Sub-Two Stupidity

IN THE CURRENT QUEST FOR THE ELUSIVE SUB-TWO-HOUR MARATHON, TIM HUTCHINGS ASKS IF THERE’S ANOTHER ROCKET MAN OUT THERE?

- Tim Hutchings

THE BIG autumn marathon season is already underway and after yet another failed attempt to get any closer to the two-hour barrier in Berlin on September 24 (the weather was bad, blah, blah, blah – there’s always a reason) and the world’s fastest race “failing to deliver”, it seems to me that there’s something almost desperate about the whole “sub-two” chase that has been grabbing headlines over this last two or three years.

I’m one of those who believes that no human being as we know the species, under the rules that currently apply, will break two hours for the full marathon distance. It’s not going to happen. And if I hear one more person say, “That’s what they said about the sub-four-minute mile, you know!” then I’ll be done for GBH sooner than I become a truly angry old man.

The irony, of course, of this whole soulless chase for a distant science-fictional barrier, briefly rolled into one weekend of a media frenzy at Italy’s Monza motor-racing circuit last May, is that the world record has been moving on very nicely in recent years, when just racing and winning were the priorities, qualities we can all identify with and admire.

Don’t get me wrong, I generally like Nike as a brand. Why? Well, for a start, they virtually underwrite our sport (a minor point!) and have clad thousands of legendary athletes over the years who have, in part thanks to the Nike-dollars funding their lifestyles, entertained us royally again and again, which in turn has kept athletics a very popular sport, on TV and elsewhere. Our very own Messrs Coe, Cram and Ovett were all Nike athletes, not forgetting a certain Paula Radcliffe too.