Records tumble and questions rumble

Something is in the air as seven men break distance running world records in just over a week. What's going on?

Jacob Kiplimo on his way to a half-marathon WR in Barcelona

Over 10 million people have run a parkrun. Of course, most of those are amateur runners of varying speeds, but often elite runners will join in their local parkrun for a fast Saturday morning blast. Most of us have probably all seen someone run one in 15 minutes, or maybe even 14 minutes, and it’s crazy how far ahead they are, and how fast they seem. But the fastest parkrun ever was by Irish international Nick Griggs, who ran the Belfast park run in 13mins 44sec.

At the weekend, Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda broke the half marathon world record by running 56:42. I know these numbers can be hard to fathom, hence my attempt to put it into the context of parkruns, as most people I know have run a 5km at some point and so have some frame of reference for times over that distance.

So, in parkruns, Kiplimo’s record is the equivalent of FOUR parkruns back to back, without any rest in between, each one in 13mins 26secs!! And then, just to top it off, he carries on for another kilometre at the same pace.

If you work in miles, that’s 4:19 mins/mile pace. Or 2:41 mins/km pace. Whichever way you spin it, it’s mind boggling, and probably the most impressive men’s road running performance since Kelvin Kiptum was re-writing what was possible in the marathon a few years ago.