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COMMENTATOR 1: ...and Bannister has done it.
Now, he's out on his feet. His coach and team manager tell him
he's achieved his ambition, a mile in three minutes 59.4 seconds.
COMMENTATOR 2: Jimmy Hines is going to win the race!
Jim Hines is the winner! Lennox Miller, second, Charlie Greene, third.
Jim Hines is the world's fastest human.
COMMENTATOR 3: He breaks the world record by an astonishing margin,
one minute and 17 seconds.
And history has been made in Berlin in astonishing style.
CAPCOM: You are go for landing. Over.
[RADIO BEEPS]
BUZZ ALDRIN: Roger. Understand. Go for landing. 3,000 feet.
CAPCOM: Altitude, 1600. 1400 feet, still looking very good.
ALDRIN: We're go.
We're go.
Contact light.
OK, engine stop.
CAPCOM: We copy you down, Eagle.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: It's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
REPORTER: Welcome to a foggy morning here in Vienna, Austria,
where one man will attempt to go where no man has been before.
Pushing his body and mind to the limit
with the aid of scientific research and meticulous preparation,
Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge will hope to run 26.2 miles in under two hours
and, in doing so, beat one of the great sporting barriers of our time.
Kipchoge! Kipchoge! Kipchoge! Kipchoge!
[INSECTS CHIRP]
[SINGING]
[DOG BARKS]
[SPEAKS SWAHILI]
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[IN ENGLISH]
[STARTING PISTOL]
COMMENTATOR: Hicham El Guerrouj coming home,
Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele.
Kipchoge in the red. Can he get to the finals? Yes!
Kipchoge edging out Hicham El Guerrouj!
COMMENTATOR 2: Eighteen years of age. Eliud Kipchoge.
You know, you hear about child prodigies that can play the piano.
How can you do this at 18, when you should be a senior in high school?
NDUHIU: You know, science has it that the first man to run 42K
below two hours,
will do it in about 2075.
That is 50 years from now. He wants to do it now.
His mind is... [EXHALES SHARPLY] It's something you can't describe.
Berlin, 2015,
he is running at kilometer-five and the insoles are flapping out.
And you're saying... this guy will drop from this
because it will cause blisters.
But he went on, and actually set his personal best.
So you look at him and you say, "OK, this is magical."
[LAUGHS] Because you were seeing somebody here with a mind that,
if he puts it on something, nothing will distract him from it.
He will go for it.
COMMENTATOR: Kipchoge puts his foot down.
The London Marathon belongs to Eliud Kipchoge.
Eliud Kipchoge.
Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the greatest ever.
This will be the first sub 2:02 clocking,
and by a monstrous margin, he is going to break the world record.
Particularly in marathon running, he is the greatest ever, by a long way.
The quickest. A man who knows how to win.
COMMENTATOR: Sang is second. One, two, three for Kenya.
SANG: I was a fortunate guy
to have had help from so many people throughout my childhood years.
All the way to being a runner.
So, when I came back, one of the things that I wanted to do
was to give back to the community.
So I was actively involved in helping young athletes in this country.
Somehow Eliud knew that I was in this position,
and he came to me like any other youngster
asking for a training plan.
I would give him a training plan for two weeks,
and he would come, religiously, every two weeks,
to ask for more.
But at one point he told me,
"I've made the regional team to go to the Nationals.
I want to be guided."
He also told me that he took up running because he used to see me run
at the high school, and said why don't I try, like this guy?
And that's why he was coming to me for advice.
So that was the beginning.
COMMENTATOR: He breaks the world record
by an astonishing margin.
One minute and 17 seconds. Patrick Sang, his coach, his companion
for run after run, race after race, year after year.
SANG: It's just pure trust.
He never asks what are we going to do next week, next month, tomorrow.
And I think, without trust, you cannot go far in this business.
All of us in life, we go through different phases.
And any situation gives you lessons.
And it depends on how you interact with that background.
Some will take it positively, and use it positively.
[BIRDS CALL]
You know, there have been so many theories
why we have this rich pool of talent.
I believe strongly in the theory of Darwin,
the survival of the fittest.
Most of our athletes come from humble backgrounds.
You have to fight, you have to be strong.
And I think in Kenya,
the strictures that were laid down by the colonial government
to compete for the Empire in the Empire Games
meant a tradition was formed under that unfriendly regime.
And I think over time they were perfected.
COMMENTATOR: Keino making this crowd roar.
- [CROWD CHEERS] - He is now 15 yards clear.
When you pass a place, you leave some dust in your wake.
And some dust can throw in something glittering.
I think that would be something that glitters
out of the unfriendly dust that we experienced as a country.
MAN: The people here in Kenya, masses of the Africans here in Kenya,
are probably roughly at about the same stage
Great Britain was 500 years ago.
We do not think that the normal forms of democracy are suitable.
COMMENTATOR: Simpson in second place. O'Brien is third.
Wilkinson is fourth, and surely no one will catch the African.
SANG: People heard through the radio
that there was this great guy who could run so fast,
and his name was Kip Keino.
COMMENTATOR: And Keino is going faster,
and Simpson is going harder, too.
SANG: He was a household name.
There were songs sung about him.
When we were kids, we used to say, "Run like Kip Keino!"
[CHILDREN CHATTER]
You get one person from an area running very well,
then he becomes a mentor to many others. There is an example to follow.
[EXCITED CHATTER]
But then, there is dominance on the Kalenjin group,
particularly where long-distance running is concerned.
Every single time Eliud laces his shoes and takes the guys out for a run,
he doesn't have to say anything.
If you're in that camp, all you have to do is see in his eyes.
You know, his dedication
and his will to just keep pushing every single time.
NDUHIU: For you to succeed in the majority of these things,
you have got to get a team that believes in your dream.
You are the vision carrier.
But the cast that supports you have also to believe
and commit to the dream.
CHUMO: Eliud is super consistent in whatever he does.
It's all about discipline.
It's a storm of conditions that come together to make this man who he is.
BRAILSFORD: He's got an incredible physiology.
He's got incredible efficiency as an athlete.
And he's got an absolutely incredible mind. I mean, an incredible mind.
COE: He is the perfect shape.
He has almost perfect posture.
He puts his feet down... and it's a dream.
He almost floats.
Athletics is an individual sport and Eliud is able
to make an individual sport a kind of team sport
with the way he does things in camp.
He feels it's a way of inspiring people. That is something which I see in Eliud
that you don't see in almost any other athlete.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
SANG: Running is a taxing exercise.
It takes a lot of energy from the system.
The set-up we have in Kaptagat
is an ideal environment where somebody
can have around them the right people to give them moral support.
CHOGE: Eliud has really helped young people, and some of us
because what you see from him makes you believe
that if this person can do this, also I can do that.
He is a mentor to so many young athletes.
Squat! Get into the squatting position.
TRAINER: Open. Close.
Two. Close.
Three. Close. Four. Close.
[LAUGHTER]
NJOROGE: People look up to him
because he's not trying to be something else.
He's completely sincere.
MAN: The camp is a really special place.
The athletes organize everything in camp themselves.
NJOROGE: It is very austere.
But I think you then get connected with what really matters.
You can get with very little. All the other things are fluff.
[THUNDER]
CHOGE: There are so many things that I've learned from him.
One of them is really... be humble.
No matter what success you achieve in your life, always be humble.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
In his case, humility is something that's absolutely core.
He doesn't even think about it.
It's a natural thing that emanates out from him, really.
It's central to the way that he operates.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
CHUMO: This is the best training area for running.
Elite athletes.
For that person who is aspiring to be the best.
AUGUSTINE: We believe in our fitness, we believe in the team
that we have selected to help Eliud.
We believe in the coaching that's been provided for us.
So we have a strong team.
We do half squat.
CHUMO: At the end of the day, all you can do is just
train, eat, rest, and repeat.
[SINGING]
[♪ "MESSAGE FROM KENYA" BY THE HORACE SILVER TRIO]
[MUSIC ENDS]
NDUHIU: High-altitude training does them a lot of good.
You develop a higher red blood cell count
that transports the oxygen.
So when you go and run now at sea level, you find you have an advantage
because you're able to carry the oxygen through
much easier than the other person.
NOBLE: An elite athlete will be used to having to capture the oxygen very well.
Their genomes are crafted by the evolutionary process
to produce the proteins necessary to capture the oxygen easily,
because the oxygen is thin.
But it can't be just that.
The elite performers in Kenya are also inheriting the right epigenome.
That is, the ability to maintain those controls
over, not only your muscles, but also the rest of the body.
How we behave, the lifestyle, the training,
the ways in which the body tells the genome what to do.
I've been fascinated throughout my career
by why certain ethnic groups have excelled in sport.
If you asked me in 2000, I would have said it's genetic.
But 20 years later, it's very clear to me,
and it's actually well accepted now,
that what we're observing is a socio-economic cultural phenomenon.
The very best, or the very, very unique individuals,
where genetics plays a massive role
but genes alone will not produce success.
You need that right environment.
COE: You close your eyes and you think about Kenya.
You think about athletes,
and you think about extraordinary performances.
And there is an ambition, an aspiration, amongst young Kenyan kids
to want to be great runners.
When we came out of colonial administration,
we became independent.
And our first experience as a country in international competitions
was so positive because we won medals from the word go.
And that, in itself, set a tradition that every young athlete coming up
has a bar that is already set. And that bar is that
if you come with anything less than a gold, you are not good.
The Kenyans train to be the best.
And that's, like, a mindset that is very strong for them.
[HAMMERING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER IN SWAHILI]
NDUHIU: Amongst all the Kalenjin group that are running,
there are those that can have a very low pain threshold.
That problem that would actually make another athlete drop,
Eliud would finish with it.
His body is exceptional,
because he is able to block
that disruption, that irritation that the pain is causing,
and put it at the back of his mind until the race is over.
[LAUGHS]
NDUHIU: Actually, his biggest asset, his mind,
carries him through those very trying moments.
CHOGE: He is very strong mentally.
He has really developed a way of overcoming the pain.
He always smiles, he always concentrates,
he always keeps focus on what he does.
And I've tried and it really works.
You smile a bit, and you forget about the pain and just keep moving.
NOBLE: When you're exercising,
and you're competing at a very high level,
you are doing much more than just running.
You are also putting yourself into a state of mind in which you can do it.
It's a meditative state.
NDUHIU: You have to align the mind and the whole body,
so that when you tell it to move, it moves as you direct.
If you have a disconnect between those two things,
that's when you start losing the momentum,
and it becomes a nightmare for you to sustain.
COMMENTATOR: We are here at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza
to see if we can really break this barrier.
This is something that has been in the making for two years.
TROUW: Breaking the two hours is incredible pressure.
He experienced that for the first time in Monza.
That kind of pressure which is different than going for Olympics
or for London Marathon or anything else.
And I think in Monza, he was learning to handle it.
It was really hard for him to convince himself
that he was going to run under two hours.
It took him six, seven months to prepare physically,
but mainly, mentally, to be ready on the starting line
that he had really internalized that he was going to achieve it.
At that time he came from a personal best of 2:03:05.
So he had to prepare his mind
to go three minutes faster than he had ever had done in his life.
COMMENTATOR: Believe me, that's not just a first place,
that is a moment of marathon history.
HERMENS: At Monza, it was very clear it was a very big step.
I remember going to the racecourse at Monza
and thinking to myself, "Three minutes. That's a lot!"
COMMENTATOR: Thirty seconds.
Nine, eight, seven, six...
LAGAT: He was courageous.
He said, "I'm going to give 100 percent."
And he did.
HERMENS: The three most important points from Monza were
that we didn't get enough carbohydrates inside Eliud.
The drinks didn't work as we wanted.
The weather was not ideal. The rain. And it was very humid.
And the other thing for Eliud was always the crowd.
There was nobody there.
But that's also part of sports, you know?
If we can predict everything, why are we here?
You know, this is life.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
He almost succeeded, but he missed by 25 seconds.
CHOGE: It was a learning curve for me.
He showed me a different character of himself.
That the mind that we thought was, "He has a strong mind,"
was stronger than we thought.
[CHEERING]
LAGAT: The most successful people are the ones that are not afraid of fear.
They try, and if they fail, they come back again.
NDUHIU: That belief that he has that no human is limited...
It means, once you train your mind on something, you will achieve it.
COE: The difference between the good and the great
is that your head may be telling you you possibly can't do it,
but there is something else there
that overrules all those cautious thoughts.
And you think, "Fuck it, I can. And I'm gonna go for it."
LAGAT: We're in a different era right now
where people believe these guys like Eliud are actually making sure
that the generation that will follow
are going to think, "We are going to be running 2:00
on an open marathon, or that is not going to be good enough."
COMMENTATOR: Haile Gebrselassie writes yet another chapter
in the most astonishing distance-running career in history.
HERMENS: In 2008, Haile Gebrselassie ran for the first time under 2:04 in Berlin.
Then more and more people are asking, "Two hours, when will it happen?"
If you look at the curve of the marathon records,
it would take another 30, 40 years.
RATCLIFFE: To do the impossible... and I almost still believe
that breaking a two-hour marathon is impossible, because I run!
And the idea of running every kilometer at two minutes 50
is impossible in my view.
That requires this combination of an athlete that is truly superhuman,
but also incredibly meticulous organization
to get him to the point where he could break two hours.
It was that feeling of, "Holy shit, this is the real deal."
We've got this responsibility to this athlete
who's only going to get this one chance.
When you're going into something at the highest level,
you're really under a huge amount of pressure,
you have to have done the preparation.
You have to know in your mind that you've done all you possibly can.
BRAILSFORD: In the first instance, you pull together a little team of people,
your safe team, as it were... So, obviously, we got Tim in.
Tim's background was in rowing,
swimming, and he is now the most decorated coach in cycling.
What he does have is a knowledge of performance physiology
and an ability to apply that to a range of sports.
One A and one B.
BRAILSFORD: I met Valentijn,
who is a performance manager and looks after Eliud and his team,
and we hit it off straight away.
One of the greatest challenges in the first instance, was to find the course.
On that side we had Hugh Brasher,
who many will know is the director of London Marathon.
So you had Valentijn, Hugh and myself as a sort of senior management team.
And then there were other people in our team.
Fran Millar, obviously who works very closely with me.
Peter Vint who was in charge of all the cars and the lasers and the timing.
Spencer had got all the pacers
and Robby Ketchell who'd worked on the Nike project.
I mean, a brilliant guy. A scientist, meteorologist, aerodynamicist.
I mean, phenomenally bright guy.
And that's one of the challenges
when you take experts from different fields and different sports
and you try and pull them together, you've got to have the chemistry.
We're going to have to move fast, we're going to have to have open minds,
and communicate really, really frequently and move at pace.
Timothy and Emanuel, you just... you start also behind.
Because we are all on the starting line.
- We will not start in this formation. - Oh, yes.
We are starting on the line and then, boom, go...
BRAILSFORD: Normally, we race to win. We win medals, we win races.
We go to the Olympics, or the Tour de France, we win stuff in competitions.
This event is different. This is about breaking a human barrier.
So we had to really think about this in a slightly different way
and make sure the philosophy of the whole attempt was based
on a performance -first mentality.
What's going to get us to that record? What's going to help the performance?
And if we have to work harder, invest more, find a different way,
find a different solution for all the other aspects of the event
that will fit around it, then that's what we'd do.
He had run a fantastic time in the London Marathon,
and we thought, actually, if he ran no worse,
the same physical performance that he did in London,
then could we look for the marginal gains?
The optimizers, as we'd call them.
So, make sure the surface of the road is absolutely perfect.
Perfect weather conditions.
We wanted the corners to be more than 32 meters' radius.
What's the thermoregulation? What's the fueling strategy?
What's the pacing strategy? The aerodynamics?
All of those elements were critical in essentially
what, for me, would be marginal gains.
HERMENS: We improve shoes, we improve drinks, all these things.
But that's natural.
In ten years, we will be again finding out more things, and different things.
It's just a point in history where we are at at the moment
and we are speeding up a little bit of history.
RATCLIFFE: I always wanted it to be somewhere iconic
because it's such a special event.
I didn't really want to be in an airfield in Norfolk, you know?
Or somewhere in northern Germany because those were a couple of ideas.
You get a flat course and it's very manageable
because there's no people around, there's no traffic.
You have to deal with all that.
If you're going to do this, it should really be in an iconic location.
KETCHELL: This course is actually something really special.
When we came and saw it for the first time, all of us looked at it
and said immediately, "I think we found our place."
You come here and even before you think about all of the physics around it,
and the environment that you are trying to run in,
you get a feeling of, "This is somewhere I can run fast."
[DOGS BARK]
It was June 13.
Thirteen minutes past eight, I've got the call. It's Vienna.
It starts me crying a little bit, just for a moment.
To have Eliud here, and all those pacemakers?
It was the best that ever could happen for Vienna.
So on this circuit, we have a 4.3 kilometer section here
that we are walking on almost perfectly flat.
It only has an elevation change of about 2.4 meters
from one end to the other.
He's going to do 4.4 laps on it,
so that means that he is going to do this about 8.5 times.
And there are roundabouts that are located conveniently on either side.
Just having that circuit there was enough for us to decide
that this is an optimal location.
When you approach anything like this, a big undertaking,
it's like being in a field where there's mist and you can't see anything.
You don't know where the fence is or where the edges are.
But you know there's a gate somewhere. You know you can get out of the field.
But until the fog lifts, you're not going to be able to find the gate.
And it felt like that at the beginning of the project.
And as the fog lifted,
it was literally like all of the elements started to fall into place.
An order fell across the whole project.
People really seemed to buy this concept
of, "We're doing something that no one has ever done."
Like, that's special. That's unique.
There was a genuine magic to it, you know?
BRAILSFORD: He is Zen-like in his approach and his preparation.
And watching him at close quarters develop
from the end of the finishing line in the London Marathon,
in those few months coming up,
coming up to the level of when he was ready
to execute that performance, was something else.
How he approached that was very special.
Not only did he believe in himself, he had a brilliant way
of making everybody around him believe in him, too.
The impact that has on everybody else around him in a project...
Not only the other support runners and the pacemakers,
but all of the staff, the coaching staff, the experts,
everybody who was working night and day
to try and bring all this project together, that's special.
MALE TV CREW: OK, good luck, Gabs. Here we go.
FEMALE TV CREW: Cameras, keep offering what you can. Thank you.
Seven... six... five...
three... two...
one.
COMMENTATOR: Well, the waiting is over. The moment has arrived.
We are just moments away. And there he is.
You know, thousands, if not millions, of people
will be going out for a Saturday run today.
Well, this could be the most famous Saturday run the world has ever seen.
And it's all about this man, Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya.
MAN: [ON SPEAKER] The sub two -hour marathon is considered
the Everest of distance running.
Something that people, for a long time, thought was nearly impossible,
we wouldn't see in our lifetimes.
And in the last few years, it's suddenly hoved into view.
And we might see it today. It's very exciting.
[QUIET CHATTER]
[♪ "OBIERO" BY AYUB OGADA]
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
COMMENTATOR 1: We've already got crowds
who are all expectant of history being made today in Vienna.
COMMENTATOR 2: He's done everything there is to do in this sport.
This is the last barrier. The two-hour marathon.
This would be his legacy.
COMMENTATOR 1: Every i has been dotted, every t crossed.
Is he going to do it?
The weather, the fact that it's foggy, a bit foggier than expected,
throws another little doubt, maybe, into the minds.
This is not a foregone conclusion.
COMMENTATOR: So we are into the final few minutes before countdown.
- MAN: Fifteen seconds. - WOMAN: Stand by, everyone.
Stand by three, stand by five.
- MAN: Here we go. - WOMAN: Stand by ten.
RUTO: From the president to the simple Kenyan in a village,
we want to witness history being made.
And we are confident that today, God willing,
we will have a celebration
and 1:59 is going to be a reality. Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
- [STARTING PISTOL] - [CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: We have lift-off. Apollo Kipchoge is up and away.
[CHEERING]
SANG: The race, when it started, it was beautiful.
As a coach, you know, you look at the body language.
I saw the eyes of Eliud in the camera and he was very focused and relaxed.
Everybody was psyched up. The pacers were in high spirits
and I said, "It's going to be a good day."
GRACE KIPCHOGE: When he started the race, I was nervous.
But when I saw how he was running,
he was really in good shape, and the pacers were also.
LYNNE KIPCHOGE: I was nervous... exciting...
And...
I had faith that he could do it.
KERRISON: We had a starting-race plan. If everything went perfectly,
the plan was to go at the first kilometer at 2:48: 0.
And every other kilometer after that 2:50:45
which would give a finish time of 1:59:50.
MALE COMMENTATOR: The speed at which they are traveling
is quite extraordinary.
It's worth trying to put it into some sort of layman's terms.
He is going to be running, or trying to run, consistently
at 13 miles an hour.
Twenty-one kilometers an hour.
FEMALE COMMENTATOR: It's mind blowing.
I challenge people to go to their local track
and just run one lap, 400 meters of the track, in 68 seconds.
I bet you not many people can do that!
[BLEEP]
This is crazy!
MALE COMMENTATOR: We can break this down in so many ways.
One lap of the track, at your local track, 68 seconds.
And he has to do that 105 times. Each hundred meters in 17 seconds.
And he will be doing that 422 times.
[CHEERING]
BRAILSFORD: We are very familiar in cycling with the concept of aerodynamics
and riding behind another one. A teammate taking the brunt of the wind
and having to really tire themselves out
so the person behind can be fresher and then try and go for the win.
So Robby and the aerodynamics team
set about looking at the formations that were traditional in running.
And, also, throwing out some creative ideas.
They ran their CFD models, and their computer models,
and we made models, and the miniature models went in the wind tunnel.
Positioned them all, et cetera.
Lo and behold, they came back and they said,
"Actually, we found something pretty interesting."
KETCHELL: In a typical marathon, if he was to run by himself,
he would have about six Newtons of drag.
We've come up with a formation that has reduced that to about one Newton.
It's a huge improvement in the drag that he'll have when he's running.
So the pacers have a huge impact
on being able to help Eliud break two hours.
Come on, guys!
HERMENS: I was there when he did the test in the winter,
and it was fascinating to know.
We always thought pacemaking would be like the birds flying in the sky
in the open-V formation.
But it turned out not to be a V.
It turned out to be a Y.
KETCHELL: There are five runners in front of Eliud and two behind him.
The front-runners will be positioned over here on the sides
and there will be two of them.
But there will be a gap in between them which is not natural.
That's part of the reason that training them how to run like this was difficult.
Behind those two runners will be two more runners
that are positioned further in, so we're starting to create a V.
Then, behind them will be the captain who runs in front of Eliud.
BRAILSFORD: At some point, Fosbury did his flop for the first time.
And people went, "What? What's he doing?"
And yet it worked.
So we said, "Why isn't this the Fosbury flop of running?"
We were maximizing what we call the outwash around each runner.
So the outwash means that when wind hits a runner on the torso,
it changes the direction of the wind, and it's going to go out to the sides.
So, in effect, what was happening,
the air was hitting the guy that was on the outside.
Some of the air was coming outside, some was going inside.
A guy on the inside of him, on his shoulder,
was then getting the air coming from guy number one,
plus the air hitting him. So quite a lot more air, in fact.
And, of course, this is happening on two sides of the funnel, as it were.
So the air, eventually, was funneled right into the middle,
and the guy who was in the center in the middle, took a lot of air.
He was getting quite a buffeting!
And what happened was, it created a big wake.
It actually created a nice little hole where there was pretty much still air.
KETCHELL: In that wake is where Eliud needs to try to run
as close to the captain in front of him.
Typically, you wouldn't run there. Your visibility isn't the best.
You also don't want to trip.
So you don't want to step on the runner in front of you.
They'll kick back and vary a little bit.
COMMENTATOR: The absolute trust
between all eight people at any one time cannot be overstated.
Bernard Lagat there, right at the heart of it, the initial captain.
And he will be handing over shortly to the second team
and Eric Kiptanui will be the second captain.
COMMENTATOR 2: This event was always going to have a bit of ballet about it.
You needed everyone to know what they were doing, what their steps were.
We said, "OK, it's a big risk, we haven't got much time.
We'll have to practice this thing. If we go with this,
then we want to make sure, as much as we can, that it's right."
LAGAT: It is kind of tricky,
but then, as a captain, I need to keep my guys calm.
I want to make sure that they understand the formation, to stay in their lanes.
At the same time, note that they are the ones controlling the pace in the front.
SANG: The captain was the leader. He was in charge of all the pacers
to make sure they executed exactly what they were supposed to execute.
[CHEERING]
This is like the queen bee, protected by the drones and the others
and it's that beautiful thing, the exchange of the pacemakers!
COMMENTATOR: And we're keeping an eye out here
for the first change-over.
As I think Shalane was likening... Here we go!
Shalane, talk us through this.
SHALANE: Yeah, I was likening it to, in the US, a NASCAR pit stop,
where we change our tires, fine tune the machine...
Same thing goes here for Eliud.
He's switching out and getting fresh runners
that are hopefully smoothly transitioning into formation
so that Eliud can just draft, and conserve as much energy as possible.
BRAILSFORD: Those changes were not easy.
One slip, one wrong turn with a trip-up, and it could all be over.
We wanted to maintain the pace
as well as the team exiting and the team coming in.
So we want the team that is going out
to really move out smoothly and maintain the pace.
Then we also want the team going in to come in smoothly,
not distracting Eliud.
RATCLIFFE: We probably have 40 of the top athletes on the planet
and they're all working for a common cause
and one man, which is Eliud.
COMMENTATOR: The man at the heart of it,
he's already the world record-holder,
and he is surrounded by his band of brothers.
We've got 15 Kenyans, seven Americans, six Ugandans.
We've got Australians, Norwegians, Ethiopians and one Japanese pacemaker.
It really is a truly international field.
SHALENE: They all idolize and look up to Eliud.
I think they look at this as a chance to be a part of history today.
It's a beautiful opportunity to help someone
that we know can transcend our sport.
WANDERS: You know, running is the most natural sport in the world.
You grow up, you walk, you run.
I think that's why this sport is so beautiful.
You can run without shoes. You don't need anything to run.
SHALENE: From an African perspective,
right now, there are young Africans watching,
and just looking to see what human potential looks like,
waiting to be the next Kipchoge.
This is so inspiring, not only to runners all over the world,
but to everybody, that no human is limited.
You can go for your goals
if you have that energy and that strong mind
that you do whatever you want to do.
So it's not about running.
It is about inspiring the world
everybody else in the world that everything is possible.
And nothing is limited for you.
[CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: We are approaching the first of the roundabouts here.
This is the Lusthaus. This is the smaller of the two roundabouts.
In the middle of that is a former hunting lodge.
KETCHELL: The turn radius around the Lusthaus on average
is about 27.4 meters.
Originally, when we came here, the surface was pretty old.
We knew that we were going to resurface.
When you're running at 5.861 meters per second
at a 27.4-meter radius
you would, optimally, be looking for about a ten-degree banking.
In a real-world condition, we can't create a ten-degree banking,
but we can do something to improve the current situation
of there being a negative two percent of a camber going away from Eliud.
LAGAT: If you think of a track athlete who runs indoors
you run on a 200 -meter banked track.
Now, if you're going fast, if it was flat at 200 meters,
you're going to drift towards the outside.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
You're allowed to step off the lines,
but you'd want a little bit of a cushion.
- Yeah, I'm sure you saw me going... - Yeah, yeah, I was, like...
WANDERS: It's a bit dangerous when you arrive at such a turn,
when you run at a fast pace.
You might slip a little bit outside or even twist your ankle.
They have actually raised it,
so that as you're running there,
you feel like you're running an indoor track.
You're supported and you're staying balanced.
KETCHELL: It changes it from negative two percent to a positive one percent
so we get a three -percent difference.
We estimate that it can save him up to three seconds per lap.
So that's 12 seconds over the entire distance.
He won't save that time,
because he actually won't run quicker because of that
but he will conserve more energy.
That's going to allow him to run at the sub two-hour pace for longer.
COMMENTATOR: OK, you can see the recent splits there.
The 2:50 mark in green
means that he is on schedule for a sub two-hour marathon pace.
2:52 and 2:51 in the red, means he's just outside.
He's been twice on target, and twice just outside.
It just shows us, Ed, even in these early stages,
just how challenging it is.
KERRISON: So, in what we call the POC, on the day of the race,
the Performance Operations Center,
we had representatives from the aerodynamics team, the pacemakers team,
the car and the laser, the timing system, the meteorology team,
and myself in communication with Valentijn on the road.
[INDISTINCT RADIO CONVERSATION]
Any information that needed to come from any of those specialist teams
to Valentijn was done through me.
COMMENTATOR: Communication taking place
with Valentijn on the bicycle. He's giving instructions out.
BRAILSFORD: I mean, it looks like one smooth event, doesn't it?
[LAUGHS] But it's a million miles from that, you know.
KERRISON: We had some interesting situations in the race
where even the second kilometer, we thought was out.
There were some kilometers that were 2:48 and some that were 2 :52.
2:48! That's like... [SIGHS] They've gone out too fast.
TROUW ON RADIO: That's the correction from the 2km board. Over.
This is a major issue.
In our little Mission Control pod,
it might have been looking like a start to an event to everyone else.
"Oh, they're getting going, getting warmed up."
We were, like, "Whoa, OK, there's something...
What's going on?"
Tim Kerrison is sitting there with his headphones on.
And he kind of nonchalantly took one off
and put it on the side and said,
"All this timing you're seeing on the telly, and that everyone can see,
it's wrong."
[LAUGHS] I was like, "What?" He said, "Yeah, it's wrong.
They're on pace." I said, "Are you sure?"
He said, "Absolutely. I'm right.
We're going to switch to our back-up time and do it ourselves."
I was, like... [CLEARS THROAT]
"OK, everybody. Forget the timing. We're switching to back -up timing."
Two-51.
[CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: The target time holding up pretty well.
We've been hovering between eight and ten seconds
inside sub two-hour pace.
So, so far so good.
And, Ed, the next real milestone will be the ten-kilometer mark.
And sub two-hour pace would put him at, what, 28:26.
ED: Yeah, which is a pretty tidy 10K!
COMMENTATOR: Just out of picture is Valentijn Trouw the athletes' manager
handing now more drinks and more gels to Eliud if he wants them.
He does take something on board there.
KERRISON: How much he consumes is actually closely monitored
by his nutritionist who will be measuring
every time that he takes something from his water bottle and tosses it.
They will pick it up and hand it off to him
so he can weigh it and know how much he consumed.
BRAILSFORD: We had people just there to grab that bottle
before it got in the crowd.
Get the bottle, get the bottle! Right, get it in.
What's the measurement? How much did he drink?
You feed it back in. He took X amount of mls on that one.
OK, we need to change the next one.
So they were modifying the fueling strategy in-race, live.
TROUW: To keep that same rhythm for two hours...
That's a lot of things happening in your body, your muscles.
Some muscles, especially the hamstrings, will get very tight.
Because you're running in the same rhythm.
Lactic acid is building up in the muscles.
After one hour and a half, it will be very difficult for him.
Everyone was stressed not to do a mistake, not to make him fall.
That was the worst that could happen.
And when it was my turn, of course, I was stressed,
but I was so happy to be here to help Eliud.
I think I am getting the mindset of the Kenyans.
Believing that everything is possible by just training every day
for months and months, years and years.
When you go to race, you have this self-belief that you can win.
I was more keen on the body language
as the race progressed because they never fell back.
But, as far as making the right times were concerned,
they were being guided by the laser.
COMMENTATOR: Some people have criticized, or maybe had a view about,
the role of the lead car, there.
We can see perhaps that that's adding extra protection,
but, essentially, as far as the experts have explained to us,
the only reason that car is there is to project the laser pacer.
COMMENTATOR 2: If you talked to Robby Ketchell who designed the aerodynamics
he said, "If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a car."
It doesn't seem like that would be right
but all the computational flow dynamics that they have been doing
have told them that the best results would be without a car.
The car, obviously, had the laser which set the pace-line
so they knew exactly at what pace to run.
And it also had the lines to help them stay in the corridor, if you like.
KETCHELL: The reason that it's 15 meters in front of Eliud
is in order to throw the laser at a significant distance.
Plus, in order to maintain the pace precisely.
It doesn't help the runners behind Eliud
and it doesn't help Eliud's position,
but it helps those five guys directly in front of him.
COMMENTATOR: Let's just home in here on Eliud Kipchoge.
This is a great shot for us to see the cadence,
and the way the rhythm, the natural rhythm...
From memory, correct me, both of you, if I'm wrong,
but I don't think we've had a kilometer outside 2:52.
- I think that's the slowest we've had. -SHALENE: Correct.
That's incredible.
If you really think about it, that is incredible pacing!
HERMENS: Eliud has trained himself incredibly well
to keep the same rhythm for two hours.
And the rhythm of all those different athletes is like a drum
hammering on the streets.
It reminds me of that same feeling
of them running in the long runs in Kenya.
A kind of silence where you only hear the steps going on.
For me, ja, it sounds to me like music.
[RUNNING FOOTSTEPS]
REPORTER: There are people who are a little bit cynical about this
and saying "Well, it's not an official world record,
and there's so much technology, so much science, why should we care?"
COMMENTATOR: There is something artificial about this
but that's because they want to see one guy do what no one else has done before.
It would be incredibly hard to achieve this in an open race.
And so, I think there is room in the sport
for both events like this, and also, like, open races.
London Marathon is fantastic, and this is fantastic.
REPORTER: Obviously, we know technology goes into sportswear
and has done for a very long time,
but we shouldn't underestimate what's going on on his feet,
and how important they are, those trainers.
COMMENTATOR: I don't think we should kid ourselves.
I don't think it would've been possible to try to go under two hours
five or ten years ago.
The technology has developed so fast and he's in the latest innovation.
He's in shoes that no one else has ever run before.
It's a step change from where we were even two years ago.
So, we're talking about, maybe, a few seconds
which in this context is an enormous amount of help.
REPORTER: It could be vital.
REPORTER 2: World athletics are reportedly getting ready to ban
Nike's Vaporfly shoes for giving runners an unfair advantage.
REPORTER 3: The introduction of the Vaporfly to the running community
really has changed what we think of as possible.
In very simplistic terms, it's almost like a mini pogo stick.
You put the shoe on and you're immediately aware that it's different.
Nike Sports research labs are working with Kipchoge
on enhancing his shoes to break that two-hour mark.
REPORTER 4: But I guess the big question comes down to,
if you're not wearing the Nike Vaporfly, can you compete?
REPORTER 5: These shoes certainly are game-changing and transformative.
The athletes typically are sponsored, always sponsored,
by only the shoe industry.
So that industry controls the sport.
COE: Some of the biggest sponsors of our sport are the shoe companies.
We don't really want to be telling them what they can and can't do.
But there are obviously things that we would be concerned about
if that technology started to become the predominant story.
REPORTER 6: I think the research right now shows actual innovation
that blurs the line of enhancement.
REPORTER 7: It enhances performance
because it's such a technological sneaker.
REPORTER 8: The properties of the carbon fiber plate and...
COE: No society, no market economy, has ever prospered
by trying to stifle innovation.
I think, whether we like it or not,
technology comes into a lot of sports these days.
I mean, look at cycling. The advances we've made in the bicycle.
Does that take anything away from Egan Bernal
or Geraint Thomas when they win the Tour de France?
They still need to ride it.
PITSILADIS: The world of sport needs to consider
that the effects of technological doping
are vastly superior than traditional doping.
So, therefore, you and I, the public,
can no longer gauge what you're watching.
For anybody who says this isn't right, put the shoes on yourself.
Wear the same kit, get yourself down to Vienna,
get a couple of people to run in front of you, and see how fast you go.
COMMENTATOR: Well, this is the sixth of nine teams.
There are nine rotations, if you like.
And, there we are, Eric Kiptanui, who is having a busy old morning.
He's back on as the team captain.
COMMENTATOR 2: I tell you, that guy is in shape!
NJOROGE: Technology has a place, and it helps.
But, at the end, it is the human being.
And I think that's what I find really amazing with Eliud.
At the end of the day, it is him. And he knows what really drives him
and it isn't the technology that will drive him.
[CHEERING]
[BELL RINGS]
Sub two hours has everything to do with the changing of times,
changing of history, changing of sports in general.
But what remains, there is a guy a fantastic athlete, Eliud Kipchoge,
who is running 42 kilometers.
Yes, there is some science involved
but it's still a person that has to do this.
SANG: I think Eliud did not land from another planet.
We know what he has done, we know his potential.
He ran a world record in Berlin.
And I think the opinions of people should be reflected in reality
of exactly the journey he has come through.
COMMENTATOR: I think there was a slight trip.
- Was there a trip? - SHALENE: Yes.
I just saw Eliud have a little trip-up in that transition.
COMMENTATOR: 12K to go, then.
This is where the critical stage of the race starts.
We can make some comparisons with how he was going in Monza.
Actually, up to halfway, he was inside sub two-hour pace.
And at halfway exactly, he was three seconds inside
and then at 25K, he was still two seconds inside.
Even at 30K, he was only two seconds outside sub two-hour pace.
And he admitted afterwards that it was in the final 10K
when he really started to feel it.
SHALENE: Literally no human has tried to attempt this.
There's a lot of unknowns physiologically
as to what Eliud can handle.
COMMENTATOR 2: He's putting himself through something
really, really extraordinary here, and he will be emotional.
Thoughts bubble up. Thoughts you think you suppressed.
Bad demons sit on one shoulder and good angels sit on the other.
KIPCHOGE: [ECHOES] The way you think about pain,
is the way your life will be.
In this world, you need to undergo pain in order to be successful.
If you understand how marathon is,
at the apex of the pain, that's where success is.
SHALENE: In training, he has visualized these tough moments
and he's pushed through in training and said, "This is the crucial moment.
This is when you have to execute and push through the pain."
So, he has practiced this over and over.
COMMENTATOR: We've just detected the slightest smile-stroke- grimace
on the face of Eliud Kipchoge.
When the smile appears, Shalane,
that normally suggests that he's hurting.
SHALENE: Yeah, that's the classic Eliud, when he is leaning into that hurt.
It means he's working hard.
COMMENTATOR 2: He has to be thinking right now,
and I'm sure this is a version of what he's thinking,
"If not now, when?"
BRAILSFORD: He looked like he came through that moment.
In the mission control, it was, like... [EXHALES]
This is on. This is on now. This is coming!
And it was exciting, like, "Oh!"
It's just those moments, what you live for in sport!
COMMENTATOR: One and a half hours about to click round on the clock.
We have just under 30 minutes to try and get Eliud Kipchoge
into the history books, here in Vienna.
And I can't stress enough,
the crowd out on the course is absolutely phenomenal.
[CHEERING]
[CROWD BANGS FENCE RHYTHMICALLY]
SANG: He gives energy and he gets energy back.
And that is a wonderful place to be in.
[CHANTING]
WOMAN: We Kenyans are very good as a cheer squad.
It's all about the support at the back
that comes out shining to the whole world.
WOMAN: [IN GERMAN]
[CHEERING AND SINGING]
BRAILSFORD: He has trained himself incredibly well for what is going on
and what he takes in, and what he shuts down from the outside world.
COMMENTATOR: Here we go, this is team number eight.
Wow. I think we just need to take a pause, don't we, and just breathe?
COMMENTATOR 2: I feel very nervous right now.
Because anyone who has ever run a marathon
will know that the last few miles,
anything can happen, and the wheels can come off.
He looks really good. You're just hoping that he's got this.
[CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: Here are the final team of pacemakers, team number nine.
They will take them home from 38 kilometers right through to the finish.
And the captain, of course, he was the captain in the first team.
It's Bernard Lagat.
There he is, itching to go, Bernard Lagat.
And how fitting that the 44 -year-old, the oldest pacemaker in the team,
the most experienced and a dear, dear friend of Eliud,
should be the captain on the final leg.
We're on the verge of history here, folks.
KERRISON: We don't know what the limits of human performance are.
There are people who think they do know
and remarkable humans, and teams of humans,
keep proving them wrong.
BRAILSFORD: Our own individual performances
are nearly always linked to a collective performance somewhere.
And I think for all of us, in all walks of life, in fact,
we're stronger together.
FROOME: It goes so much further than running. So much further than sport.
It goes to show
that the preconceived limits that everyone has on everything in life,
can be challenged. It's incredible.
GRACE KIPCHOGE: That line, "No human is limited,"
I would impart it on any girl.
That no matter your gender, no matter where you're born from,
you are not limited.
You are supposed to actualize your dreams and your passion.
LYNNE KIPCHOGE: It means that you should always work hard,
no matter what.
Not listening to negativity, but listening to positive minds.
NDUHIU: In most circumstances, you and me limit ourselves.
It is not other people who limit us. It is us who limit ourselves.
And I do believe the moment we get over that hurdle,
then you have the whole world outside there open for you to conquer.
SANG: I think the concept is spreading in all sectors of our society.
It is a momentum that is, to me, positive.
You meet teachers from different schools that, when preparing students,
they are quoting the "No human is limited" story.
And we can see lives being changed.
[CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: I don't know about you guys, but my heart,
I can feel it pounding in my shirt this morning.
[CHEERING]
It's 500 meters to go, he is almost there.
He has one hand on history here in Vienna.
BRAILSFORD: There was an agreement, that if he felt good,
he was gonna tell Valentijn and the other guys would peel off.
And, sure enough, Valentijn gets the nod and they pulled off. Oh!
What a wonderful moment!
What an absolutely brilliant moment.
COMMENTATOR: Three hundred meters to go, let's bring him home.
He's pointing. "Come on!" he says.
Eliud Kipchoge has the hand of history on his shoulder.
Neil Armstrong we had on the moon in 1969.
We had Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile 65 years ago.
Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Everest, in 1953.
Eliud Kipchoge is on his way here.
[CHEERING]
BRAILSFORD: It's overwhelming, you know? It's a big deal.
People talk about these things, they look at it.
"A guy ran a marathon."
He's the first bloke ever, ever in the human race,
in human history, to do that.
And you think, "Oh, God."
And in a crazy little way you've supported that, you know?
And it means a lot. It means a lot to a lot of people.
It means a lot to me.
[♪ "OBIERO" BY AYUB OGADA]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]