The Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge runs the fastest marathon in history at the Monza racetrack

Eliud Kipchoge, the 32-year-old Kenyan Olympic marathon champion, ran the fastest marathon in history at the Monza racetrack, culminating in a non-recordable time of 2:00:25 in the challenge designed by Nike to break the two-hour barrier in the 42.195-meter race.

The frenetic pace declined in the last ten kilometers and Kipchoge could not break the two-hour mark, which was the goal of the Breaking2 project, but he smashed the previous best time, the 2:03:02 of his compatriot Geoffrey Mutai, which was also not ratified due to the slightly downhill course of Boston.

Originally from the Rift Valley Province, Kipchoge, who at the age of 18 in 2003 defeated two greats, Hicham El Guerruj and Kenenisa Bekele, in the final of the 5,000 meters at the Paris World Championships, showed that the two-hour barrier is just around the corner.

To break it, 2 minutes and 57 seconds had to be cut from Kimetto's world record, and for this Nike invented a laboratory race with the help of rotating pacemakers who took turns in the race, so the time could not be ratified.

Article 144 of the IAAF regulations stipulates: "The following examples shall be deemed to be assistance, and therefore not permitted: (a) setting the pace in races by persons not participating in the same race, by lapped athletes or athletes about to be lapped, or by any kind of technical device (other than those authorized under Article 144.4(d))."

To break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, it was necessary to beat Kimetto's world record by 2.5 percent (2:02:57), and for this three contenders were selected, the minimum required by the regulations in a race: the Olympic champion, Eliud Kipchoge, the Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa, a two-time winner in Boston, and the Eritrean Zersenay Tadese, the world record holder in the half marathon.

But the key was in the pacemakers, a selection of 30 top-level athletes, such as the 42-year-old American Bernard Lagat, or the Africans Selemon Brega, 17, Stephen Sambu, Sam Chelanga, Andrew Bumbalough, or Chris Derrick.

The entire team had landed on May 1 in Milan and worked daily at the Monza racetrack, whose circuit, 2,405 meters long, the three selected athletes had to complete 17.5 laps to cover the 42.195 of the marathon, helped by a permanent group of six pacemakers. After the first lap and a half, the pacemakers were replaced in groups of three.

At 5:45 am, still in the dark in Monza, the race started. The nine runners - six of them acting as pacemakers - started the challenge with a temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, 69 percent humidity, and a north wind blowing at 6 km per hour. On the track, a laser beam marked a space of six meters in the shape of a truncated pyramid, to which the runners had to adjust, in rhythm and placement, so that the three main actors could take advantage of the benefits of an arrowhead formation.

Kipchoge's exact split for the 5th km was 14:14. The pacemakers followed the laser mark without any problems. By the 10th km, daylight had already broken, and the Olympic champion, wearing a red shirt in contrast to the white shirts of the other two, passed in 28:21 (for an estimated final time of 1:59:35)

Contrary to another IAAF rule, the athletes received liquid refreshment from two motorized bikes that traveled alongside them. Ahead of everyone, the lead Tesla car maintained a constant pace to achieve the two-hour mark. The instruction, therefore, was simple: follow that car.

The pacemakers only exchanged positions in the designated area, in a pure Formula 1 style.

At the 15th km, Kipchoge passed in 42:34 (for a final time of 1:59:48), at the 20th km - already alone with the pacemakers - he passed in 56:49, and covered the half marathon in 59:57. Tadese holds the world record at 58:23. The race was entering unexplored territory at those speeds.

The adventure lasted 51 minutes for Desisa, who fell behind at the 18th km. At the 20th, just before the first hour was up, Tadese also fell behind, but they continued in the race, with three pacemakers at their service. Ahead, Kipchoge continued without problems, following his praetorian guard of six, showing no signs of fatigue on his relaxed face.

The pace continued below the two-hour mark at the 25th km: 1:11:03, 15 seconds faster than the unofficial world record. At the 30th km, after a slower split, the clock marked 1:25:20, on track for a precise two-hour mark.

With 10 km to go, at a pace never sustained by anyone before, Kipchoge passed Desisa, but he began to struggle to keep up with the pacemakers, who had to adapt to his strength, abandoning the laser mark.

35th km: 1:39:37. The goal of breaking the two-hour mark was 6 seconds out of reach. The lead pacemaker glanced back frequently to avoid getting too far ahead, while the car whose position tirelessly marked the limits of the challenge gradually moved away.

Kipchoge suffered while keeping up with the brutal pace. He needed six seconds more than in the previous lap, and with only one lap to go (2.4 km), the pace indicated a final time of 2:00:19. He passed the 40th km in 1:54:04. From there to the finish line, 2,195 meters of agony, even though he often smiled, in front of a crowd that began to fill the stands of the circuit.

The pacemakers withdrew with 300 meters to go, leaving all the spotlight to the great hero, who stopped the finish line clock at 2:00:25 and immediately apologized for not achieving the challenge. He had run the first half in 59:57 and the second half in 60:28, at an incredible pace of 2:50 per kilometer.

Tadese finished in 2:06:48, and Desisa reached the finish line 14 minutes after the winner.

The world record still belongs to the Kenyan Dennis Kipruto Kimetto, who on September 28, 2014, won in Berlin in a time of 2:02:57, but Kipchoge, second in the official all-time rankings with 2:03:05, pushed the limits of human performance in the longest race on the Olympic program, fueling the debate about how long it will take for the two-hour barrier to fall.