I've seen several comments that BK ran an impressive race, and granted any marathon under 2:07 is impressive. And granted, BK was allegedly only at 90%. And then there were mishaps like supposedly missing 5 water bottles or something. And he did finish 3rd at London, which year in and year out, is the most competitive marathon in the world. And it was impressive when he started to fall off the Kipchoge pack and then caught back up. And his race would've seemed even more impressive if Kipchoge and Biwot weren't in it and he won the race.
But I have to wonder. He ran 2:06:36, which means he finished 3/4 of a mile behind Kipchoge. If it was a marathon on a track, he would've been lapped 3 times. Back when Hall ran 2:04:58 at Boston, many dissed his race because he finished 1:56 behind Mutai that day. And yet BK finished even further back than that, when both races were won in 2:03:0x.
And still more people are talking about BK's race than Biwot's. Biwot was the only runner to hang with Kipchoge for so long. Biwot also smashed through the previous CR.
26'17" BK didn't run London on Sunday. That man lived 11 years ago. 12'37" BK didn't run London on Sunday. He lived 12 years ago. BK hasn't run sub-27 since 2011 or sub-13 since 2012.
No one was terribly impressed when Haile Geb ran 2:06 for a marathon. We kept wanting more speed and lower times. And he did eventually break Tergat's 2:04:55 WR, and then eventually became history's first sub-2:04 man. But we were always disappointed if he went 2:06, which he did 5 times (London 2002, Amsterdam 2005, Fukuoka 2006, Berlin 2009, Dubai 2010).
That said, I still want to see BK go sub-2:04. Still expecting great things. But that hasn't happened yet. And unfortunately, I'm beginning to think that day might have passed.