A battery of coaches, scientists, athletes and other technical persons have descended on Vienna this weekend for a test run ahead of Eliud Kipchoge’s bid to complete the marathon in under two hours in the Austrian capital next month.
On Saturday, Kenya’s former junior distance running world champion Augustine Choge led a retinue of pacemakers for a dress rehearsal at The Prater (Vienna’s historic park) around where the October 12 attempt will be run.
Dubbed “INEOS 1:59 Challenge,” Kipchoge’s attempt must ensure everything is perfect, from the weather, to athletes’ running shoes, water stations and pacemaker changeovers to diet.
After yesterday’s warm-ups and briefing, the main dry run will be done Sunday.
“This is basically a test event, where we had a 4am start and everything looks pretty smooth,” Dutchman Jos Hermens, director of Kipchoge’s management company, Global Sports Communications, told Nation Sport exclusively from Vienna on telephone.
Next month’s race against the clock is programmed to start at Vienna’s famous imperial bridge — the Reichsbrücke — on October 12, with October 13 to 20 set aside as reserve days should the elements dictate so.
Some 1.2 kilometres from the start, Kipchoge and co. will enter The Prater to begin four laps on the 9.6 kilometre circuit in the Vienna park.