A barrier broken, and it's attempts.

In the wee hours of this morning, Eliud Kipchoge finished something that was 65 years in the making. The last time someone made this kind of breakthrough in athletics was when Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mark for the mile in 1954. 

1:59:40.2

HISTORY! pic.twitter.com/qjLfofhL5s

— Eliud Kipchoge (@EliudKipchoge) October 12, 2019

Kipchoge had come close to this before. Well, close being a relative term. Back in 2017, he was a part of Nike's Breaking2 attempt, alongside Lelisa Desisa, Zersenay Tadese, and an army of pacers. While they didn't break the 2-hour mark, Kipchoge came the closest, in 2:00:25. Last year, he set the official world record at the Berlin Marathon in 2:01:39, shattering the previous record by over a minute, in an event where record progress usually followed a :30 second step each time.

But there was something special about this morning's event. Not just that it was the first time someone has run the marathon distance in under 2:00:00, more about the event itself. 

When Nike went for it a few years ago, the whole event seemed, well, sterile. It was on a closed racing circuit, early morning, with the only spectators being the event staff and pacers who weren't currently running. I remember coming out of it both excited and disappointed: excited that 1:59.xx was within reach, but the event seemed to be hyping more the shoes and other tech the athletes were wearing, instead of the runners themselves. 

When I woke up this morning, I had a message from a friend of mine that was sent at 4-something in the morning. I knew exactly what it meant, and went back to watch the last 10k of the replay online. Nothing about Ineos (the event sponsor, though I'm not sure if there was anything about them earlier on), about the gear the pacers or Kipchoge were wearing, and very little about how the event was planned or about the circuit. 

It was all about the runners. 

And it felt genuine. There were thousands of people lining the course, camera cutaways to fans on bikes trying their best to keep up with the blistering pace, and commentary that felt more like actual race announcing than data analysis, everything finally came together. The commentators noted how Kipchoge feeds on crowd energy, something that looking back very well seems to have been a factor in his Breaking2 attempt. After he finished, after marathon-sprinting another 3-400 meters in excitement, he found his wife and kids, the first time they had seen him 'race,' they weren't even there for his first attempt.

In his post-event interviews, Kipchoge said very little, a softspoken man of few words in his own right, but what he did say can be used for inspiration around the world:

I am the first man to run under two hours. I want that to inspire many people, to tell people that no human is limited, you can do it.