Eliud Kipchoge Holds the World Record. But He Won’t Set a New Record in the 2023 Boston Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest runner ever to enter the 127-year-old Boston Marathon. When he stands on the start line in Hopkinton, Mass., on Monday, April 17, he will bring with him an unmatched resume. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliud_Kipchoge" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Kipchoge</a> has won the last two Olympic Marathons — in Rio and in Tokyo. But he doesn’t just win races; he runs fast as well. In a 2019 “exhibition” marathon in Vienna, he completed a flat, accurately measured course in an almost-unthinkable 1:59:40. He also holds the official world record in the marathon — the 2:01:09 he ran in Berlin last September. Here’s an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sloyYrCNEps&t=73s" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">8-minute video</a> on Kipchoge’s preparations for Boston. However, Kipchoge won’t be setting a new world record in Boston, his first appearance in a U.S. road race. The infamously challenging Boston Marathon course is considered not “record eligible” by <a href="https://worldathletics.org/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">World Athletics</a>, which controls road racing and track in field in the Olympics and other major competitions around the globe. There are two main reasons why Boston isn’t a record course. First, it drops 452 feet from start to finish. Record-eligible marathons can drop only 131 feet (or 1 meter/km for the 42.2 km race distance). Second, the start and finish in Boston are 23.8 miles apart as the crow flies. The WA rules allow a start-finish gap no greater than 13.1 miles. That’s because, on point-to-point courses, runners could be pushed along by a strong tailwind that provides an unfair boost. <a href="https://medium.com/runners-life/eliud-kipchoge-holds-the-world-record-but-he-wont-set-a-new-record-in-the-2023-boston-marathon-8b38a006a4e">Website</a>