Throwback Thursday: Kipchoge will be world’s greatest, predicted London marathon former race director

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In November 2017 Eliud Kipchoge spoke to students at the Oxford Union, the famous debate society at Oxford University, about his track and field career, his marathon career, the quest to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, and the eight factors that create success in any profession, self-discipline being at the top of the heap. He talked about being open to accepting challenges, and how he trained for seven months for the Breaking2 experiment in Italy, where he ran 2:00:25, likening this quest to the quest for a four-minute mile, which people assumed was impossible–until Roger Bannister did it, right there in Oxford.

RELATED: Kipchoge’s world-record-setting Berlin marathon deconstructed

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Kipchoge’s speaking style is humble and deliberate. He admits to being nervous. He’s inspiring, but his speech is not unusual.

Kipchoge was followed by David Bedford, the former race director of the Virgin Money London Marathon who stepped down in May, just after this year’s race (which Kipchoge won for the third time). 

It was Bedford who brought the house down with his story (which is well known, but still funniest coming from the horse’s mouth) of how he ran the first London marathon, in 1981, after a night of drinking, on a bet. How the first half went fine, but the previous night’s indulgence came back to haunt him in the second half, he ended up being sick into a drain, and the last three miles took him 45 minutes. And how he eventually became the elite co-ordinator and race director. 

It’s been a few days but I will read anything about Eliud Kipchoge. https://t.co/jhhLENq0nx

— Chris Chavez (@ChrisChavez) September 19, 2018

Bedford also says this, about Kipchoge: “It’s a privilege to know Eliud. And I am pretty certain–he’s not quite there at the moment, but I think another couple of races, and we will be talking about the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen.”