Eliud Kipchoge’s historic sub-two-hour marathon will carry an asterisk

By J.S.

THE BARELY thinkable has happened: on October 12th a human being ran 26.2 miles (42.2 km) in less than two hours. For decades researchers have tried to establish a theoretical limit on times for the marathon, often arriving at the conclusion that 1:59:59 was impossible. At the very least, the milestone seemed several generations away from being reached. Yet Eliud Kipchoge, a 34-year-old Kenyan who holds the world record, had a different timeline in mind. On Saturday, as part of the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna—an unofficial event featuring several artificial conditions—Mr Kipchoge crossed the finish line in 1:59:40. That was almost two minutes faster than the Kenyan’s official world record of 2:01:39, set at last year’s Berlin marathon. It was also 45 seconds quicker than his result at Breaking2, a similar unofficial event organised by Nike in 2017, which produced a time of 2:00:25.

Few of sport’s other barriers have loomed as large. The two-hour marathon ranks with the four-minute mile, bested by Sir Roger Bannister in 1954, and the ten-second 100-metre dash, which was not achieved at low altitude until 1983. The initial response to Mr Kipchoge’s achievement has been euphoric, especially in his native Kenya. The 34-year-old is widely recognized as the greatest marathon runner of all time, with 11 wins in 12 races at the distance, including a gold medal at the Olympics in 2016. When he set his official world record in Berlin last year, the 78 seconds that he shaved off the previous best was the biggest step forward in a half-century.