New study reveals what it took for Kenyan Kipchoge to break two-hour marathon barrier

Study reveals how Kipchoge ticks

JOHANNESBURG, November 19 (ANA) – A new study from the University of Exeter has revealed what it took for Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon.

The study focussed on Kipchoge and the other runners involved in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria, on October 12, 2019.

Kipchoge was assisted by a series of pacemakers and a pace car designed to reduce wind resistance in an attempt to break two hours for the marathon. Kipchoge succeeded, finishing the 42.2km distance in a time of 1:59:40. Due to the contrived conditions, the time would not count towards an official world record in the marathon.

However, Kipchoge does hold the marathon world record of 2:01:39 – the time he set with his victory at the Berlin Marathon in 2018.

The study spoke about how Kipchoge and other top runners have a perfect balance of VO2 max (rate of oxygen uptake), efficiency of moment and high lactate turn point – the point at which the body experiences fatigue.

Professor Andrew Jones of the University of Exeter was quoted on sciencedaily.com saying: “Some of the results — particularly the VO2 max — were not actually as high as we expected.

“Instead, what we see in the physiology of these runners is a perfect balance of characteristics for marathon performance.

“The requirements of a two-hour marathon have been extensively debated, but the actual physiological demands have never been reported before.”

Jones explains further that with runners such as Kipchoge, their bodies make the best use of oxygen in order to achieve such incredible athletic performance.

“To run for two hours at this speed, athletes must maintain what we call ‘steady-state’ VO2.

“This means they meet their entire energy needs aerobically (from oxygen) — rather than relying on anaerobic respiration, which depletes carbohydrate stores in the muscles and leads to more rapid fatigue.”

One thing many average runners have in common with elite runners like Kipchoge, is that they have experienced what many call ‘the wall’. ‘The wall’ is when a runner has over-exerted himself or herself, and the body slows down radically in order to try and recover.

As Jones explains, the scientific term for ‘the wall’ is lactate turn point.

“If and when this happens, carbohydrates in the muscles are used at a high rate, depleting glycogen stores.

“At this point — which many marathon runners may know as ‘the wall’ — the body has to switch to burning fat, which is less efficient and ultimately means the runner slows down.

“The runners we studied — 15 of the 16 from East Africa — seem to know intuitively how to run just below their ‘critical speed’, close to the ‘lactate turn point’ but never exceeding it.

“This is especially challenging because — even for elite runners — the turn point drops slightly over the course of a marathon.

“Having said that, we suspect that the very best runners in this group, especially Eliud Kipchoge, show remarkable fatigue resistance.” – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman