How Did Hydration Help A Runner Beat The Two-Hour Barrier?

One of the keys to improving performance is hydration, and ensuring that you not only drink enough water but rehydrate with the electrolytes and minerals you need to boost performance is vital to success.

There is no greater example of this than in marathon running, where effective use of hydration before a race and during frequent visits to water stations is vital to even complete the race, let alone be competitive.

One of the biggest reasons why the 1904 Olympic Marathon had such slow finishing times and became so infamous was because the race and its runners were unwitting test subjects for an experiment into purposeful dehydration.

By contrast, the current world record, held by the late Kelvin Kiptum, was 88 minutes faster, and the fastest marathon distance ever run was nearly a minute faster than this.

The latter race, run by Eliud Kipchoge, is not only an incredible achievement but it provides an illustrative list of everything that can help a marathon runner perform at their absolute peak, and help perhaps the greatest long-distance runner of all time break a record previously thought impossible.

The Two-Hour Barrier

In the 2010s, as the marathon world record started to creep closer to the two-hour mark, there was increasing interest in the potential that at some point in the future a marathon could be run in under two hours, with a fervour perhaps not seen since the four-minute mile.

When this interest began, the record had just crept under two hours, four minutes, as the world record slowly moved closer to what was believed to be close to the theoretical fastest possible time.

This not only helped to inspire marathon runners to push themselves further but also for large organisations to set up dedicated special events to determine the times the fastest runners could reach with every possible advantage.

Instead of losing precious seconds moving to a water station, constant hydration could be provided by a trainer on a bicycle in the exact form and way that Mr Kipchoge needed to perform at his absolute best.

Rather than run on a road course with all of the variances in elevation and conditions that could be caused by this, the runners would make their attempts on a suitably level course in a suitable time zone, temperature and level of humidity.

Instead of typically running in clean air with all of the wind resistance and environmental factors that came with it, the runners would be aided by a constant cycle of pacemakers in a closed event. The shoes would be custom-made for the event and provide added support and bounce.

All of these aspects would disqualify a time from being an official world record, but as the fascination with breaking the two-hour mark intensified, major sports sponsors started to organise and fund projects designed to make it possible.

Breaking2 And the 1:59 Challenge

The first dedicated attempt to run a marathon in optimal conditions was Breaking2, an event sponsored by Nike that took place at the Monza Formula One race circuit in northern Italy.

The conditions were almost perfect, the strategy was almost perfect and the results were just 25 seconds off of perfection.

The problem, which ultimately scuppered the event, was that on 6th May 2017, the day of the attempt, the weather had a light drizzle perfect for marathon running, but the temperature was 12 degrees Celsius, a few degrees higher than optimal.

According to a 2007 study, temperatures over 10 degrees Celsius could cost a runner up to two minutes, and whilst Mr Kipchoge remained on pace for the first 25km, he slipped a second per lap off of the pace at 30km and just missed the two-hour barrier.

However, the time he set was an unofficial world record by over two minutes and highlighted just how close the barrier was to being broken.

Mr Kipchoge would have another chance in 2019 after breaking the official world record at the Berlin Marathon.

The course was even further north, at the Vienna Prater in Austria, which was a perfect time zone match for Mr Kipchoge, provided a lot of natural shade and cover to block him from wind resistance, and also allowed for hydration to be provided at all times by a trainer on a bicycle.

 

The temperature started at an optimal nine degrees Celsius, although it did increase to 12 degrees by the end of the attempt.

It also became a public event, which gave Mr Kipchoge a psychological boost.

All of these factors led to a finishing time of 1:59.40.2, currently the fastest ever time a person has run a marathon and proof that no limit is unbreakable with the right strategy, training and self-belief.