The clock read 1:59:40 when Eliud Kipchoge crossed the line in Vienna’s Prater park on 12 October 2019. He thumped his chest, ran into the arms of his wife, Grace, and became the first human to run 42.195 kilometres in under two hours.
Not an official record
The run, called the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, was not a race. It was designed to give Kipchoge every possible advantage. Rotating teams of pacemakers ran in formation around him to cut wind resistance. A car drove ahead, projecting laser lines onto the road to show the pace. Drinks were handed to him by cyclists. Because of these conditions, the time was never ratified as a world record.
Kipchoge understood that. He said the goal was to show that no human is limited.
A long road to Vienna
Kipchoge was born in 1984 in Kenya’s Nandi County, an area famous for producing runners. He first made his name on the track. In 2003, as an 18-year-old, he won the 5,000 metres world title in Paris, beating Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele. He won Olympic medals at 5,000 metres in 2004 and 2008 before moving to the marathon.
The marathon king
On the road, Kipchoge became nearly unbeatable. He won the Olympic marathon in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and again in Tokyo in 2021. He won the London and Berlin marathons several times each. In Berlin in 2018 he set an official world record of 2:01:39, and in 2022 he lowered it to 2:01:09.
Breaking2
Vienna was his second attempt. In May 2017, in a Nike project called Breaking2 at the Monza racing circuit in Italy, he ran 2:00:25. He was 25 seconds short. Two years later, with a new team and a new course, he came back.
Why it mattered
The two-hour marathon had been a talking point in athletics for decades. Many scientists doubted it could be done. Kipchoge did it, under special conditions, and showed it was within human reach. His Vienna run was watched live by millions online and made headlines across the world.
The shoes
The run also intensified debate about running shoes. Kipchoge wore a prototype Nike shoe with carbon plates and thick foam. World Athletics later introduced rules limiting the thickness of racing shoe soles. The technology question still follows his achievements.
Later years
Kipchoge’s world record was broken in 2023 by his fellow Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum, who ran 2:00:35 in Chicago before his death in a road accident in February 2024. Kipchoge competed at the Paris Olympics in 2024 but did not finish the marathon.
Records fall and champions age. The image from Vienna stays: a small man from Nandi County, smiling as he ran, making the impossible look like a training session.
