INEOS Challenge: Kipchoge to race against the clock as date is set

Eliud Kipchoge’s historic attempt to make history and become the first person ever to run a marathon in under two hours will take place on Saturday 12th October in Vienna, Austria.

The final unanswered question, the start time for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, will be decided the afternoon before on Friday 11th October by the INEOS 1:59 Performance and Meteorology teams. The start window on Saturday 12th October is currently scheduled for 5AM-9AM.

Robby Ketchell, who is leading the weather analysis for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge Performance Team, said: “We have looked at the weather patterns for Vienna coming through and the current conditions are looking to be optimal for temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation for this Saturday morning.

“We are currently looking at less than 2 m/s wind speed on the start location on the bridge and a temperature of between 5-9 degrees Celcius from 5AM-8AM on Saturday. After 8AM the temperature is looking like it will rise slightly, and humidity will drop slightly. For the Challenge we need a 24-hour window of no rain to keep all the surfaces dry and that is currently looking to be the case for Saturday too.

“Weather analysis, as one part of the Challenge we cannot control, has been the subject of much hard work from the team over the past few months and with the best knowledge we have right now Saturday 12th October is looking to be the best conditions we could have hoped for.”

Now that the date is set the three-day countdown starts, and Kipchoge will switch his nutrition and begin carb-loading.

Kipchoge arrived in Vienna on 8th October, having flown from his training camp in Kaptagat in Kenya and has been acclimatising to Vienna and training on the course for the first time.

Patrick Sang, Eliud Kipchoge’s coach, flew in with Kipchoge from Kaptagat, Kenya. He added:“When we landed in Vienna, Eliud turned to me and said, “I am ready”. His preparation and training for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Kaptagat, Kenya over the coming months has gone very well and we are both extremely excited for this Challenge.

“One element that is very important for Eliud is the crowd. So please, come and support Eliud on 12th October and cheer him on to help him make history”.

Courtesy-INEOS