Haile Gebrselassie Is a Bad Man…
Haile Gebrselassie is incredible. This morning in Berlin he flat out crushed the marathon world record, becoming the first person to run a sub 2:04 marathon!
Haile Gebrselassie smashed his marathon world record by 27 seconds Sunday, winning the Berlin Marathon in a city where he has had so much success.
The 35-year-old Ethiopian took advantage of excellent conditions on a flat course to finish in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 59 seconds. Despite an ailing calf he shattered the mark he set in Berlin last year and became the first man to win this race three times.
While Berlin is a really fast course, it’s unbelievable to run that fast.
Berlin’s course often provides fast times. Five years ago, Paul Tergat of Kenya ran 2:04:55, becoming the first runner to go under 2:05.
Gebrselassie skipped the Olympic marathon in Beijing because of the horrible air quality. Many questioned his decision to not run the Olympics, but he said he wanted to put his health first. And after today I don’t think anyone can blame him. Sub 2:04, is almost unfathomable to me. My best is 2:58, so I am a good 54 minutes behind him, almost enough for him to run another 13 miles.
To put it into a little perspective, a 2:03:59 is roughly 4:43 pace, for 26.2 miles. My mile PR is 4:47. So even in mile 26 of a marathon and 4 second head start, I still couldn’t beat him in that mile.
Amazing.
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Are you going to include a world tour for Marathon Me?
Simply incredible! I posted a link to a video of his world record finish at EnduranceSportsBar.com
Not impressed. Phone me when he breaks 2 hours.
We are talking about a half marathon, right?
He could probably do a half in 2 hours running backwards