This is not some bucket list attempt. This is a serious attempt at being a marathoner, and some day breaking the masters marathon record. He has been focused on this for awhile now, and he feel his body and mind is well developed to make a serious run at it.
He will break Meb's record.
He will run 2:11 or close to it before it is all said and done. He takes great care of his body, and he has the wheels to run a fast time. The reason why he didn't getting into road racing earlier, he was still having great success on the track.
Sports Illustrated: Why the marathon and why now?
Bernard Lagat: I’ve been in the sport for a long time. I was a track guy for a long, long time. I’d occasionally run on the roads with the 5th Avenue Mile here in New York and a 5K in Carlsbad but that wasn’t really my thing because I was such a track athlete. I finished my track career in 2016 and told myself to learn a few things about longer distance running and road racing in particular. How can I maximize what I’ve been able to do on the track and put it toward road racing? I’ve spent the past two years talking to the best road racers and reading a few things about it. I wanted a new challenge. I think I’ve been successful in my own way from a very good 1,500 meter runner to now a 62-minute half marathoner. I’ve waited this long and I’ve been able to make good preparation. Having now run a few half marathons and 10Ks, my interest was sparked. Now it’s ‘What can I do in a full marathon?’ I figured that now is the right time to try it.
SI: You keep saying that you’re ‘trying’ it. Incredibly, you’re still competing among the top elite runners.
BL: For me, I’m taking it one at a time. When I started road racing, I told myself that I’d give it about one or two years before I jumped into a marathon. I used to downplay the marathon so much. I wanted to just do it to say that I’ve done it and then check a box for my career. Things change as you go. I’m still running at the highest level. It’s not just trying it now. I am going to put myself 100% into it. When I told my agent that I wanted to do a marathon, I couldn’t think of a better place to do it than New York. This is something new and a great challenge. With the training that I’ve been doing, maybe this is the right time to go all-out. With all seriousness, I want to show up and run a really good marathon in New York.