Kipchoge almost gave up midway at the Boston Marathon
After the race on April 17, there was some interpretation of Kipchoge's decline from the first place to seventh in the last 12 km before surging to sixth with 2 hours 9 minutes 23 seconds. According to Let's Run, choosing the wrong strategy, adverse weather conditions - rain, 9 degrees Celsius temperature - and long slopes different from the majors he had won before contributed to Kipchoge's failure. On social media, many people see this record holder's failure to get his own water bottle at the 30km water filling station as another reason why he was exhausted at the end.
However, Kipchoge revealed that a foot injury was the real cause of the bad results at the Boston Marathon. "My left foot can no longer keep the tempo. The problem arose when I entered the 30km mark," he told Kenyans.co.ke.
"A lot of thoughts ran through my mind at the time, but then I said to myself, 'Hey, I mustn't give up. I've been in this sport for too long,'" Kipchoge added of his motivation. tried to finish the race, instead of stopping, accepting DNF with a sore left leg.
Kipchoge owns a massive marathon career with two gold medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Tokyo 2020, 10 championships on the World Marathon Majors - the six largest running tournament system on the planet, the two closest marathon world records, besides once successfully conquered the challenge sub2. However, he has never participated in the Boston Marathon - the oldest and most prestigious race.
The race on April 17 was Kipchoge's first time attending this major and he is expected to win the championship to complete a massive career. Kipchoge started impressively, was always in the leading group, completed the first half of the distance in 62 minutes 19 seconds, leaping to number one from the 21st to the 30th km. But after that, he gradually declined to return to home. with the worst results of his career.
"This failure is already in the past that I need to put aside to focus on the present and the future," added Kipchoge. But the 38-year-old record holder has not yet decided which race he will return to, because he is still consulting with the coach as well as NN Running - the running team he has joined for many years.
Before his first attempt and failure at the 2023 Boston Marathon, Kipchoge ran 12 majors, of which he won four times in London (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), four times in Berlin (2015, 2017, 2018). , 2022), once in Chicago (2014) and once in Tokyo (2021). The New York City Marathon is the only major that the Kenyan legend has not yet attended.
According to this year's schedule, the next majors will take place in London on April 23, Berlin on September 24, Chicago on October 8 and New York on November 5.
Not counting the Covid-19 hiatus, he only runs one race in 2020 - in London, Kipchoge has always competed in two races a year, four to six months apart, since starting his marathon in 2013 Following this tradition, plus Kipchoge having won titles in London, Berlin and Chicago, experts predict the New York City Marathon could be the Kenyan record holder's next race.
