Dennis Kimetto, photo by Justin Lagat for RunBlogRun
Justin Lagat finished this interview with Dennis Kimetto just after his last workout before leaving for the Berlin Marathon. From his interview, Justin Lagat believes that Dennis Kimetto is focused on one goal: a WR at the Berlin Marathon.
Dennis Kimetto says world record will fall in Berlin, by Justin Lagat
He has already made his intention known that he is going for the world marathon record this weekend, on the 28th of September. But, what are the chances that the record will fall?
With less than 5 days before the Berlin Marathon, RunBlogRun caught up with Dennis Kimetto in Kapng’etuny, Kenya as he finalized on his training before heading out to Berlin. He is a man of few words, but the few words, supported by hard facts, made me wonder whether the world marathon record is not as good as broken, and with the points deduced from the interview below, I am certain that your guess will be as good as mine as to what will likely happen this Sunday on the streets of Berlin after you finish reading it.
First of all, the weather predicted for this Sunday in Berlin will be more favorable than last year’s when Wilson Kipsang broke the record given that the predicted wind speed will be a force of 2 on the Beaufort scale while it was 5 when Kipsang ran, although the temperature will be slightly warmer.
Kimetto himself says that Berlin course is faster than Chicago where he ran 2:03.45 last year, which was 22 seconds shy of the world record. “Berlin is a flat course and the weather is more favorable than for Chicago,” he said.
Secondly, Kimetto now feels more prepared than when he ran his PB, the third fastest time in history, last year. His answer, when I asked him whether his shape now felt like when he ran in Chicago, caught me unawares. “No. My shape is not like when I ran at the Chicago Marathon last year; I am in a much better shape now!” was the surprising response.
Thirdly, he now understands the Berlin course better. It will be his second time running on the course, the first time being when he was debuting to marathon when he had run shoulder to shoulder with Geoffrey Mutai for the better part of the race before being edged by one second to take second position at the finish line. He said that from that first race, he realized some mistakes he made which prevented him from running a better time. He has now run three other marathons that have also helped him learn more lessons about running well in marathon.
Fourthly, no one informed him that he was running within the world record pace during the Chicago Marathon, nor were they given time-splits after every 5 kilometers. “If the sponsors of the Chicago marathon had informed me that I was running inside the world record, I would have pushed harder and I may have broken the record at that time,” he said. As they will be running in Berlin this weekend, they will be shown the time splits.
Fifthly, Kimetto is one special athlete full of surprises. He debuted to the marathon in a time of 2:04.16, and people still complained that he didn’t run his best because he wanted to let his training partner win the race? He came seemingly from nowhere to run a world record time in the 25km? He definitely is capable of running another surprising time. Every marathon fan wanted to watch him run this year in the spring season, but a hamstring injury forced him to drop out of Boston Marathon, he has now recovered well from the injury and is out to silence his critics.
Sixthly, he is now purposely going for the world record and has come out clear on it and has made plans on how to go for it.
“If the pace makers will do their job well and the weather will be fine, then I don’t see why the world record will not be broken. Besides that, there will be strong competitors in the race. They will include Emmanuel Mutai, Geoffrey Kamworor and Tsegaye Kabede and I believe they will help in pushing the pace latter in the race after the pace makers have done their part,” said Kimetto. “We have not yet met to discuss the right pace to use, but I believe we shall all meet before the race and agree on crossing the half point in preferably 61:40,” he added.
With the recent interview I had with Geoffrey Kamworor who is also focused on winning the Berlin Marathon, everything is shaping up for a gr
eat show and it will be a pity to miss this race.
eat show and it will be a pity to miss this race.
Personally, I can’t wait for it.
