Olympic Champion Runs World’s Fastest Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge narrowly missed running the very first sub-2-hour race

runners
Getty

Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge set out to run a marathon in under two hours.

He narrowly missed that mark, but he did run the 26.3 mile race faster than anyone’s ever run it before, at 2:00:25.

Kipchoge participated in Nike’s Breaking2 race in Italy, where he easily blew by the previous marathon world record of 2:02:57 set by Dennis Kimetto. He was joined in the unofficial race by two-time Boston winner Lelisa Desisa and half-marathon world record-holder Zersenay Tadese.

The race took place on the Formula One race track in Monza and runners ran approximately 17.5 laps of the 2.4-kilometer. The Nike event aided runners with a pace car, custom fueling and new Nike shoes.

Because it was an unofficial race and runners were given special assistance, the new record will not be officially recognized.

But it’s still pretty damn cool.

Comments