Dennis Kimetto Dennis Kimetto, world record holder for the marathon and first person to run the marathon under 2:03 with a time of 2:02:57, is one of the most successful runners with the shortest running history.
Dennis Kimetto was born in Kenya near the town of Kapngetuny in 1984. For most of his life, he was working as a subsistence farmer. It’s not hard to imagine that, living in the remote country of Kenya, money was a luxury, so when the 2000 Olympics came around, Kimetto had to go elsewhere to watch them. Kimetto said that the “memory of Haile versus Tergat in the 10,000m inspired him (qtd. in “Marathon World-Record Holder.”) From that point on, Kimetto started to run while simultaneously working on his family’s farm. In 2008, Kimetto decided that he wanted to run like the people he saw in the Olympics. He began to run more and more, and on one fateful day, he had a chance encounter with Geoffrey Mutai and his group, whose running camp was near Kimetto’s village.
Mutai offered to let Kimetto run with them that day, and when he saw the potential that Kimetto had, he offered to let him join full time. Kimetto proved to be a good investment when he won many races within Kenya including the highly regarded Nairobi Half Marathon in 2011 with an impressive time of 1:01:30.
The race that really showed his gift for running was in 2012 at the Ras Al Khaimah Half- Marathon in the United Arab Emirates. At that race, Kimetto faced very tough competition including the world record holder Wilson Kipsang. Nobody (except himself) would have expected Kimetto to win the race with a time of 1:00:40.
Kimetto’s next checkpoint in his career was a mere six weeks after his win in the UAE. Kimetto went to Berlin to do the half-marathon and broke one hour for the first time.
Dennis Kimetto ran his first marathon in 2012 in Berlin. Kimetto happily holds the record for having the fastest first marathon ever. In his first full marathon, Kimetto ran a very impressive time of 2:04:16.He may have even won the race had Geoffrey Mutai not had a half- step lead. Kimetto then went on to win in both Tokyo and Chicago, setting course records on both. Some people say that Kimetto might have let Mutai win that race (“Dennis Kimetto”).
At this point, people are saying that Dennis Kimetto is doing absolutely phenomenal for how long he has been running. Compared to other runners who have been doing this for ten to twelve years, Kimetto’s three years of running seems like nothing, yet he has become one of the fastest runners in the world. What Kimetto does next surprises thousands of fans around the globe.
In 2014, Kimetto entered into the Boston Marathon. That alone is no big deal. Kimetto is a very fast individual, so this should be an easy race for him. Many spectators thought that Dennis Kimetto was going to get another win for himself, but it was not meant to be. When the race started, Kimetto was looking great. He running with the lead group and was running an even, steady pace. Even at the halfway point of the race, Kimetto was doing fine. But when Kimetto crossed the 35 kilometer mark, he stopped. This was the first time in a while that Kimetto had to stop in the middle of a run. Not only did he stop, but he had to drop out of the race entirely. The 2014 Boston Marathon was Kimetto’s first bad experience (“Dennis Kimetto”). Later, it was found out that Kimetto had experienced a hamstring injury. While this injury put him out of the Boston Marathon, it would not put him out of running for long. Only five months later, Kimetto was ready for his biggest moment of all time, his breaking of the marathon world record at the Berlin Marathon.
Kimetto had a good feeling about this race. After his minor hamstring injury, he was ready to get back into training for Berlin. There couldn’t have been a better day to run than on September 28th. The weather was absolutely perfect – clear skies and a cool 46 degrees Fahrenheit along with the naturally flat course provided very good conditions to break a world record (Chappell). Before this day, the world record was held by Wilson Kipsang (another Kenyan runner) with a time of 2:03:23. In fact, he won this record at the 2013 Berlin Marathon, just a year before Kimetto. Does this mean that Berlin has some special trait, seeing that it has been the course with the most world records?
Dennis Kimetto said that he “felt good from the start” (Chappell). Kimetto was definitely trying hard for this win. The three main competitors in this race were Dennis Kimetto, Emmanuel Mutai, and Geoffrey Kamworor – another runner from Kenya. While Mutai did go on and win a world record for the 30 kilometer with a time of 1:27:37, Kimetto passed him at about the 39 kilometer mark. Kimetto then went on to cross the finish line in 2:02:57, making him the first person to ever run a marathon in under 2:03 and the next world record holder. Not only was Kimetto overly-excited about his record-breaking run, his wife was as well. When Caroline Kimetto heard that her husband had broken the world record, she actually fainted (Lagat and Makori).
Even though Kimetto is now the fastest marathoner in the world, he is still not satisfied. He actually said that he is planning on trying to break it again next year (Chappell). Will he actually be able to do it? If he continues to run like he has been, then he certainly has a shot.