Kipchoge may still target a sub 2 hour marathon??

I generally like the brojos but their Kipchoge takes drive me crazy. If Kipchoge thinks he has any chance of breaking 2, of course he is choosing Berlin over NYC. He’s clearly more motivated by breaking this barrier than by winning races—he gave up two full training cycles to break 2 in exhibitions. He’s talked about the two hour marathon being the greatest accomplishment in athletics since the 4 minute mile, and he went for sub 2 last week at the risk of blowing up because he thought he had a chance.

Others have won both Boston and New York and none of them are near the caliber of Kipchoge. Looking at his last comments and actions, he seems to strongly believe that winning all 6 majors is a footnote compared to breaking 2.

i think it's possible under some of theses two conditions:

1) nike needs to make even better shoes within the next year or two because kipchoge is getting old

2) we make a marathon course that is legal but also with the sole purposes of running the fastest time possible. the berlin marathon might be one of the fastest marathon courses, but it wasn't scientifically created to maximize record speed.

More feasible than these is he needs better pace makers. His rabbits were all gone by 25K and thats when he started falling off 2 hour pace. If he can get support even past 30K that would be huge. But of course the number of people on the planet that can do that is miniscule, and most would choose to run their own race so will probably take big $ to entice.

As another poster mentioned, Kiplimo/Kandie/Cheptegei could be good options for non-marathon competitors to help out. Ideally he gets two bodies blocking the wind for him to 30K and only has to face the last 5-6 miles alone. Not a huge fan of the building a specific course just for him to break the WR, feels like you are blurring the lines to the breaking 2 project.

as long as we are consistent with the rules about what is legal or not, then things that are technically legal should be as good as legal. otherwise, we would be going down a rabbit hole. lets take the shoe argument for example. some people will say that carbon fiber shoes should not be legal because of the advantages it has over the previous generation of racing flats, but if you take the argument even further, we would question why the previous generation of racing flats should be allowed over running barefoot.

This right here is the correct take. The man sees this as the greatest time barrier in sports. He has built a myth and entire legend around this the last 5 years. He is obviously going for that if he thinks he has a chance at all. To think that NYC could even compare for him is hilarious. He can do any WWM tomorrow and win it. It is not what drives him.

Someone who can last 30k at WR pace will want to race the race and not be a pacer because then they'd be fully capable of winning it. I cannot see anyone stick with him longer than 25k like we saw on Sunday. Pacer looked toast.

He's far more likely to keep chasing it and then run NYC and BOS as retired/"a celebrity". Then he can tick off those races with no pressure and just run a casual 2:10 for fun.

Would you really rather see the GOAT chase silly races he's not interested in for your bucket list vs lowering the WR as much as possible?

He's clearly the only one who can unless Bekele manages another freak of nature race on Sunday and runs a WR or WR+1 (chance of that less than 10%).

I'd like to see him run 2:05 and break the course record in NYC - not a given. Can he run sub-2:03 and break the course record in Boston? It's doubtful without a huge tailwind...

Lowering the WR even further is much more meaningful than a course record in Boston or NYC.

Imho, sub 2:01 is possible, sub 2 is not. He would be be himself the last 6 miles anyway, nobody can run that fast for that long except Kipchoge.

runnersworld.com

Seems like Eliud Kipchoge wants that six star medal too as he aims to run ‘all major marathons’

Boston, New York, and Tokyo are on the GOAT marathoner's bucket list

Open link

He specifically says running Boston, NYC & Tokyo (Done) are on his "bucket list" to compete at. Im really not sure why some posters are acting like running all 6 is some Letsrun fantasy and not coming directly from his mouth. He even specifically mentions the words bucket list lol.

If he competes until 2025 he can win all 6 and still take more shots at the WR & win the Olympics. Also calling NYC & Boston "silly races" is a weird take. Clearly not as strong as London & Berlin, but his best bud and training partner Kamworor has run NYC 5x and Boston 1x so im sure they would disagree with your take.

What’s funny is that most casual fans already think he’s broken 2, or don’t understand why what he did doesn’t count.

Why is it such a big deal for him to run Boston and NYC next year? I'll be a bit disappointed if he skips Boston, but I'd rather him try to run sub-2 again than run NYC.

That's politically driven response. Obviously he's not going to say what's really on his mind.

Like many have said, his brand is built around a sub 2 marathon, that's what gets him out the door in the morning, so if he feels he still has a chance to take a crack at it, he's not going to burn an entire cycle for NY or Boston.

What's with this WMM obsession, seriously.

A pipe dream, but imagine Bekele running as a rabbit for a sub 2 legal attempt. Like "F-it, I'll play a part in history and send EK on his way to a sub 2 at 30-35k"

Valencia is probably as fast as Berlin

He can run boston and Berlin next year.

From what I saw and heard from him, he didnt look anywhere near his limit at that race...maybe some poor pacing during the first half but he def has the ability still to go for sub 2.

But he shouldnt wait a year to do it. Find another flat course quickly and as soon as hes fresh again, give it a shot.

Oh he most definitely can. It can be like a long run session, like the Olympics this year. Perhaps do a recovery run the next day and business as usual the rest of the week

My take is that he'll run Boston and NY or UTMB or whatever else he feels like running after he has peace of mind that he gave his absolute best towards what has been his single minded focus these past +5 years: sub 2 marathon.

If Boston were so important to him he would have done it already, it's a spring marathon after all

I'll look tomorrow to find where he said it, but he has said in an interview that his remaining goal now is to complete the major marathon wins (Boston & NY) and to win at the next Olympics.

With those 3 in the pipeline + his age, I'm not sure he adds in an additional marathon like Berlin or Valencia etc to try and target a really fast time