Eliud Kipchoge (39) tells us:
–Every day I run is a good day.
And that's how he sums up the time he spent this Monday, almost a week ago, in Kaptagat, on the reddish dirt trails of the Rift Valley, paths he travels with his people, the NN Running Team training group, with Geoffrey Kamworor and Augustine Choge and Rodgers Kwemoi, faithful squires, faithful in suffering and in conversations under a eucalyptus tree.
Dozens of trees welcome the curious who visit the place. The athletes planted them.
Kipchoge likes to philosophize, others call him the philosopher. Kipchoge reads when he rests, now he reads “Never eat alone” (Keith Ferrazzi). He has organized a shelf with books in Kaptagat. Everyone who visits the training center must leave a copy there, whatever it may be. The corner is called Sandy Bodecker's corner. Kipchoge refuses to forget his friend Sandy Bodecker: Bodecker was a senior Nike official. He passed away in 2017.
Eliud Kipchoge has won 18 of the 21 major marathons he has competed.
And also, two Olympic golds (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020).
And he is the only human being who has broken the two-hour barrier (the unofficial 1h59m40s that he had signed in Vienna's Prater Park, in 2019).
And until a couple of months ago it held the official world record (2h01m09s).
(In October, Kelvin Kiptum took it from him in Chicago, when he ran in 2h00m35s).
–What did you feel when you lost the record? Anger, frustration, thirst for revenge?
-Nothing of that. I think that what I have done cannot be crossed out in a notebook. It will always be there. This is what sport teaches us, this is its value. What I have experienced, I see as something positive for me.
This year, Eliud Kipchoge received the Princess of Asturias Sports Award.
In his speech, he said:
“People often ask me how I celebrate my successes. “I like to go back to my training camp in Kenya and plant a tree (...) As athletes, we train in the forest.”
Eliud Kipchoge has three children and a wife. They all live 30 km further away, in Eldoret. Grace Sugut, the wife, takes care of the farm and the children, raises the livestock and poultry. Kipchoge only spends Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday with the family. On Monday she is back at the training center.
During the videoconference with La Vanguardia, he tells us about his short-term plans. On March 3 he will compete in the Tokyo marathon, a test that had already been awarded in 2022. And in summer he will seek what no one has done before: the third Olympic gold in the marathon.
(So far, he shares the milestone of two golds with Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski).
–Do you think you will achieve it?
–What I intend is to demonstrate that we can fight against longevity. I believe that this challenge is also important for humanity, so that we do not set limits for ourselves because of age. That's why I'm looking for the third gold in the marathon.
(The challenge is huge: Kiptum and the Ethiopian team await him, where the reborn Kenenisa Bekele could appear).
–I insist: will he achieve it?
–In 1954, Roger Bannister achieved what everyone thought was impossible. He broke four minutes in the mile. From then on, many others did as well. Now we are waiting for the man to break two hours in a marathon. When that happens, many more will. But I don't think about that now. I think about the Tokyo marathon.
–And why are you competing in Tokyo, and not in Boston or New York?
–Because it gives me a more logical calendar. It will tell me what shape I am in and I will have time to recover for the Games.
