September 25, 2022
Yep, 2 hours 1 minute and 9 seconds, exactly 30 seconds off the record for the men's marathon.
When we contemplate Eliud Kichoge, nothing surprises us in what he does on the road, on the track, or in life. He is truly a person of distinction in the world of sport. Roger Federer may earn more money, Aaron Judge may break the home run barrier this week, and Lewis Hamilton might win a few more Gran Prix if Mercedes gets their you know what together next year. Eliud can live a somewhat monastic existence in the hills of Kenya where the air is thin, the nights are cool, and there are few things to distract him from whatever his mission may be.
His splits are beyond belief but you have to do things like that to run 26.2 miles at that pace. What pace?
I calculate roughly 4:37.4 as a per mile average. His first 10Km was 28:23, his half marathon was 59:51.
Tigist Assefa
Not to be outdone by a lot, Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2 hrs 15 min and 37 sec. The third fastest ever. But this was only her second marathon and her previous was 2 hrs 34 min and some change. She also happens to be the only woman ever to run the marathon under 2 hrs 20 min. and also break 2 min. for 800 meters. So there.
Not to take anything away from these stunning performances, it was mentioned by a friend that a Russian had set the WR for 100 miles. I immediately thought it may have been run by a Russian draftee hauling ass out of the Ukraine, but it wasn't. At first it was reported that the guy had run an average of 7:10 per mile which is pretty impressive, so I did a bit of googling and fell onto the following article from Outside Magazine by Brian Metzler which indicates that the runner, not a Russian but a Lithuanian 40 year old retired kayaker named Alexandr Sorokin had set the record averaging 6:31 per mile. It was set earlier this year in Israel running on a 0.91 mile track. See link:
https://www.outsideonline.com/health/running/aleksandr
So you thirty somethings still have something to shoot for. Holy crap!
And all you Floridians, batten down the hatches, it looks like you may be in for a bumpy ride. Take care and good luck.
George Brose