The chase is on
South African sports scientists at the centre of attempts to break sub-two-hour marathon mark
EXPERTS always said it was impossible to break the four-minute mile. That was until May 6 1954, when Britain’s Roger Bannister ran it in three minutes and 59 seconds.
Within months of Bannister’s feat, another athlete broke the four-minute barrier.
As Nelson Mandela once said: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
The next goal for endurance runners is running a marathon in under two hours — and South African sports scientists are at the centre of attempts to achieve this.
Kenyan Dennis Kimetto holds the world record of 02:02.57, set in Berlin in 2014.
The two-hour barrier could be broken in five years, says Andrew Bosch, who is spearheading the global “Sub2” project from his office at the University of Cape Town’s division of exercise science and sports medicine in the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Cape Town.
Legendary world distance runner Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who once held the world record at 02:03.59, says: “Imagine what more I could have done in my running career if I had access to ‘Sub2’? I believe this group can do it.”
Surprisingly, some of the world’s top runners lack the systematic input of science and medicine into their training and would run faster given support like this.
The quest to beat the two-hour barrier faces scepticism, but researchers are determined to prove that the human body can achieve this speed — of two minutes 50 seconds per kilometre for 42km.
Bosch says: “A lot of people are saying it is absolutely impossible but think of the hype around the four-minute mile: it could be done; it couldn’t be done. This is a similar debate and that makes athletics fun again.”
Former professional runner and academic Michelle Sikes, who has attended training camps in Kenya where runners spur each other on, thinks the “Sub2” project is great.
“Think of Paula Radcliffe [of Britain] who has a durable record for the women’s marathon,” said Sikes. “She broke the previous record by more than three minutes to run 2:15.25, breaking the range of what people believed possible and no one has come close to touching her record.”
The speed of the elite marathoners is sensational, says Bosch, who ran a 2:22 marathon in his 20s. “You can’t appreciate how fast it is unless you try to run 100m at that speed or cycle next to them.
“TV does not give a sense of their speed. They do 400m on a track in about 70 seconds and make it look like jogging.”
The project team aims to scoop up the world’s elite 10 000m, half-marathon and marathon runners and motivate sponsors to help them fund this goal.
Lusapho April, SA’s Rio Olympics marathon medal hopeful, has run a 2:08 marathon. He says: “I don’t think that someone will run under two hours for the marathon during my running career, especially because Kenyan and Ethiopian athletics are under a drugs cloud at present.”
Of the top 100 marathon times in a year, 90% of them are set by Kenyan or Ethiopian athletes, though recent doping scandals have marred some of their track records.
Tanith Maxwell was second in the Two Oceans this year and represented South Africa in the women’s marathon at the London Olympics. She says: “The ‘Sub2’ project is exciting particularly because it will be conducted through clean science, proper nutrition and training at a time of so many doping scandals.”
South Africa has the scientific and sports facilities and Bosch the expertise to play a prominent role in the project, advantages recognised by Yannis Pitsiladis of Brighton University who conceptualised the project.
Bosch says: “It has a large South African involvement, which is great since it is 99% likely the runner will be from East Africa.”
Whoever succeeds would be likely to have a small body, live and train at high altitude, have been very active from childhood and have an ideal genetic profile, in his view.
Gebrselassie used to jog 10km to school, 10km back from a young age, giving him the physiological groundwork for his victories.
Motivation, environment and genetics combine to fuel success as indicated by Kenya’s top runners, 95% of whom come from one small region.
Bosch says: “They have a big motivation from early on because they see that if you train and do well, athletics is a way to a much better life.”
He says, however: “Top marathoners don’t stay at the top for long as they get physiologically and mentally burnt out. There is a lot of stress when they push their bodies to get record times.”
A sub-two-hours marathon would require a well-planned race strategy and perhaps a novel collective prize system to enhance cooperation among the lead runners to save energy and shave off times.
You can’t tell how fast it is unless you try to run 100m at that speed or cycle next to them