Eliud Kipchoge’s Journey To Greatness Teaches Us Patience
Eliud Kipchoge is the most successful marathoner of all time and one of the best runners of all time. But it’s not the success that should inspire us, but the journey he took to get here.
Around this time last year, on September 16, 2018, Eliud Kipchoge ran the world record in the Berlin Marathon, capturing a time of 2:01:39. This feat led to the New York Times calling him the “greatest marathoner ever,” to posters on LetsRun giving him the righteous crown of the King of the Marathon. Kipchoge’s attempt to run under 2 hours in the marathon as part of Nike’s Breaking2 has been the subject of a National Geographic documentary exploring whether breaking 2 is even possible.
Personally, I didn’t like the premise of the documentary. I always felt like it dehumanized Kipchoge and failed to take into account the journey he took to get to where he is now, and depicted him more as a robot or racehorse rather than a human being.
Kipchoge’s training partner, Geoffrey Kamworor, recently ran a 58:01 half marathon, shattering the previous half-marathon record. Soon, Kipchoge will be making another attempt at breaking 2 hours in the marathon, as he previously ran 2:00:25 in a record-ineligible marathon back in 2017. Kipchoge’s feats, in both Berlin and his dominance at the marathon distance, have seemingly…
