It's ON! Eliud Kipchoge will run the 2019 Berlin Marathon! Said he wants to run the fastest time possible!

I'm drolling already... this year the race is later in the fall, usually it's around 10-15 degrees then with light winds!!

This is great and makes sense. The thing is he’s only gonna have pacers through what 10 miles in a sub 2 attempt. Also he could really blow up and leave himself vulnerable to a loss. Maybe Nike has said no to a Sub 2 2.0 so he believes this is his only chance to go after it.

Cool and all, but I hope this is his last Berlin. Would like to see him in some more unpaced, varied races.

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

He visited Berlin with his team today and met the SCC team that organises the marathon. They presented Eliud to the media as the main contender for the race on 29th of september 2019 as he will race for the 4th title, equaling Haile Gebrselassie's tally.. Eliud said that if everything will go well, preparation, perfect weather, pacers, he will attempt to break the 2-hour barrier. If that won't be possible, then he'll go for the fastest time feasible.

https://m.augsburger-allgemeine.de/sport/sonstige-sportarten/Kipchoge-Marathon-Zeit-unter-zwei-Stunden-moeglich-id54203351.html

Talk about a summer of anticipation wrote:

This is great and makes sense. The thing is he’s only gonna have pacers through what 10 miles in a sub 2 attempt. Also he could really blow up and leave himself vulnerable to a loss. Maybe Nike has said no to a Sub 2 2.0 so he believes this is his only chance to go after it.

We need Kamworor and some other 2:04-2:06 guys to form a phalanx through 35k.

Talk about a summer of anticipation wrote:

This is great and makes sense. The thing is he’s only gonna have pacers through what 10 miles in a sub 2 attempt. Also he could really blow up and leave himself vulnerable to a loss. Maybe Nike has said no to a Sub 2 2.0 so he believes this is his only chance to go after it.

Most likely he's the one who says no to Nike request for sub2 2.0. The one he did was after PB of 2:03:05 (London 2016), and only missed 25 sec (without the psychological confidence of what is doable). Now he's much better, so it will be a boring exercise. It's better to sub2 in normal race.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

Cool and all, but I hope this is his last Berlin. Would like to see him in some more unpaced, varied races.

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

He visited Berlin with his team today and met the SCC team that organises the marathon. They presented Eliud to the media as the main contender for the race on 29th of september 2019 as he will race for the 4th title, equaling Haile Gebrselassie's tally.. Eliud said that if everything will go well, preparation, perfect weather, pacers, he will attempt to break the 2-hour barrier. If that won't be possible, then he'll go for the fastest time feasible.

https://m.augsburger-allgemeine.de/sport/sonstige-sportarten/Kipchoge-Marathon-Zeit-unter-zwei-Stunden-moeglich-id54203351.html

I don't know if it would be his last Berlin. Maybe he would go for an another one, not as a wr attempt or anything, just for the win, to be the only man with 5 Berlin titles, ahead of the great Haile. It would be an enormous achievement and he would treasure it as much as any other title!

Also, this time after London there won't be any world tours or publicity tours across the world. It was a prolonged stay in London, a visit to Berlin to arrange the future wr assault and it will be back to Kenya.

They stated will take the month of may easily (he ran scarcely since London, 30-40 mins of jogging every day) and then it will be a whole summer of preparation and hard work, arguably the 4 toughest months of his career, to try to maximise his potential in the matter of time and paced races. After this, he will be at peace with himself knowing he did all he could to try and achieve the sub-2, going after it in his prime.

In case he would blow up, i don't think he would do it so bad in order to lose the race (see Breaking2,London 2018 he slowed down but never cracked). Nevertheless, better to die trying than don't try at all. What is sure it's they would need a perfect spell of preparation, close to if not ideal weather and very very good pacers.

Talking about pacers, the IAAF regulations state only 3 pacemakers are allowed to run at a given pace, so they have to be chosen carefully. Considering his last 2 races and going out at 2:00 flat pace, he would have been alone in London around 10 miles in and in Berlin, Josphat Boit maybe could have gone for 20k at that pace. They would need someone to pace him at least to 25k, as 30 would be almost impossible in my opinion. Kamworor never served his mentor as a pacer, so i think it would be the right time to reward Eliud for all he did for him by giving his all and get him through 25k at sub-2 pace.

It's easy to say 'hey, there are so many 59:xx half marathon runners, what's so hard?'. Well, they have to get in the same shape, and also to run this pace from the front is not the same thing, you'd probably need 2-3 58-high half marathon runners in great shape! Anyway, it's going to be an incredible summer of anticipation as someone already mentioned.

the other way round wrote:

Most likely he's the one who says no to Nike request for sub2 2.0. The one he did was after PB of 2:03:05 (London 2016), and only missed 25 sec (without the psychological confidence of what is doable). Now he's much better, so it will be a boring exercise. It's better to sub2 in normal race.

we don't really know that Kipchoge is any better now than he was during the 2017 season. He now has better PRs of course, but he could be in the same shape for all we know.

Rupp needs to enter this and pop a 2:02. Just draft off Kopchoge until 35k then hold on

Good info. I am hoping as you say that they spare no expense/effort for that lead pacemaker.

Did you hear something about the plans from Titus Ekiru. If he runs maybe wc or on fast course in autumn. He could be a great pacer as well. For me when the Canova group is fit there have the biggest potential as pacers. Josphat Boit showed us last year where he runs until km 25 he has still big potential. Erick Kiptanui as well but he must comeback on his a game. Same for Daniel Kipchumba don't know about his corrunt health. For Kamworor it could be difficult to get a pacer I think he will go for the 10k on WC. And the WC are late this year. So Kamworor can't be a matching Train program for Pacing in marathon.

I have to agree with you on Kamworor. However he might not take part in the 10,000m at the Worlds, it remains to be seen.

And yes, all 3, E.Kiptanui, D.Kipchumba, J.Boit could be a very good asset for such an attempt when they are on the top of their game. Titus Ekiru in his current shape could indeed be one of the 3 pacemakers required for Eliud's race, but it would need him to maintain or improve his shape and get enough from a financial point of view to give up on his own ambitions for this autumn (a 25k run at 2:00 pace could need a few months of recovery to get back in top shape).

What's sure is we're in for an amazing summer and autumn.

Is this thread some sort of windup?

Nowhere in the article does it state that Kipchoge will compete in Berlin this fall.

I can't find it, but I'm 99% sure he said "I will always come back to Berlin" at last year's race.

Probably they will have to spend a ton of money to set the whole race up for Kipchoge. Who else would they bring to compete with him? Or better said, who on earth with a sane mind would go out in let's say 60:30??

Ralph Lauf wrote:

Nowhere in the article does it state that Kipchoge will compete in Berlin this fall.

+1 This is just fake news. Whoever posts this stuff should work for CNN.

lol fake news by the most lame fanboy on this site. Please paste this article in your google translate (or ask the user "Germandistancerunner", who has horrible english capabilities btw and is equally lame, for a translation), it literally says he hasn't decided yet: https://amp.tagesspiegel.de/sport/weltrekordler-zu-besuch-in-berlin-eliud-kipchoge-erholt-sich-in-mitte/24281270.html

Ralph Lauf wrote:

Nowhere in the article does it state that Kipchoge will compete in Berlin this fall.

Sure it does:

"Der Kenianer will am 29. September zum vierten Mal in Berlin gewinnen und hat auch die Wiederholung seines Olympiasiegs in Tokio 2020 im Blick. "

Ralph Lauf wrote:

Nowhere in the article does it state that Kipchoge will compete in Berlin this fall.

right, maybe he will go to the WC and collect a gold in 2:06 what an achievement lmao

He is a legend because he is fast and breaks records!

He will try to go faster and break the record again!!!

What it is. He knows better than anyone. Bubka 2.0.