New Marathon World Record

This past weekend, Wilson Kipsang broke the world record at the Berlin Marathon, running 2:03:23. At 4:43 per mile, that's pretty freaking fast.  To put it in perspective, I saw this posted a few places:

How long could you run with Kipsang?

• Couch potato: 20m (3.54 seconds)

• Fairly athletic 12-year-old: 100m (17.69 seconds)

• Five-a-day-eating, non-smoking, healthy adult: 200m (35.38 seconds)

• Nauseatingly fit bloke you see jogging around the local park: 600m (1 minute 46 seconds)

• The fastest person you went to school with: 800m (2:21)

• A competitive county-level athlete: one mile (4:43)

• Emil Zatopek, 10,000m world record holder from 1949 to 1956: 10,000m (29:18)

• A professional half-marathon athlete: 13.1 miles (around 1:01.41)

• Nobody, in the history of athletics: 26.2 miles - a full marathon (2:03.23)

I don't know how they came up with the data, but it's cool to look at.  Maybe if I jumped on that same course, under the same conditions, in my peak fitness, I could last a little over 10 miles.  Who knows?

It's also impressive that he ran that fast for his fourth marathon in 13 months.  But his record may not last long as semi-marathon rookie, Eliud Kipchoge and Geoffrey (looks so much cooler when it's spelled with a G) Kipsang weren't too far back.  While the sub 2:00 marathon won't come for a long time, I can see the record dipping in the 2:02s in the next year or two.

Renato Canova gave an excellent recap on the men's and women's Berlin Marathon races as well as more in-depth information on Kipsang.  I always enjoy reading Canova's opinions on things (except when it comes to one issue) and feel like he is one of, if not the best marathon coach in the world.  I feel he has a complete picture of the race and everything it entails.  Almost like the Yoda of distance running coaches. Cheers to a great performance last weekend.