Yves Boisvert in Boston | How are you doing, Eliud?

(Boston) Eliud, man, how are you doing?

Journalists ask him in all sorts of ways. The other runners ask each other. Same sound coach the question arises.

Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest of all time, finally comes to try his hand at the most prestigious marathon course in the world. On Monday, he will be the favorite to win in Boston. He has already said that he wants to break the record for this brutal historic course (2 h 03 min 2 s, set in 2011 with a strong tailwind).

He will be the favorite despite his 38 years and his 20-year career. In 2020, he had already beaten everyone and broken all records, when he flinched at the London Marathon, finishing 8^e. At 35, it was perhaps an honorable end to a career…

But no.

He ran faster than ever last September in Berlin, leaving everyone else in the fog, like at the Tokyo Olympics, like all the time.

What’s the trick to staying ahead?

“When I decided to make a career as a runner, I tried to include it in the values ​​of work, discipline, concentration. I tried to be a real professional. I can’t be here forever. But I try every minute to show the world that longevity is necessary in sport. Longevity is what the sport needs. This is what will inspire the next generation.

“We are no longer the next generation. I am old. Now I work for the next generation. »

He might work for her, but at 38 he’s consistently kicking her ass, the next generation.

With a smile, always. So much so that I was surprised that he had to be asked to smile for the photographers. He may be at 40^e kilometer of a marathon, he smiles.

Don’t trust it.

“Smiling is what allows my mind to forget the pain. When you run, smile, and enjoy the run! “, he explained to us.

The runner-king is also known for his humanist aphorisms. As a runner friend says, he talks “like a fortune cookie”.

“Life is pushing, pushing, pushing. We have no limits. That’s why we sleep and work. There’s no comfort zone in life, so that’s why you have to push. Let’s push, push every day, and we’ll love to run. »

He talks about “humanity’s spiritual connection” through running.

His track record is so insane, it’s worth recapping bits and pieces.

Let’s start at the end. He was 37 years old at his last competition, at the Berlin Marathon, in September 2022. He beat his own record, set at the same place four years earlier, by 30 seconds. It now stands at 2:01:9. Only two others ran under 2:02: his old Ethiopian rival Kenenisa Bekele (2:01:41) and a 23-year-old Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum (2:01:53 in Valencia last December) .

What set him apart in the public eye was becoming the first man to run the marathon under two hours (1:59:41) in Vienna in 2019, after missing it by 25 seconds in 2017. The performance is not official, as it was conducted under controlled conditions outside of a competition. The event nevertheless left its mark on athletics and reminded Jim Hines of under 10 seconds in the 100 meters in 1968, or under 4 minutes per mile by Roger Bannister in 1954. It also marked the world. of marketing, ushering in the era of carbon plate shoes and ultralight foam launched by Nike. Still, he is still the only one to have visited these chronometric lands unknown to mortals.

Of course, new shoe technology boosts performance, so to speak. But they are accessible to all his pursuers.

As for the real dope, no suspicion has crossed his mind in more than 20 years of career – started on the world stage with gold in the 5000m at the World Championship.

The other amazing thing, and maybe more than all those times and her two Olympic gold medals, is her consistency. Since his marathon debut 10 years ago, he has won 15 of his 17 races. In a discipline subject to so many hazards, with only two competitions per year, it’s unheard of.

I ask his trainer Patrick Sang what sets him apart from the others. “I don’t know… It doesn’t happen often to train an athlete like him. It’s a privilege, really. ” He thinks. “He believes in himself, that’s for sure. But he also has a lot of respect for the sport, and everything that makes it possible. »

Did he do anything special for the Boston hill course?

“You know, in Kenya, there is only that, coasts”, says the coach.

Kipchoge, on the other hand, says: “I have been preparing for five months. I’ve dedicated my seconds, my minutes, my days, my weeks and my months to it, and that’s what will push me to the finish line. »

It doesn’t reveal anything, but it says everything about the intensity of his concentration.

The athletes who have approached him revere the absolute seriousness of his commitment.

In the conference room where everyone has only Kipchoge, his formidable pursuers are a little neglected by the journalists. Yet here is the winner of Boston last year, Evans Chebet, who has already run 2 h 03 min. That of 2021, Benson Kipruto. And the Tanzanian Gabriel Jay (2 h 03 min too).

Chebet and Kipruto, two Kenyans aged 34 and 32, still train together. They also run together, as a team. Until one of them says: OK, I can’t take it anymore, go on without me. Like last year, when Chebet finished first and Kipruto third. Monday, they will stick together (and teeth) to beat their idol.

“Also, he likes the humble life. I copy it into my life. I want to be like him,” Kipruto tells me.

“Of course I’ll follow him, otherwise it’s not a race,” said Jay. We don’t know how it ends, I don’t know how he trains, and he doesn’t know how I train. »

Meb Keflezeghi is the last American to have won the men’s race, in 2014. He had made the promise on the day of the attack, in 2013.

“Eliud is a planet apart, in addition to being a wonderful human being. He does everything right, all the time. Training, massage, ice baths, nutrition. And the best part is that he takes people with him. He forms a team. This explains his athletic longevity. »

“My goal is to win, but if I can set the course record, I’ll appreciate it,” concludes Kipchoge. You have to give yourself challenges, that’s life, there are bumps along the way, but you get through it. What if the weather isn’t nice? That’s why it’s called a sport. One of the challenges is the weather, it’s nature.

“Sport is about accepting the results. It’s the only way to enjoy sport. Monday for what I get I will say hallelujah and hope people will see the effort I put into it. »

Must say that he had results easier to “accept” than everyone else.

We also have to bet that he won’t be the only one to say “hallelujah” when he arrives on Monday.