Having broken the world record in the marathon a couple times over the past few years, you had to expect that Haile Gebrselassie was going to be doing something special again in the next few. Who could have expected, though, that after breaking 2 hours and 4 minutes just last September that he would be able to take a whopping 1 minutes and 22 seconds off of the record to run a 2:02:37?!?!
That just boggles my mind.
He ran that amazing time through the Sahara in Morocco, taking advantage of the new marathon option in the Marathon Des Sables ultra-endurance run, which has traditionally been a 6 day, 151 mile race from late March through early April.
“We decided to add a marathon option this year in an effort to increase exposure for the race and to raise more money for Facing Africa, an attempt at elminating NOMA from our lands. NOMA is a vicious and deadly gangrene that eats away the flesh around the mouth and face of children aged mainly up to 6 years and that has a 70-90% mortality rate. Getting Haile here in our first year was a great boon, and we are so proud of his performance on our course,” said Patrick Bauer, the founder and race director of the Marathon Des Sables.
His amazing performance this morning in Morocco more than makes up for slipping back and “only” running 2:05:29 in Dubai 3 months ago.
I can’t think of a better way to start April, although I have to wonder…is sub-2 hours possible? If so, is Gebreselassie going to be the one that breaks that arbitrary but nearly insurmountable time? To do so, he’d need to cut 6 seconds off of his per mile pace to a blazing 4:35/mile pace.
I’d think it was impossible if he hadn’t already shown he could run a 4:41/mile pace. What do you think?
Update: I’m heading for bed, so I’m laying this story to to bed as well. Yes, MdS is 151 miles & not 26.2, yes, it is April 1st, and no, Gebrsellassie was not there. But I did get a lot of good emails, both from folks that didn’t notice the tongue-in-cheekness and from those that did. Hope you all had as much fun as I did.
Amazing and thrilling!
How much did Gebrselassie weigh before the start of the Marathon Des Sables?
Given that it’s April 1st, I have to wonder whether this is an April Fools joke. It’s fascinating to me that this story is right at the edge of believability.
April fools joke?
I was just talking about this to someone the other day…. wondering if someone will ever break that 2 hour mark. We keep getting closer. Absolutely unbelievable!
I can’t work out if this is one of the most impressive athletic performances in history or a cunning April Fools story from Blaine.
What say you? 🙂
--Steve
hoax stories like this, with no obvious sting in the tail, reduce a website’s credibility rather than enhance its reputation.
You may just be on the ball, Steve. Check out the date. I know Haile is brilliant, but breaking his own world record on sand??
For those just joining, I’ve unmoderated the comments of those asking if it was an april fool’s day joke.
And for those that didn’t notice the comment about a great way to start March, yes, this was a bit of April Fool’s Day.
I’m not really sure what an “obvious sting in the tail” is supposed to be, but apparently the fact that the race actually being 151 miles and not 26.2 wasn’t obvious enough, nor the comment about it beginning the beginning of April.
Thanks for playing along! I got a lot of emails about this. 😀
🙂 -- I debated before posting whether or not I would look foolish… but I went ahead and opted to look foolish 🙂
It was a good time to be had by all, Tim. 😀
Well, you got me on this one. I just read it and got excited. Did not even think to look anywhere else.
That was fun.
He’ll do it 🙂