The marathon is a long-distance race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy.
Marathon running requires a large variety of skills and determination, not everyone can finish running such a long distance without years of serious training. Let’s take a look at the top 10 greatest marathon runners (men and woman) in the world of all time…
1 Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)
Eliud Kipchoge was born on November 5th, 1984. He is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and the 5000 metres events. He won the Olympic marathon in 2016 and is the current marathon world record holder with a time of 2:01:39 hours. Kipchoge’s world record run at the 2018 Berlin Marathon broke the previous world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds. This has been the greatest improvement in a marathon world record time since 1967, which earns him the credit for being one of the best marathon runners in the world.
