680. Behind the Scenes at London Marathon’s Kipchoge/Bekele Showdown

And to challenge Kipchoge, Bekele will need to be at his absolute best, because Kipchoge’s consistency is just as impressive as any of his individual performances. Everyone has a bad marathon from time to time. But not Kipchoge. Never Kipchoge.  Counting his sub-2 attempts, Eliud Kipchoge has run 14 marathons in his life and every single one of them has been a strong performance as he’s won 13 of them (his only loss came when Wilson Kipsang ran a WR to beat him, Kipsang is now suspended for doping violations) and run 2:05:00 or faster in all of them save for his debut (2:05:30) and his Olympic win (2:08:44).   Here’s the set-up: Last fall in Berlin, Bekele — who has won 21 world titles and broken 6 track world records — ran the marathon we’ve been expecting from him, cruising to a 2:01:41. Bekele’s mark was just two seconds shy of the world record 2:01:39, set a year earlier on the same course by Kipchoge — the Olympic Marathon champion who has won 10 consecutive major marathons. Two weeks later, Kipchoge wowed the world with his exhibition-only, yet still barrier-breaking 1:59:40 run in Vienna.  Endurance Noise & Random Musings Please Subscribe to my YouTube Channel! Stay Healthy. Be Boring. Not Epic.