The build-up for this year’s Berlin marathon was a little more exciting than usual. There was something in the air and a hint that perhaps we might witness something special. In the time since Eliud Kipchoge’s Breaking2 attempt on the Monza race-track in Italy, which secured him a place in the history books with 2 hours and 25 seconds over the marathon distance, he has seemed inevitable that he would go on to break the currentmarathon world-record, secured by Denis Kimetto in 2014 with a time of 2:02:57. And so, as Sunday morning approached the talk seemed less about if

Since 1998 there have been 7 new male marathon world-records set on Berlin’s fast and flat course, 3 of them since 2010. Would we see a another? Sure enough, as if to order, Eliud Kipchoge served the latest world-record to Berlin crowds, crossing the line in an incredible 2:01:39, smashing the previous record by 1 minute and 18 seconds; we haven’t seen a record breaking margin of more than a minute since Derek Clayton lowered the world record from 2:12:00 to 2:09:36 in 1967. It was all the more impressive because the 33-year-old Kenyan achieved it while running the last 17km on his own after the last of his pacers, not to mention the rest of the field, drifted away long before the finish.

2:01:39 in Context

Let’s begin to try to put Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 finish-time into context. It corresponds to an average pace of 4:38 minutes per mile or about 2:53 mins/km, which is the equivalent to running a 17.4 second 100m sprint. Try it; it’s non-trivial. Now imagine doing it 421 more times to get to the finish-line!

What about the rest of the field who started with Kipchoge? At the time he crossed the finish-time how far has the average runner left to run, assuming they continued at their average race-pace? 21.6 kms! Imagine that, the average runner still has more than half the marathon to run by the time Eliud Kipchoge crossed the finish-line; it’s a little less for men (20.9 kms) and a little more for women (23.2 kms).