Half Marathon World Record Broken in Boise
Records were broken all over the globe last weekend: in Vienna, in Chicago and right here in the Treasure Valley.
I'll admit that I'm a huge nerd when it comes to the world of professional running so when I woke up to the news that someone had broken the two hour barrier in the marathon last Saturday morning, my mind was blown. Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge broke the seemingly unattainable time at the INEOS 1:59 challenge by soaring over the finish line in 1:59:40. The time won't be recognized as a world record because it wasn't ran in open marathon conditions and he was flanked by a cluster of professional pace makers over the course of the 26.2 miles, but it's no doubt impressive! If you do the math, Kipchoge ran an average of 4:34 per mile.
The very next day, Brigid Kosgei, also of Kenya, broke the women's marathon world record in Chicago running 2:14:04, 81 seconds faster than the previous record. Her average pace per mile was 5:06.
But those two barriers weren't the only ones broken on an exciting weekend in running. During Sunday's City of Tree's Half Marathon, Boise's David Rush set another Guinness World Record! Rush skipped through the entire 13.1 mile course, finishing in 2:13:42.8, shattering the previous record by nearly 13 minutes!
Our station was set-up at the aid station near mile 10. As he passed, Rush let us known that as much fun as it looked like he was having, he was in a great deal of pain. He developed blood blisters all over the ball of his feet by mile three. It's a pain he was familiar with from his training runs, but the after photos were pretty gnarly.
This world record is one of over 100 that Rush has set while promoting the importance of STEM education for today's children. You can learn more about his other world records by clicking HERE. If you watch Rush's recap of the race, you'll see quite a few of our friends including Shu's Idaho Running Company superstar Tasha Reed, City of Trees Racing Association volunteer extraordinaire Andrew Strommen and one of our stations 2017 Win Cash winners, Chris Broders, who acted as the 2:15 pacer for the half marathon.