Elite runners want to be sub-2 good
The pursuit of records and milestones are the overriding incentives in the modern world of international road racing.
Toss in a significant financial incentive and you can entice three of the world’s elite marathoners to pursuit a milestone once thought beyond the boundaries of human endurance.
Those are the parameters of Nike’s Breaking 2 challenge, a competition to be run on May 6 on a Formula One Grand Prix 1.5-mile course in Milan, Italy. The goal is to produce the first sub-twohour marathon. The course is IAAF-ratified to meet all marathon requirements, but a resulting world record would not be sanctioned.
Nike has entered an agreement with three elite athletes, former Boston Marathon champion Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, to run the 26.2 miles in less than 120 minutes. They are backed by a team of coaches, trainers, sports psychologists, nutritionists and footwear designers.
The while the goal of Breaking 2 is audacious, the contrived means to that ambitious end has it detractors. Former Boston Marathon champion Greg Meyer feels the use of pace-setters in the three-man field on a mostly flat 1.5-mile oval (17.5 laps) is foreign to open-road marathon racing.
“They are creating an opportunity to see what is feasible, but I don’t like the process of how they are doing it,” Meyer said in a phone interview from his home in Grand Rapids, Mich.
“I’ve always felt that (subtwo hours) should be done in a competitive situation, not a set-up thing where you have guys towing you to see how fast you can go.”
The current world marathon record of 2:02:57 was set by Kenyan Dennis Kimetto at Berlin on Sept. 28, 2014. Meyer believes there are several benign marathon courses like Berlin, Rotterdam and Chicago where the milestone could be achieved in a normal competition.
None of the three Nike runners will compete in Monday’s 121st running of the Boston Marathon. The Boston course record of 2:03.02 was set by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in 2011.
“I think Boston can be fast when you have the right weather conditions,” said Meyer, who won the event in 1983 with a time of 2:09.00. “If you have a tailwind and all the other things, Boston can be wicked fast, but Boston can also tear your legs apart.”
Nike equates breaking two hours in a marathon to Roger Bannister breaking four minutes in the mile on May 6, 1954. Bannister ran 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, England. Nike Sub 2 was set for May 6 as a tribute to Bannister.
Meyer thinks the analogy of what Bannister accomplished in England 63 years ago and what the Nike trio is attempting in Italy misses the competitive mark.
“Bannister did it in a race, and he may have had a pacesetter,” Meyer said. “But they are going to stage this thing so they have it all set up, and to me it is a little bit different.
“I just think records should be set in fair competitions where there is more than just three guys.
Meyer also insists there must be safeguards put into the process to protect the integrity of the record. Nike has not announced its drugtesting policy.
“I’m curious if they are doing in training drug testing and all the other things that will make the effort legitimate,” Meyer said. “You would hate to see somebody break two hours that then raises the question if they did it fairly.”