 28:26 which he did ~4x)

▫️His 100m pace was 17 seconds, which he did 422x

▫️The 21km per hour pace (or 13 miles per hour) isn’t even available on some treadmills

The sub-2 hour run — which was staged in Vienna in 2019 — is unreal but doesn’t count for marathon record purposes.

Why? Because the event was optimized for Kipchoge: coaches brought him water and he had pacemakers (including a car laying down a laser beam).

The human pacemakers might be my favourite part. They were 41 of the world’s top runners with >50 combined medals at Olympics and World Championships. All knew Kipchoge was the GOAT and chipped in.

Kipchoge’s pace was so punishing that the pacemakers swapped in and out at 5-minute intervals.

The best part — shown below — is when Kipchoge waves them off at the end and they cheer him on as he goes HAM to the finish line.