Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
VIENNA — On Saturday morning in Vienna, on a course specially chosen for speed, in an athletic spectacle of historic proportions, Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ran 26.2 miles in a once-inconceivable time of 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.
In becoming the first person to cover the marathon distance in less than two hours, Kipchoge, 34, achieved a sports milestone granted almost mythical status in the running world, breaking through a temporal barrier that many would have deemed untouchable only a few years ago.
Still, the eye-popping time will not be officially recognized as a world record because it was not run under open marathon conditions and because it featured a dense rotation of Olympic pacesetters.