Eliud Kipchoge Explains Berlin Decision, Says He Will Eventually Run 3 Marathons Per Year
By Jonathan Gault
On Thursday, double Olympic champion and world record holder Eliud Kipchoge announced that he will return to Germany for his sixth BMW Berlin Marathon on September 24. On Saturday, he conducted a virtual press conference with media to explain his decision and offer a hint at his future plans. Here are the biggest things we learned.
Kipchoge said his 6th-place finish in Boston was “difficult” to deal with but that he has put it behind him
Kipchoge’s 6th-place finish in Boston in April was just his second marathon defeat in the last nine years and he admitted that it was “really difficult” for him to deal with at the time. But Kipchoge said he has put it behind him and is now looking ahead.
“You have no control over the past but you can control what you have in your hand and you can plan for the future,” Kipchoge said. “I have no control over what happened last April in Boston. I have no business actually to think about the disappointment. I have to control what’s going on now and prepare for Berlin.”
Kipchoge also said the upper leg issue that bothered him in the Newton hills is no longer a problem.
“That was a real problem and I am completely healthy with that problem,” Kipchoge said. “I’m training well, I’m in good health.”
Kipchoge’s top priority remains the Olympics and said Berlin is the best way for him to prepare for that
Three men have won back-to-back Olympic marathons — Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964), East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski* (1976, 1980) and Kipchoge (2016, 2021). No one has ever won three. That is the goal that drives Kipchoge more than anything. When asked if he had to choose between winning all six World Marathon Majors or winning a third Olympic gold medal, Kipchoge chose Olympic gold without hesitation.
“I would be the first man to win back-to-back-to-back,” Kipchoge said. “I am really looking for that. That would be real, real history.”
Kipchoge believes that Berlin is the best way to prepare himself for gold in Paris.
“Good organization and the timeframe is what makes Berlin a good race to prepare for next year,” Kipchoge said. “I trust that with the timeframe, September towards next year is a good time to run Berlin, come back, have a race, start again, and I’ll have enough time to train.”
It is not totally clear why the timing of Berlin is so much better than a race like New York. In 2021, Kipchoge ran a spring marathon on April 18 and the Olympic marathon on August 8. Next year, the Olympic marathon is on August 8. So if Kipchoge is planning on running a marathon in April 2024, he would have more than five months to recover from New York on November 5.
The bigger thing may be comfort. Kipchoge has won his last four appearances in Berlin, twice breaking the world record. If he’s looking for a race to restore his confidence after Boston, there is no better place.
“Berlin is like home for me,” Kipchoge said. “I’m going there for the [sixth] year. I think Berlin’s streets are loving me, that’s why I am going back there. All in all is that I am preparing for the Olympics next year in Paris. And I saw the only race which I can go back to Kenya to prepare a good race is only in Berlin.”
As Kelvin Kiptum rises, Kipchoge said he is confident in his legacy
After running 2:01:53 to win Valencia and 2:01:25 to break Kipchoge’s course record in London in his first two marathons, both with massive negative splits, many have wondered whether 23-year-old Kelvin Kiptum will take a run at Kipchoge’s 2:01:09 world record this fall. I asked Kipchoge whether his decision to run Berlin had anything to do with wanting to lower the world record and put it out of Kiptum’s reach, but Kipchoge said he believes his legacy is already secure.
“Kelvin Kiptum has all power to do what he wants,” Kipchoge said. “I have done enough. I trust that what I have done in the world will be respected. In any case, I wish him well. But I aim to make Berlin a good and beautiful race. I want to enjoy it for the sixth time. I want to run a good race and cross the finishing line by celebrating. I’m not in a rush for anything. Because I am the person to run under 2:00. If Kiptum runs under 2:00, he’s always (be) the second. I’ll be the first one. So I have no worries at all.”
Kipchoge said he still wants to win all six WMMs and may start running three marathons per year
Kipchoge’s decision to run Berlin this fall means that he will once again skip November’s New York City Marathon — the only Abbott World Marathon Major he has never run. And while 2024 Olympic gold is Kipchoge’s biggest goal, he says he has not given up on becoming the first man to win all six WMMs.
“All six world major marathons are still on my bucket list,” Kipchoge said. “I decided to go back to Berlin because I have a huge task next year, but all in all in my mind. I still want to complete the six, I still want to win the six, I still want to register my name in all the six world Abbott major marathons.”
Since debuting in April 2013, Kipchoge has kept to a very simple schedule: two marathons per year, every year, save for 2020 when his spring marathon was cancelled by COVID. Moving forward, Kipchoge, who turns 40 next year, said he has no plans to cut back to only one marathon per year and that he may actually start running three marathons per year.
“I’ll not cut back to do one a year,” Kipchoge said. “I’ll consider doing three in a year in future because it’s good to diversify and go to other countries, other big cities, to sell the world of sport, to sell the sport [of running] and ask people to help me to make this world a running world. So I think in future I am planning to add one marathon to be three a year.”
If Kipchoge keeps to that, it’s possible he could run New York as soon as next year.
*Given the PED usage in East Germany, many think Cierpinski should be replaced by Frank Shorter as a two-time winner as Shorter won in 1972 and was second behind Cierpinski in 1976.
