Two hours, one minute and nine seconds. Eliud Kipchoge has decided that this will be the time to beat in a marathon, bettering his own record by thirty seconds in the last Berlin Marathon.
We are looking at an exception, at an athlete who does not feel the pressure of time (in November the candles will be thirty-eight) and who for several years now has been fighting with only one opponent: himself. Just think how relentless his record is in the World Marathon Majors: 14 participations, 12 wins (with two gold medals at the Olympics). Achievements that allowed Kipchoge to break down another limit, perhaps the most difficult of his career and of any marathon runner: to become an icon of the sport, to make it even more popular through a winning persona that is recognizable not only by a niche audience. Only Bikila, in the 1960s, had been able to achieve such a feat.
Reflexively, Kipchoge’s victories are also charting a before and after for athletes from his homeland-Kenya. Here, on the “before” it is worth reflecting.
Supremacy
When did Kenyan athletes become so competitive (and numerous) in the marathon?
The results speak for themselves: whether Olympic, world or world record, the Kenyan wave in the marathon is quite recent and has seen a substantial increase especially in the last 15 years, led by the exploits of its star Kipchoge. By now, there is no finishing order in international marathons that does not see a consistent presence of Kenyan athletes in the top positions (for example, in Berlin 2022 we had four Kenyans in the top ten).
To understand this trend, it is necessary to take an hour of your time and watch the valuable documentary The Unknown Runner, directed by Boudewijn de Kemp, and finally arriving in Italy in recent weeks thanks to Netlfix.
Foreword: This is not as recent a work as it may seem. It was produced in 2013, but today it comes across as remarkably relevant because it was filmed at a time when the Kenya model was beginning to bear significant fruit.
The documentary has a specific point of view and it is that of athlete Geoffrey Kamworor (multiple half-marathon champion and two-time winner in New York City) busy preparing for the first international marathon of his career.
Starting from his point of view, The Unknown Runner takes his cameras into Kenya’s athletic centers, the places where world records and tomorrow’s champions are built. The presence of these facilities has already been a key step in giving athletes the opportunity to focus only on running and living as professionals, just as it happens to other international athletes. In fact, one of the underlying problems has been precisely to ensure a minimum of isolation from communities so that riders are protected from numerous distractions.
In the past it was common to see Kenyan champions disappear from major races after just one international success or medal, precisely because of the pressure they felt once they returned home. Let’s not forget the context: this is Africa, a winning athlete is also seen as a source of financial wealth, so it was very common for champions to be approached by numerous requests for help from families or entire villages. Help came on time, but it took away the serenity and balance needed to cope as well as possible with a demanding sport like running.
A sought-after isolation
The creation of the athletic centers certainly did not lead to barriers with the community, but rather helped introduce the concept of professionalism and help athletes focus more on their days. In addition, the presence of sponsors brought more stable income that was less constrained by race prize money, which allowed individual athletes to manage their earnings in a more orderly manner. European coaches looking for new champions, international management centers and – ça va sans dire – victories did the rest.
These technical reasons are followed by environmental aspects that are far from obvious. Although Kenya is an equatorial country, the presence of large plateaus gives rise to a fairly diverse highland climate that is particularly suitable for running. In fact, The Unknown Runner devotes a good first part of the entire documentary to showing precisely the conditions under which Kenyan athletes train.
There is Africa in all its essence: long dirt straights carved out by the tires of the few cars one encounters, uneven ground, very hard climbs, puddles scattered everywhere, dirt athletic tracks on which cows run, wells to be operated manually to retrieve water. The miles of asphalt are almost nonexistent (and this is good especially for muscle building and joint protection), the elevation gain is always quite significant with uphill sessions that would scare even a professional cyclist.
Coexisting with these conditions is essential to build cross-country skiers capable of developing strength, speed and endurance. The plateau presents itself not so much as simply a place to train, but as a gymnasium in which to mold athletes called upon to perform out of the ordinary.
And then there is what goes around the race, which is as important as the races. We eat together, at the end of training everyone makes an effort to wash their shoes, you never see a pulled face, just lots of smiles and a relaxed atmosphere. You become people who can become inspirations for younger people because the message has to get through that “it’s running, I can do it too.”
And maybe save yourself, dream of traveling the world.
With their own legs, walking on the plateau.
Andrea Martina
(Main image credits: Wikimedia)
