The tale of Kipchoge & Kiptum: Comparison of the two fastest marathon race times of the world – Part 2 (after Chicago 2023)

At the London Marathon 2023, Kelvin Kiptum came agonisingly close to beating the marathon world record of Eluid Kipchoge at the Berlin Marathon 2022! He fell short by just 16 seconds. Back then, I wrote an article comparing these two outstanding runs here: https://bit.ly/45ngwzp

But on 8 October, Kelvin Kiptum did manage to set a new world record with an astonishing 2:00:35 finish beating the world record time by a staggering 34 seconds! With this change of order, I had no option but to write another post comparing the new two best marathon finishes of the world! (I kept the original article intact though with a minor change in the title.)

Kelvin Kiptum, take a bow! This young man from Kenya, all of 23 years, has literally exploded into the world of marathon running. It took him just 3 marathon races to obliterate the world marathon record and more importantly, get better of the marathon GOAT, the legend Eluid Kipchoge. Such has been Kiptum’s journey that it will sound unbelievable in the world of fairy tales as well.

If we compare and contrast Kiptum’s 2:00:35 and Kipchoge’s 2:01:09, there are fascinating insights! So, lets get into the details right away.

Side by Side 5K Split

This is the most interesting chart to look at. Untill about 25km, Kiptum was running ‘much’ lower than the world record time. And, then he decided to go rogue!

Kiptum cranked up a blistering 14:27 (25-30K) followed by an insane 13:51 (30-35K) and then again an amazing 14:01 (35-40K). In the same distance segment, Kipchoge actually ‘slows’ down to 14:32, 14:30 and 14:43 respectively.

I conveniently ignored the last segment of 2.19Km to not mess up the graph but Kiptum was 4 seconds faster than Kipchoge here as well.

The GAP

Lets look at the gap between the two races as the distance progresses.

Just like London Marathon 2023, Kiptum had a relatively slow start. At 20K mark, Kiptum was almost a minute behind the WR record and by 25k mark the gap vs the world record was highest at 56 seconds. In the world of marathons where the time currency runs in seconds, the difference of just a minute is also too much to recover. The only thing is the Kiptum did not agree with this!

Kiptum starts his asault from 25km onwards and by 35km, while he is still under the world record time, the gap has just reduced to 12 seconds! He doesn’t stop here yet and continues his charge further to go 30 seconds under the world record time at the 40km mark. At this instance, the world was on its feet as there was a real possibility of a first sub 2 hour marathon. The only thing needed here was a continued charge in the final 2km. But, it was not to be! Kiptum gave all he had to finish at 2:00:35 and thereby shattering the world record by 34 seconds. More importantly, he brough the mankind just 35 second adrift of the ultimate holy grail of a sub 2 hour marathon.

The Best of both

I took the liberty of combining the best of the both runs to see what is the best time a human can record in the marathon.

Imagine a runner named Eluid Kiptum. This runner runs the best of the 5K splits across these two races. What would be his finish time? This time to me would represent the pinnacle of human endurance.

So, the magic number here is 1:59:41! Yes, it is that elusive sub 2 hour marathon that we all have been craving for since eternity.

Will we see a sub 2 hour marathon soon?

The answer here is a definite YES. The only question remaining is how soon!

At 23, Kelvin Kiptum is just 3 races old in the world of marathon running but he has already established himself as a worthy successor of Eluid Kipchoge! He appears to have the desire and temperament to run this for the sake of humanity!

Even if my heart isn’t willing to give up on the G.O.A.T, the mind says that Eluid Kipchoge might not have enough in the tank to challenge a sub 2. As things stand today, he appears to be gearing up for a farewell marathon at the Paris Olympics. May be and just may be, he decides to run his favorite course at Berlin one last time and may be and just may be he curtains his fabulous career with a sub 2! Who knows?

Untill then, all we can do is wait for another Kiptum magic and hopefully one last hurray from Kipchoge. Eitherways, the marathon running fans are up for a great treat in the year 2024!