Goosebumps | Thijs van Dam
Thijs Van Dam: Eliud Kipchoge; no human is limited
Years of training, suffering, pushing boundaries, injuries, letting things go and always with full focus on that one moment with the ultimate result. Every athlete hopes that they will get into a flow in which everything works out, the right choices are made intuitively that turn out to be decisive for the win. The goal for which everything had to give way. In the still early existence of STOX Energy Socks, there have not yet been any global goosebumps moments with a STOX Energy Socks on, but that will hopefully change in 2021. We asked our STOX ambassadors about their favorite sports moment that gives them goosebumps when they see it again and asked them to explain the moment from their perspective. And they succeeded, every time goosebumps…
On Saturday, October 12, 2019, I sat behind the live stream with my father to watch Eliud Kipchoge's record attempt. I have been following athletics since my childhood. I even participated in running competitions in addition to my hockey until about the age of 16. And I still like to run.
Everyone has been talking about it for years. Can a human run the marathon under 2 hours? The world record is 2.01;39 during an official marathon run by Eliud Kipchoge. Previous attempts failed beautifully. The scientist Michael Joyner once calculated that the ideal body could run a time of 1.57;58. In this record attempt, nothing was left to chance to run a few seconds under 2 hours. Really everything has been thought of. An optimal training schedule has been drawn up.
Eliud ran between 200 and 230 km a week in the weeks leading up to this historic day. Hi, so that's 5 marathons a week. So guess he was fit. In addition, Nike has taken on the challenge of developing the ultimate running shoe with minimal energy loss. To limit drag for Kipchoge, a formation of top athletes runs around him in optimal form to keep him out of the wind. The shape has been extensively tested in a wind tunnel. For these pace makers, who incidentally alternate and alternate to keep up with the pace, a car drives at exactly the right pace. A plane is created on the road for the pace makers by means of a laser so that they know how fast they have to run.
Below are a few bizarre numbers from Eliud during this marathon:
His times on the 5 km 14 minutes 24 seconds. My best time ever on the 5 km is 16:50. So that is 1 minute and 26 seconds slower, but it's bizarre to realize that I'm done after that and he keeps this pace 5 x and therefore also in his last 5 km of the marathon. And then he comes out with a time of 1.59;40. This is so fast, I can't believe it. Watch how he covers the last few hundred meters, with such ease and with just a little acceleration. If you look at him you get the idea that he could go on for a while. This moment is an absolute goosebumps moment for me because it is so supernaturally fast.
