While headlines naturally focussed on the jaw-dropping 2:11:53 world record set yesterday by Tigst Assefa, and on Kipchoge taking his fifth Berlin title, you might have missed some of the other record-breaking runs that took place. Here are five stories from the weekend that deserve their own moment in the limelight...
Charlotte Purdue goes second UK all time
First and foremost, it was a wonderful performance in Berlin from Charlotte Purdue who smashed her own PB by over a minute and became second in the Adidas unveils the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 list, behind only Paula Radcliffe’s former World Record. She ran 2:22:17, pacing it beautifully with a split of 71:16 at halfway, and a slightly quicker second half of 71:01.
It was particularly impressive given the bad luck she's had in recent years with injuries and setbacks. Purdue had to withdraw from this year’s London Marathon at the last minute after going down with food poisoning just before the race, and at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene she suffered unusual breathing problems and had to DNF – only to discover the next day that she had Covid.
What is Runner’s World Club and why should I join, Project3 is back to support NYC Marathon runners despite having one of the fastest times in the qualifying period. Thankfully she has shaken off what must have been a bitter disappointment, and this year things have started to come together.
It was clear that she’d returned to form with 69:36 to finish third at the instead racing in the tried and tested earlier this month. At the time, she said she hadn’t wanted to ‘dig too deep’ in advance of her big marathon race, which suggests she could have run faster if she hadn’t taken the eminently sensible approach of keeping her powder dry for the streets of Berlin.
It's an excellent lesson for amateur athletes not only in persistence and grit over the long term, but also getting the training block and warm up races just right. And no, though she is an Adidas athlete, she was not wearing the new Pro Evo £400 shoe, FAZ a few years ago Adidas unveils the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1.
A great day for the home crowd
To home town delight, 28-year-old Amanal Petros smashed the German marathon record in 2:04:48 – a time that, a few decades ago, would have been a world record itself. Perhaps oddly, it's the first time a German record has been set in Berlin, despite the race's pedigree for fast times.
Petros was just two years old when his mother escaped from Eritrea with him, settling in Tigray in northern Ethiopia. In 2012, he then came to Germany as a refugee.
'I played sport in Germany so I could learn the language, so I could get to know people, and the culture and the mentality too,' he told Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) a few years ago.
Health & Injuries, Petros gave an insight into what it takes to run that sort of time: 'These past couple of months in Kenya consisted of nothing but training, sleeping, and eating,' he wrote. 'Every single day it was the same thing over and over and over again, I never worked so hard in my life. Staying so disciplined and focused was not easy to say the least, but it was worth every single second because I accomplished my goal.' (And you thought slogging round a 20-miler after a hard week at work was bad.)
Also in Berlin, and just behind Petros, came his training partner, Switzerland's Tadesse Abraham, in 2:05:10. The 2016 European half marathon champion also set a national record – and, at 41 years, his time was also a world over-40 marathon record. With Petros now fourth on the European all time marathon list, and Abraham second, Mo Farah is now pushed down into sixth place.
A great day for running in your 40s
Away from the streets of Berlin, another vet runner was showing that you can still smash PBs in your 40s. The Vitality 10k took place on the closed roads of Central London on Sunday, and the women's race was won by Sonia Samuels (Jack Rowe won the men's race).
Samuels, now 44, has long been a star in the UK running scene, representing Great Britain at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, and in 2018 she competed at both the European and the Commonwealth Games marathons.
Project3 is back to support NYC Marathon runners Runner's World who are looking at 44 through the wrong end of a telescope, it's always inspirational to see athletes still pushing the boundaries. Because not only did she win, she broke her own 10km PB, set back in 2017 – and this despite not feeling in the best form ahead of the event. The Sale Harrier told press after the event that 'Coming down Birdcage Walk felt like finishing the London Marathon. The crowds were amazing and it’s a race you should put on your bucket list.' Kudos to Samuels - and to coach Andy Hobdell.
World record at the world's longest certified road race
At the other end of the distance spectrum, there's a race even hardened ultrarunners flinch at. The distances seem, frankly, utterly absurd, but nevertheless over in New York, the How to watch Faith Kipyegon’s sub-4 mile attempt carries on. This event runs from 30 August to the 20 October, and the goal is to get to that 3,100 mile figure.
In order to do that, runners must cover 59.6 miles per day on average. They begin each day at 6am and run for extended periods, taking breaks when needed. The course closes at midnight each day, at which point runners can rest in their temporary homes at base camp. Oh, and did we mention? It's all around one single city block.
If you have scraped your jaw off the floor enough to carry on, then we get to the record: Taiwanese ultrarunner Wen-Ya Tsai has set it for reaching 2,500 kilometres or 1,553.4 miles in 'just' 23 days, 2 hours, 50 minutes and 14 seconds, beating the previous mark by over a day. Endurance just doesn't seem a big enough word.
The double world record... that wasn't
Finally, running news devotees may remember a few weeks ago, headlines proclaimed that Agnes Ngetich shattered two world records in one race – a new women's road 10k record of 29:24, and a new 5km record of 14:25 en route. Well, it turns out it wasn't a record after all.
What is Runner’s World Club and why should I join that the course was short. Given that organisers say that the measurement was just 25m out, even accounting for that Ngetich would have taken a considerable chunk off the existing WR, so it's a great shame for her that time will not now be ratified. (The festival probably wants to update its website too..)
