Here's the fantastic documentary on his previous try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSRitGNAjY It shows how big this achievement is and how precisely it was organized.
Really great watch, thanks for the link.
Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
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Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#32Given that "[i]t will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers," Mr. Kipchoge's attitude represents the best of sport: "Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful worl…
For the non-initiated among us, what does it mean to "use a team of pacemakers"? Why are those pacemakers that important?
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Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#33Given that "[i]t will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers," Mr. Kipchoge's attitude represents the best of sport: "Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful worl…
For the non-initiated among us, what does it mean to "use a team of pacemakers"? Why are those pacemakers that important?
It's a group of runners there to keep up the running pace, to block wind and generally add morale.
Over the duration of the attempt, runners will hop in and hop out of the run to keep the running pace alongside Kipchoge as well as block wind (a non-trivial factor) over 26.2 miles. Also, it is mentally boosting to have teammates and even competitors of his run along side him as he pushes his body and mind farther than he has ever had before.
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#34Given that "[i]t will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers," Mr. Kipchoge's attitude represents the best of sport: "Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful worl…
For the non-initiated among us, what does it mean to "use a team of pacemakers"? Why are those pacemakers that important?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_(aerodynamics)#Runnin...:
”Drafting behind another runner can conserve energy, although the effect is less than in cycling due to the fact that speeds are lower.”
There also is a psychological effect. It is easier to keep a constant pace if there’s somebody in front of you that does it, too.
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#35Given that "[i]t will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers," Mr. Kipchoge's attitude represents the best of sport: "Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me... This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful worl…
> he used a team of rotating pacemakers Many of whom might be considered his competitors, too
nit-picking but of all the pacers (40-ish) only 10 or so are (or were in their past) "marathoners" and none would be considered Kipchoge's competitors. If I remember correctly they all have PRs in the 02:05-02:10 range.
Considering the required speed most pacers were 5000m and 1000m people
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#36That is, while impressive, pretty meaningless. The thing is, that sports are defined by their rules and to the best of my understanding the long distance running rules are written to prevent teamwork. (Unlike cycling, which is explicitly a team sport.) Basically, the two hour mark is important in the specific circumstances of Olympic marathon, and was broken in a different sport.
To broaden the discussion a bit, it seems reasonable to argue that the true limits of human endurance are reached running barefoot. Then we have Olympic marathon, where modern high performance shoes are used. And on the other hand of this spectrum, we have bicycles, after all it is not entirely clear why the engineering hours poured into modern running shoes should be categorically different from the engineering hours spend to construct a bike. And somewhere on this spectrum falls following an car and pacemakers, and my point is, it is a different point than Olympic marathon.
This is actually not an argument against bending the rules in general, but in this specific instance, it is bending the rules to archive something that is hard because of the rules. In particular, it is just a 2% improvement over the Olympic marathon world record.
The longer I write, the harder it gets to avoid the categorization Bullshit, however I just realized that in this instance I could quite easily cite Harry Frankfurt [0] and use the term in a technical sense. So, the bullshitters do not care about truth or beauty, they just care to produce something that vaguely looks like marathon, to those distracted by their TV dinner, while also being sub 2h. They succeeded, but they only succeeded in a game of their own invention.
[0] H. Frankfurt, On Bullshit, Princeton University Press. 2005.
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#37Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#38With sports performance a lot of the barriers are psychological. Even though this wasn't a real sanctioned race, Mr. Kipchoge showed it's possible for the human body so now I expect he or someone else will do it in a race within a few years.
The recent Salazar scandal proves otherwise, i.e. that a lot of today’s athletics-related performances are reached based on same old drug cheating. Too bad, athletics as a competitive sport used to be an event that genuinely filled up big stadiums (like in 1993 in Stuttgart or in 1999 in Sevilla), nowadays we’re left wondering which results will be wiped out in 5 years’ time, while the recent 100-meter World Champs f…
The Salazar scandal involves a case in which doping of athletes was very specifically not proven.
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#39While an amazing achievement, this seems quite artificial. A team of human pacemakers and following a car going at just the right speed. Non paywalled link with photo of laser-guiding pace-car: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/12/sport/eliud-kipchoge-mara... I can't find anything about anyone doing it on a treadmill before this, though. Maybe that's harder for some reason? Eliud Kipchoge's world record is 2:01:39, whi…
Well the first 4-minute mile was achieved in a similar manner and for some reason it is well known in the popular imagination. To be honest I think these arbitrary marks of achievement are all very artificial and more about good PR more than anything else. Personally I think the 2 hour marathon is slightly less arbitrary than the 4-minute mile but breaking it was only a matter of time.
No, it was a genuine race (the 'pacemakers' were also competing, were not lapped, and had to finish the race).
Re: Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the non-initiated among us, what does it mean to "use a team of pacemakers"? Why are those pacemakers that important?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drafting_(aerodynamics)#Runnin... : ”Drafting behind another runner can conserve energy, although the effect is less than in cycling due to the fact that speeds are lower.” There also is a psychological effect. It is easier to keep a constant pace if there’s somebody in front of you that does it, too.
So use an AR headset to put a virtual person in front of you keeping a constant pace?