London Marathon Elite Race: 

There is always a lot of excitement around London Marathon but this year it seems to have been raised another notch. London Marathon is consistently the years best Marathon race with the top athletes from the famous Kenyan training camps, Ethiopian highlands and elsewhere converging to do battle on the streets of the UK capital.  Last year however, it just felt feeling as though something was missing. That something, was Eliud Kipchoge.

In 2017, Eliud chased the unthinkable… At a special event planned meticulously by his sponsors Nike and dubbed ‘#Breaking2’,  Kipchoge chased down the 2 Hour Marathon barrier. He got mightily close, crossing the finish line just 25 seconds shy of 2hours exactly. Whilst there were numerous factors ensuring that performance wasn’t record eligible, it was in any case, a remarkable demonstration of distance running prowess and proved, if it were still needed, that Eliud Kipchoge is the worlds number 1 marathon runner.

Fast forward to April 2018 and Eliud has since added the Berlin Marathon crown to his illustrious trophy cabinet and is back in London and looking to make it another win and possibly a world record. 

The excitement amongst the running community is palpable and not without justification; The elite fields put together by the London Marathon organisation are quite staggering. Kipchoge won’t have it all his own way. There is the man who pushed him so close in Berlin, Guye Adola; Kenenisa Bekele, the man many say is the greatest distance runner of all time; Britain’s home hero Mo Farah; Defending Champion Daniel Wanjiru and Double World Champion Abel Kirui amongst others! 

If you’ve followed us on instagram  you will have seen that we have been having a bit of fun trying to put our favourites and predictions together, but with fields this deep it is beyond difficult to predict the outcome.

In putting together our top 6 rated men, we didn’t even include the 2015 World and 2016 New York Champion (Ghirmay Ghebreslassie) and a man who has run one of the fastest half marathons of all time with a 58:42 clocking in the very build up to this race (Bedan Karoki). On top of those 8 you still have the reigning champions from  Frankfurt and  Amsterdam two of Autumn 2017’s premier marathons to add in. 

Under normal circumstances, winning in Frankfurt (Tola Shura Kitata) or Amsterdam (Lawrence Cherono) means you enter spring road race season as a real favourite in whichever marathon you go to. Not so if that marathon is London.

We asked some of our team to put forward their top 3 predictions and this is what they said:

Gavin Smith

Mens:

1. Eliud Kipchoge
2. Lawrence Cherono
3. Daniel Wanjiru

Womens:

1. Mary Keitany
2. Tirunesh Dibaba
3. Rose Chelimo

Myles Edwards

Mens:

1. Eliud Kipchoge
2. Daniel Wanjiru
3. Guye Adola

Womens:

1. Mary Keitany
2. Tirunesh Dibaba
3. Gladys Cherono

Check our instagram to see the full predictions and comments from our team

A lot of different names but what is obvious is that Eliud Kipchoge is the big favourite on the men’s side and Mary Keitany on the women’s.

We spent the afternoon with Mary during The Kenya Experience camp in Iten in March and she was quietly confident of a good performance here in London. Mary isn’t one to talk herself up, so if she is quietly confident you can be sure that training has gone well.

It would be foolish to overlook Tirunesh Dibaba who finished less than a minute behind Mary’s record breaking 2017 race despite obvious stomach pain in the latter stages of the race.

Our head coach Timo Limo has been working with Mary in the gym and is the regular conditioning and rehab coach for current mens world record holder Dennis Kimetto. He is better placed than most to comment on the preparations of the elite runners having worked and run together in their high altitude training camps and this is what he said:

“Having worked with both the current and former world record holders for Marathon, and witnessing what Eliud is doing in his preparation, I can’t see any other person ready to conquer the world than Eliud”

We have seen Mary Keitany’s preparation first hand in The Home of Champions, and it is clear to all in and around the running community in Iten that she is ready to roll but as with Eliud she faces very stiff competition.

One man who is not being mentioned in the media and is well worth keeping an eye on is Lawrence Cherono. Cherono has notched up 8 podium finishes in his 9 career marathons and although his win in Amsterdam last October was a step up in class for him, we fancy that he might continue his habit of finishing amongst the medals.

All there is to do now is sit back and wait for what promises to be a fantastic event. Let’s see which of our team gets closest to the final results…

Thanks

Gavin & The Kenya Experience Team