美国国家公共电台 NPR--Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge hopes to be first to ever run a marathon in under 2 hours

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge hopes to be first to ever run a marathon in under 2 hours

Transcript¹

One runner in next week's Boston Marathon has run some of the fastest races ever - and Eliud Kipchoge is angling to do something never done before: run a competitive marathon in under two hours. He's already done it in a special event.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Some of the best marathoners in the world will be in Boston next week for one of the city's most beloved traditions. Many of them are out to set a personal best record or maybe break the course record. But how quickly can a person run 26.2 miles? Esteban Bustillos from member station GBH in Boston has this report.

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, here he comes. Let's put your hands together. Let's get as loud as you can get.

(CHEERING)

ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS, BYLINE²: No one knows for certain how fast a human can run a marathon. But first-time Boston marathoner Eliud Kipchoge has an idea. He ran the fastest competitive marathon ever, a record two hours, one minute and nine seconds in Berlin last year. For Boston, he's not sure what he'll be able to do.

ELIUD KIPCHOGE: My plan is not really to run a course record or anything else. But my plan is I am to see myself winning.

BUSTILLOS: For all of Kipchoge's accomplishments³, there's one that stands out as the most extraordinary. In 2019, he ran a marathon in under two hours at a special event in Vienna, Austria.

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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR⁴: Eliud Kipchoge storms into the history books in Vienna - 1:59:40 the unofficial time - the first man to run a marathon in under two hours.

BUSTILLOS: The result was not an official record because it was in a controlled setting with special support runners and equipment to pace him. But it did give the first glimpse into humans being able to break running's next big barrier. Mark Carroll is the head coach of the Boston Athletic⁵ Association's High Performance Team. He believes a sub-two-hour marathon in a race can happen soon.

MARK CARROLL: The day where we see, you know, a two-hour marathon in a world marathon major is probably not too far away.

BUSTILLOS: Nathan Cardoos is the medical director at the Ryan Center for Sports Medicine at Boston University. He says that elite⁶ marathoners simply have a bigger engine than others. That's measured by what's called VO2 max. Cardoos explains it's an equation that measures the amounts of blood pumped through the body, times the amount of oxygen extracted by the tissue.

NATHAN CARDOOS: Most people who - if you're an untrained, healthy male, most are going to have a VO2 max around 35, 40 or so. And these elite marathoners will have VO2 max in the 70s or in the 80s.

BUSTILLOS: Cardoos points to 1991 research that hypothesized the human limit for a marathon time was right around an hour and 58 minutes. Now Cardoos thinks that could be realistically met in the next two decades.

CARDOOS: And it would be strange for me to say that, oh, no, this is the point of time where we've completely advanced to the point that we're not going to decrease that time anymore.

BUSTILLOS: While a sub-two-hour marathon could happen one day in a competitive race, that may not happen in Boston. Its sloping terrain⁷ and temperamental weather make the city's race among the hardest of the six world marathon majors to conquer in less than 120 minutes. Here's Cardoos.

CARDOOS: It's not going to be in Boston where it happens the first time.

BUSTILLOS: Still, people like Eliud Kipchoge have shown that human limits can be flexible. After he ran under two hours in 2019, he talked to reporters about his motivation.

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KIPCHOGE: I've been putting in my heart and my mind that I want to run under two hours in marathon to make history and pass a positive thought and a message to the whole world that no human is limited.

BUSTILLOS: And someday soon, the trail Kipchoge's blazed may open the door for others to make the once impossible journey to a sub-two-hour marathon possible.

For NPR News, I'm Esteban Bustillos in Boston.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

5 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

6 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

7 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。