I tried to predict when the 2 hour marathon will be broken using a machine learning model… Part 2
In my previous article I sought on the journey to predict when the 2 hr marathon would be broken. What I had forgot to mention that it was already broken by Eluid Kipchoge unofficially on October 12th, 2019 in Vienna Austria. Since this was a sponsored event and not an official race that could be ratified by the IAAF or legal governing bodies of athletics, it does not count in the record books but it does prove that this 2 hr barrier can be broken. Lets take a quick look at this historical performance:
Looking at those splits back in 2019, Kipchoge was able to average 2:50 min/km or 4:33 min/mile. Also, you can’t help but notice that Kipchoge did run a slightly faster second half (10 seconds) meaning he negative split the challenge. This challenge had organized pacers, nutrition, course organization and plenty of other advantages that most record eligible races do not offer. Although record breaking, these advantages are not allowed in the official history books.
