Eliud Kipchoge’s record breaking race in Berlin was decades in the making. This wasn’t a flash in the pan or a fortunate race in the right conditions, rather it was the fulfilment of a lifelong commitment to the marathon, executed flawlessly. To best understand the 33-year old’s 78-second revision of countryman Denis Kimetto’s 2014 2:02:57 world record run, it is vital to first understand Kipchoge as an athlete.

Following Kipchoge’s 2016 London Marathon victory, Oxford University extended an invitation to Kipchoge, inviting him to speak on his career, training philosophies, and experimental performance at Monza race track during Nike’s ‘Breaking2’ project at the prestigious Oxford Union.

Oxford Union’s halls have previously played host to the likes of the Dalai Lama and Albert Einstein. The magnitude of the occasion was not lost on Kipchoge, who provided an articulate, purposeful speech. Kipchoge described the mind as the most important tool in racing, highlighting the role his self-belief played in attempting to break 2 hours for the marathon.

In Kipchoge’s most telling moment of his talk at Oxford Union, he paused to paraphrase author Stephen Covey, “Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your emotions and your passions. That’s a fact.”, repeating the phrase for emphasis.