question what is the single greatest running moment of all time this is a question very much based on your own perspective some of you might be thinking of some of the greatest comebacks in Olympic history such as Dave waddle in the 800 or possibly Billy Mills over the 10,000 M or some of you might be thinking of super close Sprint finishes where an athlete just barely out leans their opponents to a global Title these kinds of moments are great but what about the objective greatest moment moments ones that can be tracked using a sophisticated measurement
tool organized by mathematics and statistical data luckily for us this measurement tool does exist this is the world Athletics scoring table a ranking system that uses statistical data and Progressive tracking to chart some of the top moments in running history and for reference a score of 1,200 is considered a very solid performance in the professional ranks a score of 1,250 is considered a worldclass moment that potentially could bag you a world championship or Olympic medal a score of 1,275 is starting to approach record-breaking levels of greatness and anything over 1,300 is considered as one of
the greatest moments in athletics history it's also important to mention that the theoretical limit is 1,400 but considering the kind of performances that this number would require it's basically Impossible by all measurements at this this point for reference on how difficult it truly is to attain a score of 1,300 shakeri Richardson the 2023 World Champ and 2024 Olympic silver medalist has never retained a score of, 1300 there's Faith Kon from Kenya the greatest female 1500 and mile athlete to ever live who has also achieved various World Records to her name has also never broke in
1300 even from some of the greatest world records that have stood for de Gades including the seemingly unattainable women's 800 world record of 1 minute and 53 seconds many of these times don't even get close to 1,300 here's a list of the top 10 highest scoring marks in all of running history there's Florence Griffith joiners seemingly unbreakable world records in the 100 and 200 there's Wade Von nk's absolute Master Class of a 400 world record back in 2016 there's the recent 10K record on the roads by Agnes and git and then there is the legendary
Mark of Kelvin kiptum from Kenya who became the first and only athlete to break two hours in 1 minute in the marathon in the 2023 Chicago marathon where he clocked a truly insane time of 2 hours and 35 seconds this list is a quick snapshot of some of the most historic and dominant running moments of all time but what about these top three positions who stands above anyone else in running history that's right right a top of this list is the legend himself Usain Bolt with his200 met clockings and right behind him is the new
Legend of the marathon the world record breaker from this year's Chicago marathon Ruth chienti from Kenya in a moment of absolute greatness chenit won this year's Chicago marathon in 2 hours 9 minutes and 56 seconds a time that just a few years ago would have been considered basically impossible for from 2003 through 2019 the world record was held by Paula Radcliffe who achieved a time of 21525 and for an entire generation nobody even got close in fact from 2003 through 2018 no other female Runner outside of Radcliff had ever broken 2 hours and 17 but
then at the 2019 Chicago marathon bridg cosy did what many thought could not be done as she broke rad Cliff's record by 1 minute and 20 21 seconds achieving a time of 2 hours 14 minutes and 4 seconds this really did appear to be one of those marks that could stand for another generation but then the 2023 Berlin Marathon took place and tigis depher from Ethiopia absolutely shocked the world with a superhuman effort of 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds a time that took more than 2 minutes off of one of the biggest running
world records of all time asha's Mark was honestly Beyond shocking and at the time I thought that this record might be unattainable for some time and many others around the world certainly shared this sentiment but then the 2024 Chicago marathon rolled around and Ruth Chev gettis from Kenya did this get her here everybody we have seen it f Bring It On Neil Armstrong we have another woman that has done something just like you what CH andit just did almost defies explanation with this time she officially became the first and only woman to ever run a
marathon while averaging under 5 minutes per mile for an entire Marathon if you head to your local track and run four laps plus an extra 9 M you will probably struggle greatly to even get close to 5 minutes I'm sure there's some of you that can do it but for the normal Runner this is incredibly fast and for ch get it she ran this pace for 26 straight miles this kind of running even today is considered excellent kind of running for men in fact as we already pointed out she would have placed 10th on the
men's side for this year's Chicago marathon which in many marathons is high enough to earn men's prize money and remember this field also included nine men who had broken 2 hours and 7 minutes for every 5K split we saw an absolutely ruthless pursuit of greatness and for the opening half marathon she clocked a time of 1 Hour 4 minutes and 16 seconds which for an opening half marathon would have already been a world record for the 13.1 M distance as recent as 2021 but somehow Against All Odds even against the history of this event itself
Ruth just kept on going over the second half and she managed to close her second half marathon in 1 hour 5 minutes and 40 seconds this second half marathon incredibly is still faster than tiis deus's previous marathon world record Tempo and it's even faster than Ruth's own opening half marathon from 20122 where she ran a time of 1 hour 5 minutes and 44 seconds now amidst all of this world record pandemonium I will admit that I got caught up in this moment seeing a woman break 210 was not something that I thought I would see
for a very long time but what I missed from this year's Chicago marathon was the absolutely unreal margin of victory that Ruth had over the rest of the field because for this Marathon the second placed athlete satum cabet finished in 2 hours 17 minutes and 32 seconds a world-class Time by all accounts for a female marathoner but this also means that chap andit won this race by 7 minutes and 36 seconds one of the biggest margins of victory in any marathon to date in fact I could not find a single marathon with this kind of
margin of victory over over the rest of the field this is just unbelievable running from the 30-year-old Ruth chenet we may never see a world record like this again actually I'm just kidding I can only imagine that before the end of 2024 we'll see something else that resembles this kind of greatness if there is one thing that I have learned is that you can never count out any kind of record falling in any event well except for bolts 100 time nobody is touching that for a while one final thought on this performance is how in
fact This Record went down for this race Ruth did have two designated pacemakers throughout the entire marathon and shout out to one of these pacemakers who literally ran a sub 210 Marathon while pacing Ruth to the finish this type of pacing clearly benefited Ruth on the day and if we compare this kind of running to the women's only world record we can see that the women's only marathon time currently stands at 2 hours 16 minutes and 16 seconds and this came from this year's London Marathon so this discrepancy is more than 6 entire minutes but
I also would imagine that if Ruth had run this full marathon without any pacemakers she still would have had the ability to run faster than 216 but for now these are the two records as they stand in their two separate events Beyond just pacemakers many have pointed to the fact that shoes have been a true GameChanger in the marathon and this is undeniably the case as this revolutionary technology has certainly shifted the focus in the women's marathon from running sub 220s to sub 215 to 211 to now sub 210 this borderline exponential growth in fast
running has been tied very strongly to the breakthroughs and Super Shoe availability and this kind of correlation is just undeniably linked so it's simply impossible not to mention this fact when looking at this record but super shoes or no Super Shoes a sub 210 is just Bonkers and at 30 years of age Ruth ch git has officially solidified herself as a true legend in the running world and the big question now the lingering question on everyone's mind is how long will this record stand thanks for watching everyone and as always until next time
