Feel a bit bad for Yomif Kejelcha who also broke the 2-hour mark, with this being his first competition marathon, but managed to neither break a record nor win.

But he has the best average time of any competitor in the history of the event! ;)

3rd place runner also set a new world record, but just didn't break the 2-hour barrier.

While I know competitors want to always strive to be the best, as a completely normal human who struggles to complete a half marathon under two hours, I do not feel bad for the guy. He’s still one of the only two people to do it (outside of the very controlled run from Kipchoge). Not a feat to feel bad about at all.

The majority of people in the world cannot complete a half marathon, let alone under two hours. I was pleased to train enough that I managed under three. You're doing great!

A majority of people won't run 1 km without needing a rest afterwards.

There were recent tests (in France I think) in schools where 50% or something could not run 1 km (sorry I don't have the details on mobile). These are children who have infinity energy (source: parent).

A typical adult won't make it to 1km (source: going back to sport and dying on a 2.5 km run)

> A typical adult won't make it to 1km (source: going back to sport and dying on a 2.5 km run)

I'm... dubious of this. At 39 I started running, for the first time in my life, ran 5km, didn't actually die, and went from there. I'd think most adults could manage 1km, anyway.

This really depends on people and your surroundings (I mean the kind of environment you live in, including the country)

I used to play volleyball a lot at the university, and then at a business league (we were horrendous, but anyway :)). Then I travelled a lot and let myself go.

So I started to commute to the office by bike, about 15 km each way, 5 days a week for two years. I had a puncture and decided to run the remaining distance (about 2 km) because I was late. After 500 m my lungs were on fire.

55 now, I restarted this year sport to do the smallest existing triathlon. I was already biking a bit and "just" have to do the swimming and running. I am at my 10th or so run of 2.5 km (I try to do it 2 times a week) and I am dying several times on the way. The fact I make it back home is religiously miraculous.

I am not an athlete, far from this. I am not the extreme obese either. I am somewhere in between, like are most of the people I know (of different ages). I do not see them running 1 km strong (let's say right above trotting)

Ah - and I did the whole battery of medical tests to make sure that I will not literally die when training. I am in a very good shape, heart wise.

Sub 3 is incredible, congrats!

half marathon is ~20 KM its pretty sad that a large percentage of people cant do that. One can simply walk that much distance wihtout any prior training.

I am sure the poster meant running. Of course people can walk. That's not much of an achievement, unless you're geriatric.

You can walk it in under 4 hours. I can do it, but I can't run that much, my calves are just not trained for aerobic workloads. I don't run normally, I walk or cycle, but do not run.

There is the silver medal syndrome.

I'll admit I'm not familiar with running, but in other sports it's not uncommon for amazing early career athletes to hold back a little bit on their first attempts.

It's easier to draw attention (and therefore sponsorships) if you leave some room to improve on successive attempts. It's riskier to give everything up front and then risk plateauing or regressing in your subsequent attempts.

While that seems like a bummer, as long as he doesn't quit he'll have many more chances to set the record himself.