Have any of you read the book The Purple Runner by Paul Christman? In this novel, a disfigured man is always seen running through the hills outside of London. He runs at such an incredible clip that most people do not notice his face. He never runs any races, just around the hills. But, he is befriended by some others who are planning to run the London Marathon. One of them dies, and the purple runner decides to run with his number (something that most race directors frown upon). He takes off at the start of the race and passes the press truck, which decides to let him go because he is running so fast and there is no way that anyone can maintain that pace. Well, he ends up winning the race in 1:59:57.
This is just fiction though, right? There is no way that anyone can actually run a marathon in under two hours!
Well, that was my thought a few years ago when Khalid Khannouchi finally broke 2:06 at the 1999 Chicago Marathon. Since then, the record has been broken four more times. The latest record came on September 28 when Haile Gebrselassie broke his own world record of 2:04:26 at the Berlin Marathon. He became the first person to run under 2:04, clocking an astounding 2:03:59. That is a blazing 4:43.7 per mile for 26.2 straight miles!
So, is that sub-two hour marathon out there on the horizon? I think it could actually happen in my lifetime. One person who is currently running that might be a two-hour contender is Kenenisa Bekele, but so far, he is sticking to the track and hasn’t run a marathon. Maybe the person who will break the two hour mark isn’t even born yet. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Happy trails!
Derek