by RIËL HAUMAN
STATS & FACTS
by RIËL HAUMAN
Stats & Facts
Unique Loops
Many records , bests or firsts are run on looped courses , both on the track and on the road , but in this month ’ s column , we take a look at some famous looped October runs ‘ with a difference ,’ including probably the most famous run of the modern era .
The first Sub-2 !
12 October 2019
Few attempts at a running first or best have captured as much attention as the quest to break the twohour barrier for the standard marathon distance ( 42.195km ), and on 12 October five years ago , all eyes were fixed on Kenyan superstar Eliud Kipchoge as he set out to become the first to do it , on a looped course through The Prater park in Vienna . With commentators likening this achievement to the first man on the moon , the first climber to summit Everest and the first four-minute mile , excitement grew as Kipchoge broke the tape in 1:59:40.2 in the Ineos 159 Challenge .
1 October 1922
A number of World Records for 30km on the track have been set in October , the last one coming in 1965 , but the first – and certainly the most peculiar – came on this day in Viipuri , Finland in 1922 . Finnish star Hannes Kolehmainen ran 1:47:13.4 for the distance , but only the first 5200m and the last 3500m were run on the track ; the rest of the distance was covered on the streets outside the stadium ! Kolehmainen , the first-ever Olympic Champion over 5000m and 10000m , had also won the Olympic Marathon two years before . He broke the World Record set by compatriot Albin Stenroos , set seven years before , by almost a minute , but two years later Stenroos would take the record back , after also winning the Olympic Marathon title .
Of course , for the purists , Kipchoge ’ s run was merely a branding stunt , as The New York Times described it , but the fact remains that it was the first time a human being broke two hours , and despite the fact that he had a team of 41 pacers – some of them worldclass runners and Olympic champions and medallists – who worked in teams ( with slick change-overs , it must be said ) to assist him , Kipchoge still covered distance on his own feet ( clad in the latest technology from Nike ).
The Kenyan reeled off the kilometres with metronomic
4 October 1953
Just less than four months after he had become the first man to run a sub-2:20 marathon , Jim Peters went to Turku , Finland , for a rather unusual marathon . The race started in Turku Stadium , which the runners then left for a loop into the countryside . At about halfway the athletes reached the stadium again and completed a lap on the track before heading out for another loop . They then returned to the track for no fewer than twelve laps to finish the race ! Peters was up against the big Finnish hope , Veiko Karvonen , who a month earlier had won the Nordic Championships Marathon in 2:30:16 , but the Briton took the lead after about 2km and was never caught again . He finished in 2:18:34.8 to break his World Best – which was set on the point-to-point Windsor to Chiswick course – by 5.4 seconds . Karvonen , who would win the Boston Marathon the following year , finished more than seven minutes behind . accuracy by never deviating for more than two seconds from his designated pace on the super-fast 4.4km lap course . One need mention only two pieces of staggering statistics to put Kipchoge ’ s time into perspective : He ran more than 26 miles at an average of 4:33 per mile , and he clicked off 105 400m sections at an average of 68 seconds each ! At the end , the charismatic and well-read Kipchoge , who at the time held the official world record at 2:01:39 and whose wife and children were watching him run for the first time , was his usual succinct self : “ I can tell people that no human is limited .”
More Unique Looped Records from Yesteryear
Hannes Kolehmainen
Eliud Kipchoge breaks the two-hour barrier in 2019
Jim Peters
27 October 1965
The post-Olympic year 1965 was one of the most competitive in the history of distance running , and the man at the top of the running pyramid that year was Australian Ron Clarke , who set eleven World Records during the year ! Two of these came at the Landy Field Stadium in Geelong , Australia , on this day , when he ran 59:22.8 for 20,000 metres and then went on to cover 20.232km in an hour . His 10,000m splits were 29:03.0 and 30:19.8 . Clarke ran 66 races over all surfaces that year , winning 50 and failing to take the top podium spot just 15 times , plus a DNF in the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan . Although the Australian won only one Olympic medal in his career – a bronze in the 10,000m at the 1964 Tokyo Games – he was the only man in history who owned the World Records for 3 miles , 6 miles , 10 miles , 5000m , 10,000 m , 20,000m and one hour all at the same time .
Ron Clarke
Images : Felix Dlanga & courtesy INEOS 159 Challenge , Agence Rol / Bibliotheque nationale de France / Wikimedia , Racing Past AU , SportingHeroes . net / Wikimedia , Comrades Marathon Association
8 ISSUE 173 | www . modernathlete . co . za