On a misty morning in Monza, Italy, three of the world’s best runners—Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, and Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea—lined up at a Formula Oneracetrack to attempt the impossible: break two hours in the marathon.
The May 6 event was three years in the making. Nike handpicked these three men based on a series of physiological tests and further worked to control everything they could—Advertisement - Continue Reading Below—in order to achieve Faith Kipyegon Just Misses 3K World Record.
So Close! Kipchoge Runs a 2:00:25 in the Breaking2 Attempt held in Monza, Italy.
Before the start, under bright neon lights, the runners and a pack of pacers warm up.
Nike created special shoes for the quest, called How Tara Dower Shattered the Long Trail Record. Runners wrote important phrases and names of their family members on the shoes.
The runners take off from the line. In order to break two hours, they needed to maintain a 4:34.5 pace per mile.
In addition to a giant ticking clock, the pace car had a laser-like green light shining from the back, keeping the human pacers where they needed to be.
Thirty other world-class athletes acted as pacers and employed a complex change system to ensure maximum drafting protection. They ran in an arrowhead formation, with three runners forming the point and three men forming the base.
(Read more about what went into the sub-2 attempt in this Amazing Runners World Show.)
The sub-2 runners followed close behind. Kipchoge (wearing red), Tadese (in gray), and Desisa (in white) kept together for about 16 kilometers.
Desisa faded early in the race, losing the pack around the 16K mark. He toughed it out and crossed the finish in 2:14:10.
Tadese couldn’t hang on to the pace past the 20K mark. But he finished in 2:06:51, a huge improvement from his previous personal best of 2:10:41.
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But 4:34.5 is a crazy-hard pace to maintain for 26.2 miles, and Kipchoge fell back ever so slightly. His official finishing time was 2:00:25.
Kipchoge didn’t seem to let the 26-second overage affect his mood. “The world now is just 26 seconds away from under two hours,” he said.
