Athletics · 2019 · Vienna, Austria
Breaking the Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
A Kenyan marathon runner becomes the first person to complete 26.2 miles in under two hours, in a meticulously engineered event built for that single purpose.
1:59:40.2
Time
12 October 2019
Date
~2:50/km
Average pace
The INEOS 1:59 Challenge was not a conventional race, there was no field to beat, no prize money at stake, and no official world record on offer because the conditions, a rotating team of pacemakers and a pace car projecting laser lines onto the road, fell outside competition rules. Its only goal was to find out whether a human being could run a marathon in under two hours.
On a flat loop course in Vienna's Prater park on 12 October 2019, Eliud Kipchoge did it, crossing the line in 1:59:40.2, an average pace of roughly 2 minutes 50 seconds per kilometre sustained for over 26 miles. It was his second attempt at the barrier, having fallen 25 seconds short in a similar event in Monza in 2017.
Because of the pacing support, the time was never eligible as an official world record, that distinction still belongs to his separate mark from open competition. But as a demonstration of the outer edge of human endurance, the Vienna run stands alongside Bannister's four-minute mile as one of the sport's defining barrier-breaking moments.
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