Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) November 2018 | Page 33

Prof Doutor
Paulo Colaço
Coacha and
Professor at
FADEUP – Porto
When one talks about excep-
tional sports performance, like
the marathon world (42,195km)
record achieved by Eliud
Kipchoge, the debates focus
on training (hard training, long
training, intensity, volume), on the
physiology (what VO 2 max, running
economy, anaerobic threshold?), on
the equipment (type of shoes, why
arm sleeves?) or even on food sup-
plementation. Everybody wants to
know the secret and all of us focus
on the accessory, in that more visible
and colored, leaving behind other
issues which are the real support for
results of excellence.
Yes, it is true that intensities are
very high! Kipchoge states that he
never neglected speed: “my coach
introduce real fast trainings on the
track that are so common on the
marathon context, but they really
helped me a lot”. When we talk
about intensity, we cannot forget
that the word record was broken at
2:52min/km! Impressive.
However, the real success of this
tremendous result is far beyond of
what can be seen: values, beliefs,
team work, solidarity and emotion.
This ios the real timekeeper of the
athlete that wants to go further…
and it is not in the hands or in the
feet … it is in the head! The results
of exception depend from the begin-
ning of an emotional state that
should be lived in every training ses-
sion. An emotional state of the ath-
letes that shiver looking for better
training intensities... of the athletes
that don’t fear to run faster and look
for in the tears the necessary food
for the intensity of the training that
would hurt a lot otherwise… Here
there is no place for effort manage-
ment, but a continuous overtaking
of barriers, of overcoming. The dif-
ference is that, on those that have
this spirit, they know that whenever
the body allows, there should be the
emotion to feed the desire to run
faster and faster.
Here the emotions are fed by posi-
tive values of athletes that believe
in what they are doing, that respect
unequivocally the coach they have
chosen as a partner of a path where
the team work is the only way to
make the athlete to believe in what
he is doing. If the shoes can hypo-
thetically give an advantage of 4%
in the Marathon, imagine the power
of a solidary work between persons
that see each other every day with a
bright in the eyes of somebody that
knows what he is not there to waste
time, but to embrace what Kipchoge
so well says in his message: “I’d like
to tell to all living souls in the world
that anybody can reach whatever
he wants and that all they need is
believe and trust in themselves”.
Of course, that nobody can believe
in himself if every day he is limited
to modest work … because when
doing modest work only modest
results can be achieved. But when
the values, beliefs, team work soli-
darity and emotion come together
on the daily work, the physiologic
Date
Athlete
Nationality
Venue
16/09/2018
Kipchoge
Kenya
Berlim
28/09/2014
Kimetto
Kenya
Berlim
29/09/2013
Kiprotich
Kenya
Berlim
25/09/2011
Musyoki
Kenya
Berlim
28/09/2008
Gebrrselassie
Ethiopia
Berlim
30/09/2007
Gebrrselassie
Ethiopia
Berlim
28/09/2003
Tergat
Kenya
Berlim
14/04/2002
Khannouchi
Marroco
London
24/10/1999
Khannouchi
Marroco
Chicago
20/09/1998
da Costa
Brasil
Berlim
1985
Carlos Lopes
Portugal
Roterdan
1960
Bikila a )
Ethiopia
Italy (JO)
22/03/1905 b)
Hayes
USA
London (JO)
1896 c)
Spiridon
Greece
Athens (JO)
a) He ran barefoot on the streets of Rome; b) 1 st official time of IAAF;
c) 1 st Olympic Games of the Modern Era (40km); 42,195km since 1921 (IAAF)
markers explode and turn the
results of each training session the
foundation of competitive results of
exception.
Kipchoge is not only a good
athlete… and the person that only
focus on his training times, on his
trainings and on the chronometric
evolution didn’t yet understood that
the results don’t come from there
… they come from an exceptional
human being, that always under-
stood that is every day and in the
structuring values in the relation
with himself and with the others
that he can build a route of success.
“With a good heart and good
thinking, you can achieve” or “there
isn’t almost anything about my
training session that cannot be
replicated by runners of any level
in the world” are phrases of Eliud
Kipchoge. And, in fact, it is worthless
to copy others’ trainings or to wear
sports shoes, because in reality the
deciding factor is in the heart and in
the mind. Real humility at all levels,
every day in the year, opposing
arrogant attitudes of runners that
look for solutions where they don’t
exist… the secret is inside in each of
us and in the values that get better
along the sports career with the help
of an organized training session,
with the help of a competent coach
and from quality interpersonal rela-
tions that would generate emotions
that make the real champions.
Time
2h 01m 41
2h 02m 57
2h 03m 23
2h 03m 38
2h 03m 59
2h 04m 26
2h 04m 55
2h 05m 38
2h 05m 42
2h 06m 05
2h 07m 12
2h 15m 16
2h 55m 18
2h 58m 50
Revista de Medicina Desportiva informa november 2018 · 31