Marathon duel pits Kenya’s best in hunt for world record in Berlin

Last Wednesday, a 55-minute-long, eagerly-awaited “Breaking2” documentary premiered on the National Geographic channel, featuring last May’s near-perfect attempt by three top distance runners to complete the marathon in under two hours.

Kenya’s Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Boston Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia and Eritrea’s world half marathon record holder Zersenay Tadese were placed on a two-year project by scientists from American sportswear giants Nike in a bid to beat the iconic two-hour barrier in the 42-kilometre race.

The bold mission was staged at Italy’s Autodrome Nationale di Monza, the circuit where the fastest ever formula one lap was clocked in 2004 by Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya who averaged an incredible 262.242 kilometres per hour in his Williams race car.

The “Breaking2” project was orchestrated by a well-heeled team of researchers conducted by Brad Wilkins of the Nike Sports Research Lab, with other team members including Andy Jones (endurance expert) and Brett Kirby (lead physiologist at Nike Sport).

Of the three athletes, all wearing special, custom-made ‘Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite’ racing shoes, Kipchoge came closest to breaking the barrier, completing the race in 2:00:25, just 26 seconds short of the anticipated 1:59:59!

FASTEST EVER MARATHON

Nonetheless, it was the fastest ever marathon, and it thrust the man from Kapsisiywa in Nandi County into the global limelight, despite the fact that it was not recognised as an official world record by the International Association of Athletics Federations due to the conditions under which it was organised, including its retinue of pace-setters and special fluid intake by the athletes.

Laid-back, soft spoken with an unassuming demeanour, Kipchoge passes off as an extremely harmless human being.

STARK CONTRAST

A stark contrast from most of Kenya’s other world-beating athletes, you wouldn’t find him driving around the streets of Eldoret in fuel guzzlers, or throwing rounds of drinks and merry-making with fellow athletes, adoring fans and friends at popular Uasin Gishu County clubs.

Instead, Kipchoge, 32, lives a spartan life ­­­– more like a monk – at the Global Sports Communications (GSC) training camp in Kaptagat, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, along with several elite runners contracted by the Dutch athlete management company.

Here, you will find Kenya’s richest distance runner drawing water from the well for a quick shower after training, besides featuring prominently on the daily roster of chores that include sweeping and even cleaning the camp’s toilets.

His diet is equally simple, with rice, beans, beef and vegetables dominating the menu in which the occasional chapati would be an extravagance.

His bread is never buttered, consumed “as is” and driven down by a steaming cup of tea from the ubiquitous village tin mug.

THE IDEA IN LIFE

“In life, the idea is to be happy,” Kipchoge, 32, says in the freshly-released documentary.

“I believe in a calm, simple and low profile life.

“You live simple, you train hard and live an honest life… then you are free,” he adds philosophically.

But beneath the mask of humility is an explosive, philosophical and extremely talented spirit that’s made Kipchoge arguably the greatest distance runner of all time.

For an athlete who banked easily over one million dollars last May to be part of the well-choreographed “Breaking2” initiative, one would expect the 32-year-old to live large and let the world know he has “arrived”.

After all, reports have it that Nike paid him the tidy sum to skip last month’s World Championships in London, placing him on a seven-month, highly scientific training programme along with Tadese and Desisa for the epic attempt streamed live to a global audience of over six million through YouTube and Facebook with the hashtag #Breaking2 accumulating over two trillion impressions.

But Kipchoge is quick to deny these claims.

“Monza was in May and had no time to concentrate on the World Championships and that’s why I called it off to concentrate purely on Berlin,” he says.

Across the hills away from Kipchoge’s training base in Kaptagat, at Iten, also within Elgeyo Marakwet County, another legend has also broken many barriers and emerged as the most consistent marathon runner of all time.

'THE PEOPLE'S MAN'

Wilson Kipsang, 35, is quite the opposite of Kipchoge.

Outgoing and the “people’s man,” Kipsang even threw his hat into the ring at the last General Election, running for the Keiyo South parliamentary seat in this Jubilee stronghold constituency.

He lost in the Jubilee nominations, but the “small distraction” of politics did not prevent him from going into the record books, clocking the fastest ever marathon time on Japanese soil while winning February’s Tokyo Marathon in two hours, three minutes and 58 seconds.

The sort of build-up he had hoped for as he joins Kipchoge and Ethiopia’s defending champion Kenenisa Bekele in the attempt to break the world marathon record at today’s BMW Berlin Marathon.

The official world record for the 42-kilometre distance is currently held by Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto who ran 2:02:57 at the 2014 Berlin Marathon, just 12 months after Kipsang had shattered the world mark with a 2:03:23 on this very Berlin course.

“My preparations and training were not at all affected by my political campaigns,” Kipsang tells Lifestyle in an interview in Iten, in the middle of a light afternoon workout.

“I prepared myself very well for Tokyo, in between the nominations.

“After the nominations, I’ve really been having a nice time resting and training for the Berlin race.”

With Kipchoge and Bekele also aiming to break the world record today, does Kipsang feel the extra pressure?

TO BREAK THE RECORD AGAIN

“My preparation has been to break the record again. I tried last year but it was not possible because I didn’t put in enough preparation, and also, I didn’t get enough co-operation from Bekele (who won the race in a personal best time of 2:03:03).

“But looking at the start line this year, my presence as the former world record holder, along with Kipchoge and Bekele, who have both been very close to the world record, means the world record is possible, only if we get the right combination.

“But if we don’t co-operate, especially after the pacemakers are out at the 30-kilometre mark, then it will not be possible to break the record.”

For the uninitiated, pacemakers are the athletes who run at the front, on a schedule, maintaining pre-arranged times with a view to “pulling” the elite runners to specific times.

They are also referred to as “rabbits.”

At today’s BMW Berlin Marathon, Geoffrey Rono, Sammy Kitwara and Gideon Kipketer will play the pace-making role until the 30km mark when they leave the leading athletes to their own devices.

The trio are established runners in their own right, with Kipketer finishing third at this year’s Tokyo Marathon.

SPADEWORK FOR BEKELE

Rono is Kipsang’s designated pacemaker while Kitwara will “pull” Kipchoge and Kipketer is expected to do the spadework for Bekele.

“I picked of Geoffrey because he is a strong athlete and we have a good relation as we train together,” Kipsang explains.

“When Kimetto broke the world record at 2:02:57, Geoffrey was there, and he’s very strong over the half marathon (21km) distance.”

The schedule for the pacemakers today will be to cross the halfway mark in 61 minutes in order to dip under 2:02:57 for a new world record.

“We are ready to run on schedule and I think I stand a high chance of breaking the record compared to those guys because I know the course and the world record feeling more than those guys,” adds Kipsang, 35, in reference to his two rivals in today’s race.

WILL HAVE NONE OF IT

But Kipchoge will have none of it, maintaining that he’s the one to make history today on the roads on Berlin.

“You can read the signs,” he says pointing at his Nike t-shirt which has the inscription “Berlin WR”

“It says Berlin world record, which means I’m going for the record,” is his confident answer.

“If I can run two hours, flat, in the marathon, it means then I can run under 2:02:57,” he tells me at his Kaptagat camp after arriving back from a morning fartlek (speed intervals) training session at the University of Eldoret’s Chepkoilel campus.

“I don’t want to pre-empt anything, but I just want to run a world record. Even if it’s 2:02:56, it’s an official world record.”

His training partners and fans will be keenly following the race at Eldoret’s Klique hotel at a live viewing party organised by Bank of Africa along with Isuzu East Africa, the latter who recently signed a year’s renewable partnership worth Sh7 million with Kipchoge, inter alia, giving him an Isuzu pick-up truck for personal and professional use.

VIEWING PARTIES

For the last three years, Bank of Africa has been throwing these viewing parties for the athletes during which they also offer investment and banking tips to the moneyed runners.

Ever since he won the world 5,000 metres track title in 2003 (Paris), Kipchoge has concentrated his training in Kaptagat, a place he describes as “special”.

“Kaptagat is a special place. You cannot compare this with any place in the world. People talk of Iten or Kapsabet or Ngong, but Kaptagat is the best, because it’s the only place you can go even at midday to the forest and train without sunshine.

“There’s no other place in Kenya where you can run for two hours inside the forest.”

Kipchoge and Bekele are among about 60 distance runners competing under the new NN Running Team, a concept created by Global Sports Communications in an attempt to bring some innovation into athletics.

According to Ilana Finley, a communication director at Nike Running, the two are expected to run today’s Berlin Marathon in the Nike Zoom Vaporfly elite shoe that stole the limelight in the “Breaking2” project, a technological advancement that places the American manufacturer some steps ahead of their competitors.

“Technology has grown beyond the thinking of humans and I’m happy with the technology of the Nike company. For now, the shoes and everything in Nike is OK,” Kipchoge assures.

Holding all factors constant, the Berlin course, that has accounted for five world records since 2003, should provide another fastest time today.

“Berlin has a conducive weather for running fast, and, secondly, the course is purely flat,” Kipchoge explains.

Former world record holder Patrick Makau pulled out of today’s race with a knee injury yesterday. Kenya’s two women entries, Valery Aiyabei and Gladys Cherono, who have been totally overshadowed by the three men, are also in Sunday’s mix.

Aiyabei (personal best 2:21:57), the Prague Marathon champion and course record holder, and Cherono (2:19:25), winner of the 2015 BMW Berlin Marathon, have been tipped to also produce fast times on a course that has time and again been adjusted by legendary race director Mark Milde to produce exciting times.

The world is waiting.