Good morning! There’s a lot to write about this week and my email provider tells me most of your inboxes can only handle about 2,500 words or so. Let’s get right to it.

A late night watching the clock, I mean Kipchoge. 

I stayed up way past my bedtime on Friday night to watch Eliud Kipchoge run 26.2 miles back and forth across a park in Vienna. His opposition? Not a field of world-class runners—he had 41 of them helping him out, in fact—but the clock, which he needed to stop in under 2 hours for the event to be deemed a success. 

It was not a race but an exhibition, the second attempt of a carefully controlled public experiment to see if a human being could cover the marathon distance in less than 120 minutes. And by now, you’re likely well aware that Kipchoge did it, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds in front of an estimated 120,000 fans packed around the Prater in Vienna and over three quarters of a million people tuning in online around the world.

I’ve been critical of these time-chasing exhibitions in the past—and I still have my druthers of what such an attempt should look like, but that’s a longer post for a different day—but damn, did I enjoy watching it. It made for compelling theatre, and for me, that was part of the appeal of the whole thing: here was the fastest and most dominant marathoner of all-time, with nearly a million people watching no one but him, trying to do something that had never been done before. No, it wasn’t racing, and sure, I would have preferred to watch head-to-head competition, but it was engaging, inspiring, and a genuinely good show. That’s a net positive for running no matter how you look at it. 

It’s worth reiterating, however, that this was an experiment, and the first time this experiment was conducted, a little over two years ago on a car racing track in Monza, Italy, it was not entirely successful: yes, Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles most three minutes faster than anyone else ever had before, and a lot was learned about the impact of footwear, terrain, weather, fueling, pacing, etc., on performance, but he did not break two hours, an arbitrary time that marketers and media folk would like you to believe is a physiological barrier of some sort. So, the scientists went back to the lab: they made faster shoes (more on this below), found a better venue, planned for more optimal weather, tweaked fueling protocols, overhauled the drafting formation, and encouraged fans to attend. Kipchoge went back to camp and continued to train hard with the confidence that he was now only a second a mile away from breaking two hours, not minutes. And you know what? It worked! Kipchoge ran 45 seconds faster in Vienna and a lot of people went crazy over it. The event—and the experiment—was a success by any measure. But, and this is not meant to be an insult to Kipchoge in any way, I don’t think we saw a breakthrough in human physiology or potential in Vienna as much as we saw more advancements in shoe technology, pacing formation, fueling, etc., that allowed someone to break two hours a decade or two before most experts thought it would be possible. 

That said, Kipchoge was the first to do it, albeit in a laboratory environment, and it was incredible to watch. He kept his legs moving at over 13 miles an hour for nearly two hours, which is fast enough to make anyone’s head spin. But beyond that incredible display of ability, I think the most impressive attribute Kipchoge carries with him to the start line is that he brings his “A” game every time out, more consistently than any other marathoner in history. The guy has literally never had a bad marathon performance. Despite ever-growing external pressures and expectations, he’s calmly and confidently executed to near-perfection 14 out of 14 times, the one blemish being a second-place finish in a race where Wilson Kipsang broke the world record and his slowest time of 2:08:44 being a gold medal performance at the Olympic Games. So, I think it’s possible to appreciate the magnitude of his achievement this past weekend and be inspired on some level while also acknowledging the level of orchestration and optimization that made it possible. That’s how I’m looking at it, anyway. 

For me, and I imagine for most people who were excited to watch the event, the 1:59 Challenge wasn’t about Nike, Ineos, Maurten, or anything to do with branding or science really. It was about appreciating Kipchoge, the ambassador our sport so sorely needs right now, and a man, who I’ve personally chosen to believe in given the consistency of his performances and progression over the years, the company he keeps, and the values he upholds through his words, actions, and the way he lives his life. What I admire most about Kipchoge is the selflessness with which he acts: The gratitude he showed for his family, coach, training partners, pacers, fans, and supporters after the event struck me as genuine. For Kipchoge, breaking two hours wasn’t something to boast about to inflate his own ego, it was an an opportunity to use sport to bring people together, and an act of inspiration for others to smash through their own barriers, real or contrived. 

“Sport can help unify people,” he said after the event. “I wanted to sell that message to the whole world. Truly no human is limited.”

Related links:

+ As of this writing, almost 5 million people have watched the 1:59 Challenge on YouTube. Here it is in its entirety if you haven’t seen it yet (or want to view it again). 

+ The best writing about Kipchoge’s sub-2 run came from the guy who literally wrote the book on the two-hour marathon, Ed Caesar. Check out his preview for The New Yorker if you haven’t already and then read his finish line recap of the event. “The closing sprint was magical.” writes Caesar. “Kipchoge’s knees pumped, his face broke into a broad smile, he gestured to the crowd, and wild celebrations erupted on either side of him. The marathon was founded on the myth of the Greek messenger Pheidippides, who ran from Marathon to Athens to convey the story that the Persians had been beaten in battle. (“Rejoice, we conquer!” Pheidippides said, before expiring.) As Kipchoge ran down the final straightaway, he looked like a man with good news to deliver. In many ways, he was.”

+ It’s gotta be the shoes. “The science is clear,” Joel Mason writes in an excellent blog post for Trackademic. “The shoes have a distinct benefit over any others, and were a key driving force behind Kipchoge’s success today, and indeed behind the paradigm shift in marathon running.” Mason gets into some of the other science of the 1:59 Challenge event as well but it’s the shoes that arguably have had the most profound effect on marathon times dropping across the board in the last few years and may have been the biggest difference maker this past Saturday. Here’s a pretty good breakdown of the prototype Kipchoge wore on Saturday, an updated (and even more ridiculous-looking) version of the currently in-line Next % that appears to have even more foam and carbon fiber packed into it than what most everyone else is wearing right now. Steve Magness had a good thread yesterday about the impact of these new shoes (the Vaporfly’s in general, not just Kipchoge’s sub-2 pair) on performance, saying, "So the point is: Talk of shoes, pacing, etc. aren't taking away from Kipchoge's and others accomplishment. They are explaining why guys who ran 2:03-2:04 a few years ago, now are able to run sub 2. That jump just doesn't happen, even with training or ‘belief.’” So the question becomes: Is it time for racing shoes to get regulated? The rules as they’re written are pretty vague—“Such shoes must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage. Any type of shoe used must be reasonably available to all in the spirit of the universality of athletics.”—and it’s hard to argue with the drop in marathon times from the top of the sport on down that’s happened in the past few years. There’s no going back at this point: Pebax foam and carbon fiber plates are here to stay. So what’s the sport to do? Regulate midsole thickness, writes researchers Geoffrey T. Burns, MS (a fast professional ultrarunner in his own right) and Nicholas Tam, PhD, for The British Journal of Sports Medicine. “A standard for a maximal shoe midsole thickness provides a simple, robust, enforceable rule for footwear in athletics,” they write. “It would protect past, present, and future performances under a single operational definition of 'fair' competitive footwear. It would prevent running competition from devolving into an 'arms race' of additive, larger, and more complex shoes and retain the essence of the competition for what it is—a foot race.” Seems like a sensible—and fairly simple—solution to me.

What's the story in Chicago?

You’d think a 16-year-old world-record being broken at the Chicago Marathon would be the weekend’s biggest story—and perhaps for some it is—but I had a hard time getting excited about Brigid Kosgei’s 2:14:04 clocking. Kosgei, who took over four minutes of her previous personal best, damn near almost broke 2:14 while shattering the world-record by 81 seconds. Yes, she wore the latest version of the Vaporfly Next % shoes, so there was a bit of an expected boost there, but the fact that she’s represented by agent Federico Rosa—who I interviewed in 2014 after it was announced his star marathoner Rita Jeptoo got popped for doping—just isn’t sitting well with me. Aside from Jeptoo, Rosa also represented Matthew Kisorio, who tested positive for steroids in 2012, former world and Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop, who earlier this year was handed a four-year ban for a doping violation, and Olympic Marathon champion Jemima Sumgong, who, you guessed it, is also serving a doping ban right now. The company you keep says a lot about you and Rosa isn’t someone I’d want to be associated with if I were an athlete. How he hasn’t served a suspension himself, or why his athletes are even allowed into races, is beyond me. But I digress. 

Let’s talk about what was exciting, or perhaps interesting, this past weekend in Chicago. In no particular order: 

— The men’s race up front. Watch this finish. Three guys battling it out at the 26-mile mark with a fourth just seconds behind. That’s what racing is all about and it was fun to watch. Lawrence Cherono, as he did earlier this year in Boston, won with a hell of a kick in the final straightaway. He’s no Kipchoge but he has won seven of his last 10 marathons, including two majors this year, which isn’t a bad run of results.

— Americans running really well in the race that at one time was called “America’s Marathon/Chicago.” Jake Riley led four American men under 2:11 and six others under 2:12. Riley, who is coached by recent podcast guest Lee Troop, ran his first marathon in three years on Sunday and went 2:10:36 to finish ninth. The 31-year-old Riley’s got a good story, which he told to Brian Metzler before Chicago. Jerrell Mock was right on Riley’s ass in 2:10:37, followed by Parker Stinson (2:10:53) and Andrew Bumbalough (2:10:56). Behind them, Matt McDonald, Scott Smith, Brendan Gregg, Noah Droddy, Wilkerson Given, and Diego Estrada all cracked 2:12. Now globally, two guys sneaking into the top-10 at a domestic major and no one in the 2-oh-somethings might not seem like that a big deal, but I honestly can’t remember the last time that many American men went so fast in the same race. It may have never happened before, now that I think about it. Not to be outdone, five American women placed in the top-10, led by U.S. marathon champion Emma Bates, who popped a personal best 2:25:27. Behind her, PBs abound, with Stephanie Bruce finishing sixth in a new best of 2:27:47, and Lindsay Flanagan seventh in 2:28:08, also a PB. Laura Thweatt (8th, 2:29:06) and Taylor Ward (10th, 2:30:14) rounded things out for the U.S. women. What was already shaping up to be an interesting Olympic Trials in February is going to be that much more intriguing to watch—on both sides.

— It should be noted that neither Jordan Hasay nor Galen Rupp were part of the American success on Sunday, as both Hasay and Rupp called it early due to injury. Hasay and Rupp were both coached by Alberto Salazar, who was suspended for four years two weeks ago. Mo Farah, their former Nike Oregon Project teammate who left the group in 2017, finished a disappointing eighth in 2:09:58 after winning the race in 2:05:11 a year ago. Injuries happen—running is cruel like that, no matter who you are—but I’m sure the events and stress of the past couple weeks took their toll as well. 

Fall is here: Layer up with Brighton at the base!

Now that the weather is becoming a little crisp across much of the U.S.—it was right around freezing when I started my runs in Spokane this past weekend—a base layer becomes an essential part of your running wardrobe. Lucky for you, Tracksmith, this month’s sponsor of the newsletter, makes one of the best! The Tracksmith Brighton Base Layer is one of my personal favorites—it’s made of Merino wool so it soaks up sweat while resisting odor, and it’s available in long or short sleeves. Wear it under a singlet on race day, on its own for workouts, or under a jacket when the temperature drops. It’s versatile and one of the few pieces of apparel I own that my wife tells me doesn’t smell after I sweat in it. Check it out at tracksmith.com.

The bottom line. 

“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness

That’s it for Issue 205. Forward this email, share the web link, or hit reply at your own risk.

Thanks for reading, 

Mario