In a surprise performance, Kenenisa Bekele won the Berlin Marathon in a time of 2:01:41 this past Sunday. This is the second-fastest official marathon time ever, two seconds behind the current world record of 2:01:39. He is in the conversation for being the distance running GOAT so while the time is not unusual with his talent, he also has been inconsistent at the marathon distance and at age 37, some had wondered whether he had another superb performance left in him. This past Sunday’s run was a resounding yes.
I took something else away from this result. Prior to the current marathon world record, the time drops for the past five ranged from 15 to 29 seconds. 2:01:39, set in 2018, smashed the previous one by 78 seconds and there was speculation that no one would be able to touch this on an official course for some time. Clearly someone can and did.
This brings me to my main point which ties in to the idea of two hours being a number which I addressed in a post a few weeks ago. By allowing ourselves to be limited by arbitrary numbers, are we holding ourselves back? The fact that someone nearly broke what was a staggering new record within a year says to me that once we as humans see something is possible, it becomes easier to achieve the mark again. Since the 2:01:39, there have been three other marathon finishes that are faster than the prior world record mark of 2:02:57. There are outliers, such as Paula Radcliffe’s women’s marathon record, which still stands 16 years later and no one else has come close, and Jim Ryun’s high school mile record which stood for 36 years. But, Bekele is no slouch of a runner and probably could have run this time at a fast marathon in the past five years. It’s clear that he and other top marathon runners are capable of getting at least to 2:01:39, and they will. Yet, it took someone who pushed the marathon boundaries to create this new standard that the others can now aspire to.
If the two hour marathon mark is broken at Ineos 1:59 in a couple of weeks, I’m not suggesting that winners of major marathons will routinely run in the 1:59 range. In fact, it’s a huge drop from 2:01:39 to 1:59:59 on an official course for many reasons. But, elite marathoners will be able to approach the distance with the knowledge that it’s possible and by doing so, it will be much more likely to be broken on an official course. Of course, we need to see whether the 2:00:00 barrier gets broken and if everything aligns correctly, we’ll witness that very soon.
We amateur runners can also take something away from this. I often hear other runners talking about time barriers and usually they (and I) mention round numbers, like 19:00 for the 5K or 47:00 for the 10K. We know there are faster times to be posted. While we’re not pushing the edges of what may be possible for humans, a healthy exercise might be to pick a goal that’s not as tied in to our standard sense of measurement. Using 47:00 for a 10K, the mile splits are 7:33.5771. If instead of going for a 46:59, the runner decided to go for a 7:32 per mile pace, it would take them to roughly 46:49. It’s more awkward to say “I’m going for a 46:49” instead of “Sub-47” but in our own minds, we can pick more specific times and use something that we feel is at the edge of our current limits to motivate us, as opposed to something more arbitrary. On that note, I’m running a 5K on a difficult course this coming Sunday. My initial thought was to go for under 20:00. That’s a 6:26.16/mile pace so I’ll go with 6:24 and a 19:53.
Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Tailwind Nutrition Endurance Fuel Lemon: Unlike the Tropical Buzz flavor, this one does not contain caffeine. I also can’t say that it tasted exactly like lemon, but the flavor was good. Most importantly, it did not cause any GI issues and it delivered on energy.
Sources used:
https://bringbackthemile.com/athletes/detail/jim_ryun
https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/radcliffe-runs-21525-in-london
https://ineos159challenge.com
https://www.outsideonline.com/2402853/kenenisa-bekele-berlin-marathon
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a23244541/berlin-marathon-world-record/
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a27244432/eliud-kipchoge-wins-london-marathon-in-2nd-fastest-time-in-history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_world_record_progression
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