'I had to listen to the song yesterday because.

He joked about turning to his favorite song, Kelly Clarkson's 'Stronger' as a way to bounce back quickly from any post-race blues. Given the benefit of a 24-hour buffer after his finish, Kipchoge seemed unflappable once more. 'I can just say actually, it was not my day.'

'I couldn't push like I'm used to,' Kipchoge said. Fellow Kenyan Evans Chebet won Monday for the second consecutive year, and Kipchoge finished sixth with a time of 2:09:23 - his slowest marathon time ever. Hilly terrain and cold, damp weather combined with what he deemed a left leg problem ultimately derailed Kipchoge's bid for a win in his fifth different World Marathon Major race. For now, his focus is on recovery and spending time with family, but ultimately it will turn to returning to the winner's circle as soon as possible. The experience of coming off a marathon with anything other than a win is somewhat alien for Kipchoge, yet allowing the emotion of such a result to linger for long is even more of a rarity. But we slept, we woke up and we live to fight another day.' 'Life has ups and downs all the time, so what I meant was that yesterday was a challenge where I couldn't push like I'm used to. 'Running has a lot of challenges, and you know the marathon is like life,' Kipchoge told ESPN the day after his first Boston Marathon. Still, the result was a reminder that important challenges lie ahead as he continues building a marathon career already considered one of the best of all time. It is precisely why his sixth-place finish at Monday's Boston Marathon was, for all intents and purposes, so unexpected for the 38-year-old Kipchoge, who has won four of the sport's six World Marathon Majors.

As if those accomplishments weren't impressive enough, he's also lost just three times in that span. The long-distance runner from Kenya has set the marathon world record twice, won Olympic gold twice, and in 2019 he became the only person in history to record the race's 26.2 miles in under two hours, albeit during an experimental run that did not come during an open competition.

Over the last decade, Eliud Kipchoge has won 15 marathons. 'Marathon is like life': How record-holder Eliud Kipchoge keeps Boston setback in mind amid historic run You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser

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