Weather

6
min OCT 2019

Ensuring that Eliud Kipchoge’s marathon attempt takes place in the best possible weather conditions has been one of the most challenging parts of the whole endeavour.

AVERAGE METEOROLOGICAL DATA, VIENNA, OCTOBER

MIN. TEMP: 6.4°

MAX. TEMP: 14.3°

AVERAGE HUMIDITY: 79%

AVERAGE WIND: 9.1KM/H

PRECIPITATION: 0.33MM

TO run a fast marathon, the weather has got to be right.

Humidity, rain, wind speed and direction can all hinder performance.

But temperature is perhaps the most important.

“In long distance running events the ability of bodies to maintain or regulate heat is what ultimately determines how long athletes can last at a given intensity, along with their internal energy state and their fitness,” said Performance Team Manager Peter Vint.

The heat – especially when it is also humid – makes it harder to sweat so an athlete struggles to stay cool.

If it rains, clothing and trainers become heavier.

And anyone, who enjoys running, knows how hard it is to run when it’s windy.

Ensuring that Eliud Kipchoge’s marathon attempt takes place in the best possible weather conditions has been one of the most challenging parts of the whole endeavour.

The weather team have worked from three different forecasts, each relevant at different times.

The first was used to decide when Eliud should travel to Vienna.

The second was studied to pick the day for the event which would also determine when Eliud entered his final tapering phase.

And the final decision was to identify the precise two-hour window for optimal conditions on the day.

Robby Ketchell was the man in the hot seat — a spot he’d been in before when he worked on Eliud’s previous attempt to run a marathon in under two hours.

Robby’s first job was to find a venue that would provide — amongst other things — the best chance of getting the right weather.

The initial search stretched back 15 years and was set on a grid of 100km.

“We wrote a bespoke tool that went out and searched the weather data from stations all around the world,” he said.

Vienna was eventually chosen as the venue for the challenge because it offered the best chance of getting the right environmental conditions — along with other parameters like time zone and altitude.

But the biggest factor in its favour was that the course was tree-lined, which would help to protect Eliud from the wind.

That said, Robby’s team still wanted to discover what Eliud was likely to face in the race.

“Some of the weather stations we were using through the local Met office, are located in the hills, so we didn’t have an accurate indication of what the free flow was right above the course,” he said.

To provide that information, the team mounted reference station about three metres above the trees so the two could be compared.

They also mounted wind sensors just below the treeline and above the centre of the road – and ran tests with sensors on tripods at head height.

All of the equipment had to be built, shipped to Vienna and installed by the team.

Fortunately, Robby has not been handling all the heat on his own.

He has support from Walter Zwieflhofer, a former ECMWF Director of Operations and a meteorologist with the INEOS TEAM UK sailing team.

IT is human nature to push boundaries. To continue to learn, develop and achieve more. But it’s also human nature to put limits on yourself – and others. It is that attitude, that state of mind, which Eliud hopes to change by breaking through the two-hour barrier. His legacy may be one for the history books, but this is his chance to inspire people to do great things, even beyond sport, to challenge themselves in a way they may never have dared. “Any human being can go beyond their limits,” he said. “Any human being can go beyond their thoughts. But self-belief is crucial.” “I totally believe in myself and believe in my teammates and my training.” It is this philosophy that is shared by INEOS and an exceptional group of men and women involved in sport, which has inspired the launch of No Human is Limited. Named after Eliud’s personal mantra, the campaign aims to encourage people from across the world to embrace this philosophy and believe that no one is limited in their lives. The campaign is supported by a team of high-profile ambassadors including four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome. “To see Eliud break the two-hour record would show that limits can be defied and actually that limits should never be set in sport,” he said. “Who sets the limits anyway?”

3 min read

Ambassadors

ELIUD KIPCHOGE Any human being can go beyond their limits. No human being should be limited in their thoughts, in what he or she should be doing. Self-belief is crucial. CHRIS FROOME I don’t like to think in terms of limits. HERMANN MAIER It should never enter your head that something is impossible but tell yourself that it is possible instead. SIR BEN AINSLIE I think in terms of what your aspirations are, what your goals are, there really shouldn’t be any limits. ABDI NAGEEYE Why would you put a limit on yourself when you don’t even know what your limit is? ELAINE WYLLIE It’s our job to make children feel unlimited, to feel that they can do whatever they want to do, and achieve what they want to achieve. PATRICK VIEIRA You have to go beyond the limit - there should be no limits. There are no limits to what is possible.

1 min read

The Daily Mile Foundation

THIS will not be the end of the road for Eliud Kipchoge. Far from it. As a global ambassador for The Daily Mile, he plans to continue spreading the word about the importance of running – and inspire children around the world to be more active. “A running world is a peaceful world and a happy world,” he said. Earlier this year, the Kenyan father-of-three visited a school in Britain to run The Daily Mile with the children. It is a simple initiative which involves every child going outside for just 15 minutes to run or jog, at their own pace, with their classmates. Afterwards, the children asked Eliud about footwear, nutrition, sleep, his passion for running – and why he could run so fast. The Daily Mile was founded in 2012 by Scottish headteacher Elaine Wyllie, who was worried about her unfit pupils. Today about 1.8 million children from more than 8,600 schools in 65 countries now regularly run or walk for 15 minutes every day. A number of research studies have shown that children, who do The Daily Mile, are fitter, leaner, healthier and happier and more eager to learn when they return to their desks. It comes as no surprise to Eliud – and that’s why he is keen to use the legacy from the INEOS 1:59 Challenge to encourage every child around the world to think about their health and wellbeing – and start running. The Daily Mile Foundation is backed by INEOS.

2 min read