The Boston Marathon, the oldest and the most popular marathon in the world, is the holy grail for runners across the globe. It’s the one that every runner trains all-life-long to qualify for. A very small percentage of runners are fast and consistent enough to run the event multiple times. Even they need to train hard to ensure they remain fast and automatically qualify for the next edition of the race. But Eliud Kipchoge, the fastest marathoner in the world, is a rarity in the running world. The double Olympic marathon winner and world record holder, who could have run the Boston Marathon whenever he wished to, had not run the Boston Marathon. Till April 17, 2023, that is. Such is Kipchoge’s reputation in the athletics world that the mere fact that he was finally making his Boston Marathon debut made headlines and had recreational athletes and running club members all excited while rivals took notice and pulled up their socks.
On race Monday—Boston Marathon is always held on the third Monday of April—about 30,000 runners from 120 countries lined up at the start line of the race in cold and wet conditions. Despite the light rain, the elite field which had multiple past Boston Marathon winners and winners of other Marathon Majors, Kipchoge got off to a good start and led the race in the early stages and was with the leading pack till the section known as Heartbreak Hill, which is in the final third of the marathon course. For first-time Boston Marathon runners, it is this section of the course that runs through a rolling terrain where they run into trouble and invariably slow down. That’s how this section earned its moniker. Kipchoge, the Boston Marathon debutant, also ran into trouble at Heartbreak Hill and that’s when last year’s Boston winner Evans Chebet and his training partner, the 2021 Boston winner Benson Kipruto, both Kenyans, made their move. Kipchoge fell behind and went on to finish sixth in 2:09:23 while Chebet became the first man since 2008 to defend his title here finishing in 2:05:54. Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay was the runners-up with 2:06:04 while Kipruto finished third with 2:06:06.
Also read: Boston Marathon 2023: What went wrong for Eliud Kipchoge
Boston Marathon 2023 was only the third race of his career that Kipchoge has participated in and not won. The 38-year-old has won four (London, Berlin, Tokyo, Chicago) of the six World Marathon Majors. Boston is the only major he has participated in and not won. He hasn't run the New York City Marathon till date.
Kipchoge holds the world record for the marathon at 2:01:09, which he set in Berlin last September by shaving 30 seconds off the record that he had set in the same race four years prior in 2018. Kipchoge was also a 5,000m world champion in 2003, and won Olympic bronze and silver over 5,000m in 2004 and 2008, respectively, before turning to long distance races.
Kipchoge is also the only man to have run 42.2km in under 2 hours when he covered the distance under controlled circumstances in Vienna in 2019. In his first attempt at Breaking2 at the Monza Formula One track in Italy in May 2017, he had narrowly missed the mark by 26 seconds. But in Vienna, aided by a team of pacers, Nike’s new shoe technology featuring a carbon plate in the sole and the perfect route, Kipchoge covered the marathon distance in 1:59.40. This is not considered an official world record because the feat was achieved under controlled circumstances with multiple pacers joining Kipchoge in a formation designed to reduce the drag he experienced while running. However, what that successful attempt did do is show the world that it is humanly possible to run a marathon in under 2 hours and Kipchoge has come closest to it while setting the world record time of 2:01:09 in Berlin last year.
Kipchoge, the youngest of five siblings, worked as milkman in his village in Kenya before taking up running. He started with the middle distances winning the junior world cross country title in 2003 and the 5000m gold at the world athletics championships the same year. He progressed to the Olympics in 2004 where he won a bronze in 5000m and bagged a silver in the same distance at the summer games four years later. He took to long-distance running only in 2013 winning his debut race at the Hamburg Hamburg marathon and setting a course record en route. Kipchoge has won the Berlin and London marathons four times, the Tokyo and Chicago marathons once and the Olympic marathon gold twice. Along the way, Kipchoge also ran the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in 2016 setting the course record while clocking 59:44. This was his second time racing in the Indian capital after his silver in 5000m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Between 2014 and 2019, Kipchoge, who is a fan of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, was so consistent that he didn’t lose a single race that he participated in. In his entire 10-year road-racing career, the Kenyan legend has only raced 17 official marathons and has failed to win just thrice. He finished second behind Wilson Kipsang, who set a new world record (2:03:23), in the Berlin Marathon in 2013. His second loss came when he finished at the London Marathon 2020 and at Boston he suffered his latest and third loss as he finished sixth. Yet, such is his dominance and eminence in this sport that his statement preceded quotes from the winners of the Boston Marathon. He is a hero much loved by the world as well as the media and his presence at the post-race media interactions alongside the Boston Marathon champions reaffirmed his importance in the running world.
“Today was a tough day for me. I pushed myself as hard as I could, but sometimes, we must accept that today wasn’t the day to push the barrier to a greater height,” read a statement by Kipchoge, who has won four of the five World Marathon Major races he has participated in. It’s a rare day when the official and unofficial fastest man in the world pushes and doesn’t win. But this loss shows Kipchoge is human after all. And he accepts it. It’s his humility. The world can emulate that because matching his speed will take some more time.
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