Early last month, 23-year-old Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum ran to a new world marathon record: in what was only his third marathon, he clocked 2:00:35 in Chicago. Just some week later, Kiptum announced that he will race the Rotterdam Marathon next year and that he will try to set a new world record once again. Main goal: finish sub2 and be the first runner ever to break the two hour barrier in a ‘regular’ marathon. You can help Kiptum with this, because he is in search for pacers.
As a pacer, you must have the ability to run 2:51 per kilometer for long periods of time. With that comes the biggest problem for Kiptum: finding pacers who are fast enough – and can last long enough – to head toward a finishing time of preferably under two hours. In Chicago, Kiptum ran an average of 2:51 per kilometer and that will be the target time in Rotterdam – April 14, 2024.
Kiptum is extremely talented. He ran three marathons and won them all: in addition to Chicago, where he recorded the world record last month, he also won in Valencia (2022) and London (2023).
