1,2,3

Perfectly executed. I am very happy for Eliud Kipchoge. He is indeed a worthy champion. I first heard of Eliud Kipchoge in 2003 when as an unknown 18 year old he upset both Kenenisa Bekele and Hicham El Guerrouj to win the 5000m world championship in Paris. The 5000m finals wered being held on the 8th day of the championship. On Day 2 Kenenisa Bekele had easily won the 10,000m and on Day 5 El Guerrouj had won the 1500m. The two of them were the biggest names of the tournament and had qualified for the 5000m final where they were both looking to win a double that had not been won before since I don't know when. Of course in the eyes of the commentators there were only 2 runners on the field Bekele and El Guerrouj and the rest were common nouns of nationalities a Kenyan etc. There was great expectation and excitement about the epic battle between Bekele and El Guerrouj and they did not dissapoint. At the final lap El Guerrouj took the lead and Bekele followed but there was this unknown Kenyan between them, If you were watching the race of course you could have seen Kenyan but if you were listening on radio like I was there was only El Guerrouj and Bekele racing for the glory.

El Guerrouj felt very confident, he accelerates and increases his lead by a couple of yards and Bekele follows. This was at the height of Bekele's dominance and am sure he thought as did all the commentators that he was just bidding his time and at just the right moment at the final bend he will take the outside lane put his foot on the pedal overtake the unknown Kenyan and El Guerrouj and take his double.

Well, he executed according to plan, after the final bend he took the outside lane and went for the killer sprint....... I later heard the BBC commentator who I was listening to on the radio that day admit that it was one of the most exciting races he had ever commentated on and I can swear that is true because on the radio I could hear Bekele sprinting on the outside and El Guerrouj still holding the lead which Bekele was fast closing on except there was a little problem the unknown Kenyan who with about 2 seconds before the race ended they had discovered had a name was refusing to go away and he in fact just managed to squeeze past El Guerrouj to win the race. His name was Eliud Kipchoge. The 3 of them had another spectacular race in the 5000m final of the Olympics in 2004 that El Guerrouj won, Bekele was 2nd and Kipchoge 3rd. 12 years later the race is still on and Kichoge is still running, El Guerrouj is retired and Bekele is nowhere to be seen.

Congratulations Eliud Kipchoge, you make me feel very proud to be a Kenyan.

Yes. And if Eliud Kipchoge had run the same pace in 2004 (instead of say, Tergat) he would have broken the World record by a full minute.

Times have changed and elite marathon running is now more a speed race than an endurance event. In such conditions breaking records become even harder: where an athletes superb condition is not enough. The trail, weather, crowd support and psychological state all become important variables.

Which Marathon seems to have most of these? Berlin.