Eliud Kipchoge, the Kenyan distance runner, has become the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours, beating the mark by 20 seconds. His triumph this morning in Vienna this morning won’t be recognised as the official world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers. He currently holds the world record at 2 hours 1.39 minutes. He said, “Now I’ve done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me.” He compared the feat to being the first man on the moon in the build-up to the event and said he had made history just as Britain’s Sir Roger Bannister did in running the first sub four-minute mile in 1954. After Bannister the four-minute mile became the standard, being achieved to date by 1400 runners and the present record is 3.43.
Kipchoge, 5 November 1984, was brought up by a single mother, ran two miles every day to school but didn’t take up running seriously until his late teens.
He has a Scorpio Sun conjunct Saturn with Pluto and Mercury at either end of Scorpio as well – not short of determination, for sure. His Mars in disciplined and ambitious Capricorn is sextile his Saturn for more grit. Plus three planets in sporting Sagittarius and a fiery Aries Moon.
There are good things happening in the universe away from the political mayhem.
Pic: Denis Barthel