Today Geoffrey Mutai shaved almost a minute off the marathon world record, but his miraculous feat will not be formally recognised. Neither the Association of Road Racing Statisticians nor the IAAF considers performances on the Boston Marathon course to qualify for world record status as they could be aided by slope and/or tailwinds. Hardly seems fair. Maybe the current record should be scrapped because it was set on the predominantly flat Berlin course. Surely some courses are quicker than others and that's that!
Only a week ago, the two-hour marathon debate resurfaced on the BBC website. Mutai has proved there is still room for improvement. I would love to see the two-hour mark broken in my lifetime -- what a testament it would be to the human spirit.
Elite athletes like Mutai really are on a different plane. As the BBC article says, completing a marathon in two hours would mean running each mile at a 4m 35s pace. By comparison, a decent club runner might run at a seven-minute mile pace, and a casual runner at nine or 10 minutes. I reckon I could just about run half a mile at the pace these guys run 26.2. It really is mind-boggling stuff!
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