“No human is limited” – Eliud Kipchoge
I’m sure you’ve come across the news of a human being breaking the two hour mark for a marathon for the first time in history. Admittedly, I’ve become a little obsessed with this accomplishment. It’s a big deal. I can’t stop reading about it. A human surpassed, albeit with a significant amount of help, a barrier that even many scientists thought was impossible.
It’s truly an insane feat to consider how fast he had to run to accomplish this. His pace was an astounding 2:50/km, or a 4:34/mile. That’s probably as fast if not faster than I could run even one km going as fast as I could! And he did it 42 times! And with a smile on his face no less. It’s an unbelievable performance of athleticism.
There are certainly some criticisms of the performance. It wasn’t an official marathon race. All of the conditions were optimized to ensure the fastest possible time. The track was as straight as possible and on sea level. The weather conditions were ideal. Kipchoge was paced by a constantly changing group of elite runners who kept changing in and out. He was giving drinks by someone on a bike (unlike a real marathon), and even the contents of his water bottles were measured to make sure he stayed perfectly hydrated. The coolest part of the whole thing is that he was also paced by a car projecting a laser beam which told him exactly where he needed to be the entire time to keep up with the pace (the math needed for that alone must have been pretty interesting to figure out).
But calculations and aides aside, a man accomplished a nearly impossible feat.
Human performance has just taken another step forward.
Historically, once a barrier like this is broken, it gets broken again and again. The four-minute mile was once thought to be impossible and now it’s the athletic standard. First no one could climb Mount Everest, and now I could pretty much pay a tour company to take me up there.
So what should we learn from this?
For me, it’s a reminder that truly anything is possible for our lives. Sure, I’m got going to break a marathon world record, but I don’t know what my limits are. And neither do you. We are all so much more capable than we realize.
Often the only things really holding us back exist in our minds. Excuses. Procrastination. Mental blocks.
If you really put your full self into something, you can go further than you ever imagined possible. There are already so many things in my life at some point I didn’t think I’d be able to do. Medical school? No way! Emergency medicine residency? Too hard! Work in humanitarian settings? Impossible! Start a blog? Too much work!!
Don’t be held back by your failures. Kipchoge is a generational talent to be sure. But he actually failed to make the Kenyan Olympic team in 2012 in the 5000 metres. He then switched into longer distances which meant a complete change in his training and starting over mid career.
He also failed to break a sub 2 hour marathon in a similar event in 2017. And then he succeeded on his second attempt!
“Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else; it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being… There are NO limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
― Bruce Lee
What do you want to accomplish in your life? What are the things that are holding you back from getting there? How can you make it happen?
Push yourself past your barriers. Believe in yourself. Don’t give up.
You are capable of incredible things. You are not limited!
Need more inspiration? Watch below!