Besides, he already has the official world record anyway. This was an experiment to see if it was possible to shave a couple dozen seconds off the marathon time of the greatest marathon runner of all time. Doing it again in race conditions—whether it’s by Kipchoge or another runner—will be a historic milestone but there is greater confidence that it will happen now.

Besides, I know you can’t control for adrenaline and elation, but the fact that he picked up 10 seconds of pace at the end—when he was running only 10 seconds shy of 2 hours for the whole marathon—and then spent a good half hour running around and celebrating after he crossed the finish line might be a hint that we haven’t even found the real limits yet.

I'm not alone in thinking this, but it's not just his pace that makes him truly remarkable, it's his consistency. I can't remember accurate numbers, but I think it's like in ten consecutive marathons, he came first nine times.

Runners are prone to injury, and if you're not feeling 100% on the race you're likely to not win or run at your best.

He has won all ten of his last ten marathons. He was beaten by Wilson Kipsang in the 2013 Berlin marathon, but Kipsang ran a world record time. Kipchoge is incredibly consistent in arguably the most competitive field in history. He is an extraordinary athlete in both performance and spirit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge#Competition_rec...

If I remember correctly, he is unbeaten since that moment in 2013.

How is marathon running more competitive field than football or American football or basketball?

Any able-bodied person who owns shoes can run. Even people too poor to own shoes can often become excellent runners. Coaches help, but many people have reached near elite levels before having access to a coach.

It's the one sport that's open to just about everyone.

Perversely, this makes its highest levels open to only the most extreme of genetic freaks.

You need a lot more than shoes to run a marathon. The time and environment required to get there is much less accessible than something like soccer, football, or basketball.

You don't even need the shoes in all cases:

> "Many theories are offered up as the secret to Kenya's success in long distance running, but one of the most commonly cited, especially by Kenyans themselves, is the hard, active life the children here lead. Most run long distances to school each morning, and when they get home they are sent out to tend to the goats or sheep. There are few televisions, let alone PlayStations or Xboxes."

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/11/04/3614032...

It's definitely true that the marathon is somewhat less accessible than short or mid-distance running, but it doesn't take years of marathon running to be a top marathoner. Much of the fitness transfers from mid-distances. Many competitive 10k runners post elite times in their very first marathon race. This means that in practice, the marathon is very nearly as competitive as that for a middle distance race.

I think the team did not fully grasp how huge of a difference laser guided pacemaker and fully covered wind guard makes. The difference could have been greater -- maybe we're even going to see a peloton effect in future marathons utilized to the fullest.

Forgive my ignorance: what's the Peloton effect (I know the company; not sure what the "effect" is), and what's the laser guided pacemaker you're referring to?

Lead cyclists take turns riding at the front of the pack (the peloton, from which the company took its name), blocking the apparent wind and allowing teammates to ride in their slipstream. The protected riders use less energy to maintain the same pace.

Peloton is the same idea as tailgating (driving behind a truck on highway in order to save fuel), front cyclists/runners use extra energy to "break" the air so that those behind them can save some strength.

Tailgating is just what jerks do because they are inconsiderate and unsafe.

I believe the word you were looking for is "drafting".

If you look on youtube for this event, you'll see there was a vehicle driving in front of the pack that was aiming a laser at the feet of the runners. It appears to make it easier to follow a pace very accurately by making sure your feet are following the laser.

They did exactly this two years ago and failed

Reminds me of that adage: "There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your former self."

Back then people didn’t believe a four minute mile is possible, but after the barrier has been broken, dozens followed suit. In his eyes, his achievement is not the run, but breaking the barrier, and I appreciate him for that.

> after the barrier has been broken, dozens followed suit.

I read an interesting article about that explaining that this wasn't really down to any kind of barriers but more having pacers and a better track (which is coincidentally about the previous 2h marathon attempt.)

https://sportsscientists.com/2014/12/2-hour-marathon-4-min-m...

That, plus having enough time for a generation of runners to blossom after WW2.

I often wonder in cases like that if those who followed suit were not so much emboldened as already nipping at the heels of the one who did it first.

To mix metaphor with reality, there was perhaps a pack speeding toward the finish line, and one crossed it first.

It's probably a mix of both. Surprisingly (to me), not many were able to break the sub 4min mile immediately after Bannister broke that record - Landy was the second to break the mark a month or so after but he was already working towards it. I read in the 20 year span after the record, only 300 runners were able to match the sub 4 feat.

For an interesting read + obit of Roger Bannister, who first broke the 4-minute barrier:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/obituaries/roger-banniste...

I just formed my own officiating world record certification body called WASI; We All Saw It. WASI rejects who-evers claim to a monopoly on declaring who ran what, when, and where. WASI officially recognizes Elluid Kipchoge as the most badass marathon distance runner alive.

he's also the 'normal' marathon world champion. He just didn't exceed his own previous record with this because it didn't qualify in this category.

You wouldn't allow a rocket propelled and self driving formel1 car into the same bracket as the normal league either.... Though the difference is significantly less here

His achievements are listed on Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge

it's important to be precise: he is not the world champion. "world record holder" means something different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_World_Athletics_Champions...

WASI recognizes Eliud Kipchoge's 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds time as the current world record marathon distance running time.

It seems a shame that 99.99% of humans will never have the opportunity to break the record. If only there was a category for people who race unassisted by a large team of pacers, cyclists who feed them specially designed gel, and laser-equipped pacer cars.

It's unfortunate that Eliud Kipchoge can afford to run first class while others can only run coach. However fueling is available at aid stations and along the route from a runners support crew in coach. Many people cannot even afford coach and will be lucky to run verified once or twice in their life. Pheidippides would likely be very jealous of coach, never mind first class.

WASI does not hate the player. WASI hates the game.

Also you are missing a bunch of nines because out of the 7.7bn people on earth there are probably only a a few capable of running that time; lasers or no lasers :) Seriously though, he ran the distance under his own power and nobody denies that. They are all just like *"Unfortunately it's not going to be official". Not official why?! Oh, because the IAAF doesn't recognize it; a little fact almost every news release leaves out. That sounds trivial and arbitrary. It should be called the "IAAF World Record".

WeWork will try to trademark this Monday morning

I like this a LOT

For the non-initiated among us, what does it mean to "use a team of pacemakers"?

Why are those pacemakers that important?

It's a group of runners there to keep up the running pace, to block wind and generally add morale.

Over the duration of the attempt, runners will hop in and hop out of the run to keep the running pace alongside Kipchoge as well as block wind (a non-trivial factor) over 26.2 miles. Also, it is mentally boosting to have teammates and even competitors of his run along side him as he pushes his body and mind farther than he has ever had before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_(aerodynamics)#Runnin...:

”Drafting behind another runner can conserve energy, although the effect is less than in cycling due to the fact that speeds are lower.”

There also is a psychological effect. It is easier to keep a constant pace if there’s somebody in front of you that does it, too.

So use an AR headset to put a virtual person in front of you keeping a constant pace?

No need for AR in this case. There was a laser grid projected onto the road in front of the runners by a pacing car.

https://image.businessinsider.com/5da1887a4af90974904877c2

https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2...

But that can't provide the drafting and morale benefit of running behind your teammates

Wait ... why a laser projection? You could just use the car for pacing.

IIRC it was done that way as a way to follow the optimal path, instead of eyeballing it and taking corners too wide and adding more distance. Might not seem like much, but he had to shave off less than a minute of his previous attempt, so every little helps.

Maybe for keeping a safe distance without having to eyeball it, or for avoiding the fumes.

Road cyclists frequently draft behind a car or motorcycle; motor-paced racing used to be a very popular discipline and motorcycles are still used for pacing the Keirin event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor-paced_racing

The pace car was a Tesla so no fumes :)

Might want to use an electric car to avoid the fumes. I do wonder if the car, even a larger distance ahead, does more for drafting than a human in front of the runner.

They used an Audi e-Tron car for pacing the Ineos 1:59.

For the previous attempt at the Breaking 2 event at Monza racetrack, they used a Tesla as a pace car.

I don't have the source on hand, but there was an interview with the person who designed the unusual reverse-V shaped pacer formation, where he said that if it was up to him there wouldn't be a car in front of the runners. The goal is to have as much air as possible hit the front pacers.

According to the article, it was an electric car.

Could be a requirement to stay a certain distance back to keep the car from performing too much of the drafting maybe?

Marathon runners would run naked if they could. Certainly don’t want or need some heavy gadget on their head.

A device like google glass wouldn't be much heavier than their usual glasses.

There are specific limits on the size and functionality of sunglasses at sanctioned track and field events.

Some events don't even allow the use of Garmin watches (by elite runners) because they can be used for pacing.

Very much a non-elite runner here, but yeah, "run vs my previous best pace" is a standard mode and seeing "you are 12 seconds ahead and will finish with a time of xx:yy" is very, very motivating.

Every once counts. Also, it would be a pain to keep on while running.

Are there any ultramarathon runners that wear glasses while they run?

It’s very common to wear sunglasses in an ultramarathon. Runners usually also wear a vest to carry their water, food, safety gear, headlamp, etc.

Different sport altogether, it’s more the endurance so the pace is generally lower. Also you usually won’t have much support along the way so carrying water & food is pretty essential.

That would be amazing for many sports, I think. Gamers are used to ghosts in races showing them what others have done. Doing this for real-life sports could really change how people train.

Personally, I find this a very inspirational idea.

> Doing this for real-life sports could really change how people train.

Strava live segments kind of do this already and it's more of a curse during training. The hardest part of training for running, aside from the consistent long hours, is taking it easy most of the time. Strava segments cause you to compete with yourself and others and go too hard. This quickly leads to burnout and injury. Slow, consistent runs are what you need during training, and a GPS watch can already give you that.

I won't argue that nobody will use it incorrectly. In fact, I'm positive that it'll happen just like you say at first.

And then the internet will be flooded with bloggers talking about how everyone is doing it wrong since they're now self-proclaimed experts, repeating the same things they've heard someone else say.

And eventually, most people will get on the right track with it. It'll be a "GPS watch" in their head that's far more effective.

And I'm sure people will take it beyond that in ways that neither of us are prepared to imagine yet.

What possible benefit would AR provide in this situation?

AR would allow each athlete their own personal pacing grid, or ghost racer, or ideal line. You can run that on a watch or bike computer (or heads-up display), but AR would be that much more intuitive.

It doesn't apply to this one-person demonstration event, but it would sell like crazy to the gear nuts.

phkahler thinks if the record attempt is invalid because of the team of pace runners, why not use a simulated pace runner to gain the benefit without breaking the rule?

Of course, if the speed benefit of pacing is down to psychology and camaraderie rather than purely information, a simulated pacer might not offer the same benefit.

There were 3 reasons why the record is invalid: swapping pacers, drinks handed directly to him by support team (on bicycles), not an 'open event'.

When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, he also had pacers.

The rule for pacers is that they must start the race at the same time and be able to keep up with the runner being paced, though they don’t have to finish it. Swapping fresh legs in mid-race isn’t allowed.

In a college indoor track 5K, one of my teammates was being lapped by another teammate competing for a podium spot. The guy being lapped started sprinting to help the guy near the front of the race finish strong. That was ruled illegal pacing and they were both disqualified. It was a similar sort of situation — in order to legally pace you must be able to keep up with the runner your pacing.

It varies by event. Personal pacers in the marathon are uncommon to begin with. In ultramarathons they are specifically not allowed until late in the race. That a track event would rule that way had become an unfortunate expectation.

Pacers in ultras largely serve a different purpose. They’re there for safety, especially once it gets dark. In events 50 miles and shorter, pacers usually aren’t allowed. Sure, the elite runners could get some actual pacing at the end but that’s a very small portion of pacing in ultras.

Those were different; they all started at the same time as him.

Having pacemakers in marathons that way is deemed acceptable. The organization of a marathon will even specifically hire runners to, say, run the first half in one hour ten minutes, after which they are free to step out of the race.

Here, each pacemaker, including the ones that accompanied him to the finish line, ran for only about 9 km (my guess, given 35 pacemakers used and using groups of 7). So, the last group only started running when Kipchoge has run for over one and a half hours.

> he used a team of rotating pacemakers

Many of whom might be considered his competitors, too

nit-picking but of all the pacers (40-ish) only 10 or so are (or were in their past) "marathoners" and none would be considered Kipchoge's competitors. If I remember correctly they all have PRs in the 02:05-02:10 range.

Considering the required speed most pacers were 5000m and 1000m people