A Year Later: Kelvin Kiptum's World Record At Chicago Marathon
A Year Later: Kelvin Kiptum's World Record At Chicago Marathon
A year later, the late Kelvin Kiptum’s world record run remains as jaw-dropping as it was at the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
For a moment, a wave of shock seemed to roll through the media center in downtown Chicago last October as reporters watched a 23-year-old accomplish something that no one had ever before.
Members of the press watched on TV screens as a young Kenyan, Kelvin Kiptum, waved and pointed at the crowd near Grant Park, the finish line of the 2023 Chicago Marathon just meters away.
It wasn’t just a win that he was celebrating.
Kiptum crossed the finish line in 2:00:35 as not only the men’s Chicago Marathon champion, but the new world record holder at the distance, beating the incredible 2:01:09 mark set by compatriot Eliud Kipchoge just over a year prior in Berlin.
No man had ever run under 2:01 in a race eligible for records before.
It took all of two seconds from when Kiptum crossed the finish line for race director Carey Pinkowski to envelope him in a huge embrace, with Kiptum quite literally jumping into his arms.
Kiptum slipped through Pinkowski's arms and to the ground, buried by emotion and surely exhaustion. The media room began to buzz as each reporter began to clatter for stats. 1:00:48 for the first half. 59:47 for the final 13.1 miles. And the negative splits didn’t even tell the full story – Kiptum dropped nearly the entire field by the 10k mark, and designated pacer Ronald Kirui labored to even make it to the halfway point.
It was an incredulous performance in one of sport’s most unforgiving events.
So when Kiptum was asked afterward at the post-race press conference whether he had ever felt pain in a marathon before – including his two previous impressive efforts at the distance in Valencia (2:01:53) and London (2:01:25) – his answer may have been more difficult to comprehend than his near-sub-two-hour clocking.
“I haven’t,” Kiptum said.
I’ll always remember the stoic look on Kiptum’s face as he sat there in a chair on the stage in the Hilton ballroom, as if becoming the first man to dip under 2:01 in a race-eligible marathon was a walk in the park.
And a year later, Kiptum’s world record run remains as jaw-dropping as it was on that October day when he crossed the finish line in the Windy City. In 2024, no man has come close to that 2:00:35 mark, let alone broken 2:02.
But I’ll also always remember the cold that came on that February Sunday.
People gathered around televisions watching the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers on Super Bowl Sunday in early February. But I was at the Armory in New York following the Millrose Games, and I was packing up my belongings when in an instant the news began circulating.
It almost seemed too heartbreaking to be true.
On February 11, Kiptum died in a car crash in Kenya, along with his coach Gervais Hakizimana. According to reports from authorities, Kiptum lost control of his car and it veered off the road near the town Kaptagat, crashing into a ditch and then hitting a tree. An additional passenger in the car, Sharon Kosgei, suffered injuries.
Nearly as quickly as Kelvin Kiptum burst onto the scene, he was gone.
Thousands attended Kiptum’s funeral in Chepkorio, Kenya on February 23, including family, friends, Kenyan President William Ruto and even World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
People called him the next great hope to chase after the two-hour barrier. Others didn’t think it was a matter of if Kiptum would go sub-two, but when. Surely some had the Rotterdam Marathon in April circled on their calendars, as Kiptum was slated to chase after history again in the Netherlands earlier this year.
That’s all considering that most of the running world hardly even had a chance to get to know Kelvin Kiptum. Kiptum competed in three marathons, and his career was certainly in its infancy even though it included a world record run and the fastest-ever marathon debut (2:01:53 in Valencia).
And, perhaps selfishly, I think the running community had hoped he would evolve into the next marathon legend.
None of that will ever come to fruition.
But Kiptum was more than a runner. He was a father, a husband. A young person with plenty ahead of him.
That sturdy confidence Kiptum wore on his face at the Chicago Marathon press conference said it all to me – he was one that wouldn’t let anything break him. Kiptum said it himself, he didn’t feel pain racing his world record.
This Sunday, runners will make their way through the streets of Chicago, a year removed from that historic run. I’d like to think that the memory of 2023’s race won’t be forgotten by those who watched it, and even those who simply read about it in the news or heard about it after the fact.
Because despite running Chicago one lone time, racing only three marathons in his career, never getting to chase for more, Kelvin Kiptum is unforgettable.
Hopefully people experience the same joy as they make the turn into Grant Park. Hopefully people take on the grueling distance with unrelenting confidence. Hopefully they too will cross the finish line on Sunday with triumph.
And just maybe they’ll do so while feeling no pain.
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