He Delivers

September 25, 2022 8:04 PM

Eliud Kipchoge's bottle man, Claus-Henning Schulke, had a good day. (SLYT)

Kipchoge himself didn't fare too poorly either, setting a new marathon world record of 2:01:09, and finishing nearly five minutes ahead of the next runner. He also happened to have finished the first 10km of the race in 28:23, which would have placed him comfortably in the middle of the field at the 10,000m race at the Tokyo Olympics.

posted by Literaryhero (14 comments total)

Eliud’s achievement is impressive. I am a bit sad that it’s eclipsed Tigist Assefa’s amazing personal (and Berlin Marathon) record in the same race - must have been something in the air that day.
posted by q*ben at 8:50 PM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Tigist Assefa’s amazing personal (and Berlin Marathon) record in the same race

She shaved nearly 20 minutes off her previous race time. I foresee big things in her future.
posted by Literaryhero at 9:52 PM on September 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Do the bottle people find the discarded water bottles and reuse them? Or are they highly-coveted bits of plastic like baseballs that fly into the stadium during baseball games?
posted by aniola at 11:08 PM on September 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

@aniola pretty certain that they’re grabbed for souvenirs

It was a shame that the women’s field was overshadowed. The men’s race turned into a Kipchoge solo time trial, but the women had an actual race. A lot of athletes went out at aggressive paces well beyond what their PBs would suggest they’re capable of, which was dramatic and exciting. Assefa found another gear we didn’t know she had, and there was a decent battle for second and third, as well.
posted by Probabilitics at 12:08 AM on September 26, 2022

Great video! Because elite runners have a similar cadence to everyone else, it's sometimes hard to appreciate how fast they're actually going, but this puts it into perspective as he has to race to catch up even on a bike.

Here's another video of regular people trying to keep up with Kipchoge's 2018 marathon pace on a treadmill: he keeps it up for two hours but most people are struggling within seconds.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:48 AM on September 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

Go Infrastructuralists! For every star there's a team carrying water. Although you really wouldn't think it on Oscar Night or the Olympic podium.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:44 AM on September 26, 2022 [4 favorites]

(I think MeFi, more than most places, would agree about infrastructuralists, BtS!)
posted by wenestvedt at 5:54 AM on September 26, 2022

He also happened to have finished the first 10km of the race in 28:23

So, by contrast, I just finished a 5K, my first proper race in twenty years, with almost exactly the same time. For my age and training level, I thought I did really well - I wanted to come in under 30mins, and was very happy I did.

Kipchoge, meanwhile, ran double that distance in the same time - and then went on to run another 32kms! It's impossible to do anything but stand back and admire that type of world class achievement.
posted by fortitude25 at 6:20 AM on September 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

I love how much he loves his role! But also - it seems crazy that for runners of that status, they only have one bottle-person who has to race around the course with them, and not a whole bunch of people strung out along the route, whose jobs are just to stand at their one spot with a bottle and wait for him to pass.
posted by penguin pie at 9:41 AM on September 26, 2022

That "regular people trying to keep up" video is fun.
posted by aniola at 11:15 AM on September 26, 2022

it seems crazy that for runners of that status, they only have one bottle-person who has to race around the course with them.

I guess the flip side of that is my win is decently dependant on my body being hydrated and getting exactly X grams of carbs an hour. I've got full confidence that Claus-Henning doesn't panic, I know exactly what he looks like, so I'm not gonna get confused, he consistently doesn't fumble handoffs and he most definitely won't give me the a bottle intended for another athlete— why would I want anyone else but Claus? :)
posted by Static Vagabond at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am just a huge fan of regular folks attempting top level activities, as it demonstrates to me how truly elite some of these athletes are.
posted by zenon at 11:53 AM on September 26, 2022

As a regular person, I am also in awe of these people who run twice as fast as I do. But I also realize that the only people who can truly appreciate what sort of accomplishment a 2:01 marathon is are the folks who run nearly as fast. Looking at the Berlin results, there were more than 25 guys running faster than 2:15. All of them would look about the same to me as they passed me. (And the cool thing about running is that I have run "with" international champions, just about 8000 spots back.) But the difference between 2:01 and 2:15 is several orders of magnitude.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 3:08 PM on September 26, 2022

Because elite runners have a similar cadence to everyone else, it's sometimes hard to appreciate how fast they're actually going

To expand on this a bit, most people's race cadence is around 180 steps per minute, with variations being more associated with height than pace (Not everyone agrees with this, however). But, we do happen to know that Kipchoge's is about 185. Anyway, what this means is that in order to be hitting these sub 3:00 kilometers, his stride length is very nearly approaching 2 meters. On the other hand, an average guy like let's say me (just because I know myself), runs at a 4:00/km pace and a cadence that's just a hair under 180 on race day. That puts my stride length at about 1.4 meters. But, here is the thing, Kipchoge is 167cm and I am 190cm. That's a pretty wild.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:19 PM on September 26, 2022 [8 favorites]