G.O.A.T Eliud Kipchoge just keeps going
What you need to know:
- His appearance in Boston will be his 18th career marathon excluding his 2017 Breaking2 in Monza, Italy where he ran 2:00:25 and 2019 Ineos 1:59 Challenge where he became the first man to run a marathon under two hours (unofficial) in 1:59:40 in Vienna.
- Kipchoge made history as the only other athlete to have broken their own world marathon records besides Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie, Derek Clayton of Australia and Briton Jim Peters.
World marathon record holder and two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge is not done yet.
The first man to run a sub two-hour (unofficial) marathon, the 39-year-old’s next stop is in Boston where he hopes to win his fifth title in the six-race World Marathon Majors series.
And your guess is as good as mine. After finishing the job in Boston on April 17, he will be on the streets of the “Big Apple” on November 5, tackling the five New York boroughs to complete the inevitable at Central Park.
He not only wants to compete, but to win all six World Marathon Majors series races that take elite runners through Tokyo, London, Chicago, Berlin, Boston and New York marathons.
And to envision the Boston Marathon course, Kipchoge designed a route at his training base in Kaptagat resembling the uphill Boston route.
“This is the right time to train on the course which we have nicknamed ‘Boston’ here in Kenya. It’s an uphill and tough course over 40 kilometres,” said Kipchoge.
Kipchoge noted that the Berlin Marathon course, where he improved his world record with a new time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds on September 25 last year, and Boston present two different scenarios.
“The two races are held on different continents. While Berlin is a flat course, Boston is uphill and needs a lot of patience, hard work to go through, hence unpredictable,” he said.
”Today can be windy but the weather might change completely tomorrow but I am trying to be all weather man,” said the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Marathon champion. “If any challenge comes his way that morning, I will go with it.”
Kenya‘s Geoffrey Mutai holds the course record time of 2:03:02 at the Boston Marathon, a feat he achieved in 2011.
Mutai’s time could have been a new marathon world record then but the course isn’t certified by World Athletics because of its sloppy nature in the last 200m.
“I think I will benefit from it, this being my first time to put all my work on Boston marathon because I always train on a ‘Boston’ course in Kaptagat,” said Kipchoge, who has competed in four World Marathon Majors races in Tokyo, London, Berlin and Chicago, missing out on Boston and New York City Marathon.
Kipchoge noted that training at high altitude has always been beneficial.
“It is good for breathing and it can help enable me to breathe well and run fast and that is why I don’t even want to participate in the sixth World Marathon Majors, I want to participate and win all the six,” explained Kipchoge.
Above all, Kipchoge said he wants to accomplish the feat in course record times, having achieved the feat in half of the races in London (2:02:37-2019), Berlin (2:01:09-2022) and Tokyo (2:02:40-2022).
“This is another challenge, it’s like a championship where one need to win and get the gold medal,” said Kipchoge, who has five appearances including four wins in London and Berlin.
It’s not only in Berlin where Kipchoge chalked two world records in 2018 (2:01:39) and 2022 (2:01:09) it’s on the same course where he made his World Marathon Majors debut in 2013, finishing second behind Wilson Kipsang, who won in a world marathon record time of 2:03:23..
Kipchoge has competed in Chicago and Tokyo once in 2014 and 2022 respectively, making it a total of 12 appearances in the World Marathon Majors.
His appearance in Boston will be his 18th career marathon excluding his 2017 Breaking2 in Monza, Italy where he ran 2:00:25 and 2019 Ineos 1:59 Challenge where he became the first man to run a marathon under two hours (unofficial) in 1:59:40 in Vienna.
Kipchoge made history as the only other athlete to have broken their own world marathon records besides Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie, Derek Clayton of Australia and Briton Jim Peters.