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The first marathon under two hours: Kipchoge in Vienna, 2019

On 12 October 2019, a man ran 42.2 km in 1:59:40, about 2:50 per kilometre, the whole way.

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The real story

The INEOS 1:59 Challenge was built for one goal. The course was a flat 9.6 km loop along the tree-lined Hauptallee in Vienna's Prater park, run about four and a half times. Forty-one elite pacers, including Olympic and world champions, rotated in a formation in front of him while a car projected laser lines on the road to mark the pace.

Because of the rotating pacers, the bottle delivery by bike and the closed event, it couldn't count as an official world record. But it broke the idea that two hours was a wall. The next day in Chicago, Brigid Kosgei broke the women's marathon world record. Kipchoge's official best later reached 2:01:09 in Berlin in 2022, and in 2023 Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 in a normal race.

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The facts we checked

  • On 12 October 2019 in Vienna, Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon (42.2 km) in 1:59:40 — the first under two hours
  • It was a special event with rotating pacers, so it is not an official world record
  • His motto: 'no human is limited'

Sources

We checked every number and date on screen before the video was made.

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