Eliud Kipchoge has revealed his next marathon. On Thursday, the two-time Olympic gold medalist announced that he will line up at the Berlin Marathon on September 24.
“I must return to my special place,” he said on Instagram.
Kipchoge has run the Berlin Marathon five times, including four wins, but he’s most known for setting the world record there twice. In 2018, he ran 2:01:39 to smash Dennis Kimetto’s record, and last year, Kipchoge lowered his own world record to 2:01:09.
Berlin has been a hotbed for world records, partially thanks to its flat course and allowance of pacers. Since 2003, the men’s marathon world record has been broken eight times. All eight occurrences have been in Berlin. (No one has set the women’s world record at Berlin since Naoko Takahashi in 2001.)
Kipchoge’s announcement comes on the heels of a disappointing performance at the Boston Marathon in April, where he faded from the lead pack to finish sixth. The 38-year-old has stated that he wants to win all six World Marathon Majors—Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, and New York—and he only has Boston and New York left to win. Kipchoge has never run New York, but it’s clear now that the dream will be on hold another year as New York (November 5), like Berlin, is a fall marathon.
In an Instagram post, Kipchoge said that running Berlin is a part of his long-term plan to gear up for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“On my road to the Paris Olympic Games, I [would] like to go back to [the] Berlin Marathon, since to me this is the perfect preparation,” he said. “I have great memories there and I look forward to run the streets of Berlin again, together with the thousands of runners that will join.”
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
