A week after writing about how Tigest Assefa slaughtered the women’s marathon record by almost three minutes, I’m back because another barely-known marathoner obliterated a once-considered unbeatable world record.

This time, on the men’s side. At this past Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Kelvin Kiptum, from the gun, wasted no time and separated himself from the field immediately. After his designated pacers stepped off after the halfway mark, the 24-year-old Kenyan charged by his lonesome through the windy city. When he took the final left turn, the clock had just hit the two-hour mark, and everyone knew they were watching history.

Pointing to the crowd and celebrating the entire last 200 meters, Kiptum crossed the line as the clock struck 2:00:35. This time preposterously dusts the previous world record of 2:01:09, set by the greatest marathon runner in history, Eliud Kipchoge, in Berlin last year.   

With contemporary shoe technology, distance records are falling like flies. However, this record has some serious weight to it. Kipchoge, the former record holder, is in the conversation of the best distance runner ever. Known for his efficient mechanics and ungodly talent, no one thought his record would be touched for years.

So how did this young Kenyan, that hardly everyone knew about taking down a Kipchoge record? It starts with Kiptum’s absurd training. Despite being so young relative to most professional marathoners, Kiptum has a preposterously high training volume of up to 180 miles per week. That is almost a marathon a day on average (25.7 miles a day, to be exact) throughout the entire season. In addition, Kiptum sported the latest version of Nike’s unreleased Alphafly 3 racing flat, which is rumored to be the fastest running shoe to come to market.

Also, Kiptum was not without some luck from Mother Nature. On race day, flags were hardly moving in the windy city of Chicago. The lack of wind combined with a temperature of just under 50 and overcast clouds made for almost perfect marathon weather to run very fast times.   

With the upcoming season being an Olympic year, marathoners will be training harder than ever to secure their spots in Paris this summer.

Better yet, the upcoming battle between Kipchoge and Kiptum will be one of the most anticipated matchups in marathon history. Kipchoge has been the Olympic Gold Medalist in the marathon at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, being the undisputed favorite and winning with relative ease both times. No runner has ever won three Olympic Gold Medals in the marathon, and Kipchoge is looking to become the first to do so.

In 2024, however, Kiptum will be there to give Kipchoge the most formidable challenge he has ever faced in his career.