Mondo Knows Facts

Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in under two hours

His 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019 was not an official record, because of how it was staged

On 12 October 2019, Eliud Kipchoge covered the marathon distance in 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds in the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna. It did not count as a record because pacemakers rotated in and out and a car set the pace. It still showed that two hours was reachable.

Eliud Kipchoge at the 2012 World Half Marathon Championships in Kavarna, Bulgaria
Bob Ramsak ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

World Athletics

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: marathon, running, vienna

Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in under two hours: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
His 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019 was not an official record, because of how it was staged. The figure is taken from World Athletics, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a sports fact?
Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.