Amby put down your ego filled beer wrote:
So Ruth Chepngetich runs 2:09:56, and suddenly the male ego collectively implodes like it’s been personally insulted. Because, of course, when a woman shatters a marathon record, it’s not a historic moment—it’s a direct assault on manhood everywhere. Meanwhile, Kelvin Kiptum blasts through with a 2:00:35 in Chicago, and we treat him like Zeus himself, cape fluttering in the wind. Eliud Kipchoge clocks 2:01:09, and we’re all ready to name an Olympic stadium after him. No one’s asking if he’s a ‘real man’
But the moment a woman does the impossible, the world seems to tilt off its axis. Men suddenly stare off into space, realizing they’ve come up short in life. Maybe their kids won’t be the fastest ever, maybe that ‘superhero’ status they were hanging onto wasn’t quite as solid as they thought….And let’s not forget: three Mormon boys from Utah and some kid from Michigan and Indiana ran absolutely unreal races in Paris, but not a peep from the running gatekeepers like Amby B.
Apparently, you’ve got to break the rules of time and space, and now male ego to get noticed.
Let’s set the whole doping and performance-enhancing conversation aside for a moment.
Clearly, we’re all just fine celebrating plenty of enhanced performances when they fit the narrative or when it comes from our tribe, right?
Honestly, what’s the real issue here? Is it that a woman ran 2:09 or that deep down we’re all forced to confront the fact that we might not be as superhuman as we’d like to believe? It’s primal, it’s unsettling, and it stirs something even in the wokest minds—because when your identity hangs on the notion of being ‘the fastest,’ a record like this hits hard.
But maybe, just maybe, it’s time to recalibrate our definition of ‘superhero.’Because if a woman running 4:57 per mile rattles your sense of self, that’s not on her—it’s on you.”
I enjoyed reading this and think that you hit on some good points. But the simple truth is that this world record is exceptional even among world records. That’s what makes it suspicious. It’s way out of line with women’s 5k and 10k records.

