When Eliud Kipchoge stepped off last summer’s Olympic marathon course with a sore back, the greatest of all time was declared yesterday’s man. But five years on from his most recent appearance at the London Marathon, Kipchoge, 40, will return in April preparing to win again.
He says his Paris nightmare, a first failure to finish over 26.2 miles, was simply a bad day out rather than a sign of terminal decline. And he bristles at the mention of retirement, declaring in typical philosophical style that he will only stop "when the world becomes a running world.”.
Kipchoge admits “a lot was running through my mind” after Paris and it felt “demoralising” to not finish an event he won in Rio and Tokyo. But he went home, entered zen mode and realised: “You need to wake up, go again and push on every day.”.
So he is building up to London with the tunnel vision that has brought world records, medals at four Olympics and 11 major marathon wins throughout more than two decades at the top. “I still think I can compete,” he insists. He is knuckling down to his familiar schedule - 130-mile weeks across 13 sessions, only Sunday afternoons off - and that workload certainly jars with the idea of a man considering retirement.
“I’m training like 10 years ago,” he says. “It still pushes me to the next level, to the finishing line. “I don’t see any meaning in changing the training. I’m still following the programme, training as usual and I’m happy for it.”. Kipchoge will also happily share some wisdom with triathlon champion Alex Yee before the race.
