When this blog started, a fair number of posts featured the unprecedented dominance at the marathon distance by Eliud Kipchoge. With the 5000M history series this past spring and summer and a few other posts, I realized it had been a while since I had mentioned anything about his recent races. It was known that at some point, barring discovery of the fountain of youth, that time would be an enemy of his speed and endurance. The question was when?
It was announced this week that Kipchoge will race the London Marathon this spring and now speculation swirls. Can a 40-year old (and some believe he may be a bit older) with a few disappointments in the past couple of years churn out another major marathon victory?
Following a 6th-place finish in the 2023 Boston Marathon, Kipchoge rebounded to win the 2023 Berlin Marathon. After that, he had a 10th-place finish at the Tokyo Marathon in 2024, well outside of Kipchoge standards. He then DNF’d at the Olympics this past summer. If you look collectively at his career: eleven major marathon wins, two staged marathon times of 2:00:25 and 1:59:41, two Olympic gold medals, and three non-major wins, then having five marathons where he didn’t win or DNF’d is remarkable. However, since three of those occurred in his last four attempts, it’s natural to wonder whether he has another major win in him. The betting line would probably be no. If he’s hoping to start another string of wins, that would be an unreasonable expectation. If he’s hoping for one last great race, he wouldn’t be the first forty-plus athlete to have an additional moment of triumph.
At forty-five years old, George Foreman reclaimed the heavyweight boxing championship of the world. At forty-four years old, Nolan Ryan threw a no-hitter in Major League Baseball. At forty-three years old, Tom Brady led his team to a Super Bowl championship.
How do any of these compare to running a major marathon? That’s difficult to say. But, all three of those athletes are generational talents, as is Kipchoge.
The London field is fast, so Kipchoge will have a very tough task when he toes the line. Still, that list of accomplishments by 40+ athletes is not exhaustive and perhaps he’ll be able to add his name to it.
https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/ryan-throws-seventh-no-hitter
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/tom-bradys-7th-super-bowl-ring-reaction
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/64525-oldest-heavyweight-boxing-world-champion
https://www.letsrun.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge
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