Kipchoge going home devastated

He should have dropped out.

People really don't understand getting old until it happens to them. It's absolutely remarkable how him and Bekele can still run this fast.

Bekele is far more impressive to me - 2:04:19 at age 41, compared to 2:06:50 at age 39, in a pair of non-nike (or Adidas) shoes.

It really puts Bekele's race into perspective. Amazing he can still run 2:04. Can't wait to see him in NY in a few weeks.

Eliud is 43. He’s already run 2 minutes faster than the “masters” world record 3 times. Unless you believe he graduated from high school at 14.

I think it is pretty widely known that Eliud is really the same age or older than Bekele.

I think he would have run 2:04 if he went out 2nd group, but obviously as a champ you still think you can do it.

Bekele at Valencia was arguably more impressive as he went out as hard but didn’t fade as much

So where does this leave kipchoge for Paris?

Kipchoge has been training at an elite level since he was a teenager (like 20 years ago?) The body can handle only so much wear-and-tear.

Maybe the AF3 isn't great

Shoes don’t take over 6 mins off your PR

Told you he was limited. Olympic marathon will suck.

Unless you go the Barry Bonds route.

Something like this was in my head years ago: "I have trained like always and I am feeling good but I am slower. Why?" And no matter what I tried, it didn't get any better.

It's not father time. You don't just drop off in high-performance ability from 2:01:09 in September 2022 to suddenly 2:09 in 2023 Boston or 2:02:42 in Berlin 2023.

If Kipchoge were to drop off with father time he would already have done sone in 2021 and 2022 and he wouldn't have won Tokyo 2022 and Berlin 2022 in 2:02 and 2:01 at all, he would have declined there and then and not declined in 2023 only!!!

Therefore the only reasons that can explain his unusual decline isn't really age but drugs. He stopped taking the PEDs or whatever cheating technique and so explains the drastic drop off.

An athlete not on drugs will not drop off any more than 5minutes off his 2:01:09 PB in my judgement. He would still be running lots of 2:02s and 2:03s at any marathon in the world, not 2:06 and 2:09, on supershoes no less.

Guess doping gets tougher in Kenya