Week 5 - The 2 hour marathon

The marathon is a crazy race to me. I love running. I enjoy being out in nature and testing myself. I run stupid events, and this year my shortest race was 85km, which is 2 marathons back to back. So most people presume I would love running a marathon and deep down I would like to test myself over this iconic distance. Then I remember that it is 42km on a flat road and I stop thinking about it. I cannot run on roads. My head falls off and I get bored, then start looking for a dirt track.

On the other hand I have such respect for marathon runners. Watching them give everything to run at such fast speeds for 42km is amazing. The fact that the world record time for a marathon is 2:02:57 (Mulkeen & Minshull, 2014) is mind blowing to me. Now a project has been started to try and break the 2 hour record within 5 years (Ross, 2014). Five years to drop the marathon by just about 3 minutes sounds very optimistic to me. The report I read said they are planning on using all the latest sport science and sport medicine to give athletes the best chance as possible to achieve and break the 2 hour mark (Ross, 2014).

I believe the 2 hour marathon will happen, yet not in the next 5 years. I believe that there are just too many variables and as of now sport science is just too young. Ten years and I hope our knowledge bank will be so much bigger and will give us a better chance an smashing all sorts of marks and records. 

 Of course people compare the 2 hour marathon to the 4 minute mile. This, I feel, is not a great comparison. First of all it took 9 years to move that record from 4:01.4 to Bannister's 3:59.4 (Ross, 2014). I believe the things that can go wrong multiply and the margin for error decreases in events as the distance increases. Just think of the factors involved: road surface, pacers, weather, wind and distance. So many factors have to come together for 26 x 1 mile (26miles = 42km approx.). 

 To achieve such an incredible time as under 2 hours in the next 5 years would take the perfect storm of athletes, training, timing and injury prevention. I would personally like to see it happen and watch it unfold. I also think the even if this does not succeed, the amount we can learn from the process will make the whole process well worth pursuing.  

Mulkeen, J. & Minshull, P. (2014). Kimetto Breaks Marathon World Record in Berlin with 2:02:57.  Retrieved from http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/marathon-world-record-dennis-kimetto-berlin

Ross. (2014). The 2-hour Marathon and the 4-min mile. Retrieved from http://sportsscientists.com/2014/12/2-hour-marathon-4-min-mile/