Kipchoge’s World Record: Inside The Numbers

Coros grabbed a significant coup at the weekend as its sponsored athlete, Eliud Kipchoge, bagged the fastest competitive marathon of all time in Berlin at a staggeringly fast 2:01:09 (Sunday, September 25th 2022).

We don’t have his heart rate stats but we can get an idea of what this kind of performance entails by looking at his race splits and the physiological data of Moses Koech who was the main pacer on the day. Koech also used a Coros Pace 2 which I favourably reviewed a while back.

 

Let’s look at some of the data from the Coros for Koech on the training hub.

4-Weeks Training

Seasoned amateur marathon runners should see few surprises here with the emphasis on aerobic development.

 

Pacing The First Half

With an astonishing threshold pace of 2:48/km, Koech maintained a constant effort for the first HM. Whilst he can maintain that pace for over an hour you may only be able to maintain your threshold pace for 40-50 minutes.

 

Off to a Flyer

Hey look, even the pros go off too fast for the first km or so…just like the kids at your local parkrun ;-). But unlike you and the kids at your local parkrun, the elite marathoners clocked a blistering 14:14 for the first 5km. Ouch.

Similarly to you, his heart rate takes a KM or so to fully reflect the effort he is putting out so be mindful of that when pacing by heartrate.

The Final 5Km

Looking at Glucose

Images from NN Racing show that Kipchoge was wearing Supersapiens which is a blood glucose monitor I reviewed a while back. That isn’t supported by Coros yet but his physiologists would have looked at the effectiveness of his fuelling after the race. The image on the right shows the glucose track of Freddy Ovett in the same race. He’s a tad slower than Kipchoge but you can see he fuelled his workout well with fuel level consistently at the performance level. Using Supersapiens in training allowed Ovett to realise that he frequently under-fuelled his workouts so he changed his marathon strategy to take 100g/hour of CHO.

The record falls

The old record from 2018 was also set in Berlin. The time then, 2:01:39, was beaten by 30 seconds ie just under a second faster in every single kilometre.

Your Next Marathon PB/PR

Running technology can give you an edge and is obviously no replacement for putting in the miles.

However, technology can and does help you understand that you to put the right kind of miles into your training.

You may have the benefit of a race-day pacer if you target one of the milestone times but if not, your running watch can give reassuring information at a glance that you are maintaining the consistency and efforts that you trained for.

Coros Pace 2 is a good running watch and it’s also cheap when compared to Garmin or Polar. It’s super lightweight and has a good raft of running metrics and insights. There’s even a special edition Kipchoge model but that won’t make you any faster!

Buy the Coros Pace 2

For those of you looking to buy the Pace 2, the prices are EXTREMELY competitive at $179.99 at Power Meter City/ €199.99 / £179.99

• 10% off in the USA with code THE5KRUNNER10 at Power Meter City
• Free $30 accessory band when ordering direct from Coros NOW – add the strap to the cart and then add the code THE5KRUNNER at the end of checkout..it’s complicated but that’s the only way you help this blog and the only way you get the free strap!
• Coros has a $100 trade-in program for your previous Coros watch, you might be able to combine that with the free strap offer.