Ashley Hutchinson

   On Saturday October 12, 2019, a new world record was set. Eluid Kipchoge ran the fastest marathon time in history, taking exactly 1:59:40 to run 26.2 miles.

     Eluid Kipchoge is a 34 year-old runner from Kenya, Africa. He always grew up running, but never took it seriously until he met his coach, Patrick Sang, in 2001. 

     Kipchoge started to win various races in 2002. His first gold medal was at the Kenyan trials for the World Cross Country Championship, even though he placed fifth individually at the actual race in Dublin, Ireland. 

     By 2004, Kipchoge was already competing in the Olympics. He won a bronze medal in Athens, and later moved his way up to a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 

     Finally, on August 21, 2016, Kipchoge won his first Olympic gold medal. This event was also a marathon, but his time was only 2:08:34. 

     Out of all the marathons he has run, he has won all of them but one. In fact, he previously has tried to break the work record in May 2017, but was 26 seconds behind. 

     As of last year, he had finally created the new marathon world record of 2:01:39.

     Fast forward to today, where he shattered that previous time by over a minute. He is the first man ever to run an entire continuous marathon in under two hours. 

     However, this time will not be ratified by record books because he had all variables under tight control, in order to maximize his success as much as possible. 

     Kipchoge had a window of nine days that he planned to run this race, so that he could have the best weather possible and minimize unnecessary distractions. 

     Along with perfect conditions, Kipchoge also ran with pacemakers. There were a total of 36 pacemakers that ran with him in alternating groups. 

     The groups of pacers were formed to keep Kipchoge at the precise pace to beat this record and create a simulation of an actual race. 

     After training for 4.5 months, Kipchoge was finally able to see his hard work pay off in Vienna in front of hundreds of amazed spectators.