When mzungo.org friend Duncan Kibet's cellphone rang last Wednesday, he was surprised to see it was his younger brother calling him in the middle of the week.Shadrack Biwott, a former standout runner at the University of Oregon, felt the need to check and see how Kibet was handling the pressure in the week before the Berlin Marathon.
"He called me and asked me about my training," Kibet recalled in a recent phone interview from his home in Eldoret, Kenya. "I told him that everything was good and that my body felt good and that I expected to perform well. Then he was like, ‘That's good, because people are looking at you as the man who is going to challenge for the world record in Berlin.'"
As Kibet makes his final preparations for Sunday's Berlin Marathon, the third of the five World Marathon Majors races this year, it will be almost impossible for him to avoid talk and anticipation of a world record attempt. The 30-year-old Kenyan set the road-running community buzzing in April when he edged compatriot James Kwambai to win the Rotterdam Marathon in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 27 seconds, the third fastest time in history. When it was announced that Kibet would oppose Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, the only man ever to run faster than Kibet and owner of the world record of 2:03:59, the immediate expectation was of a showdown against the clock between the two fastest marathoners ever.
And while Gebrselassie has chosen Berlin for its flat course layout conducive to running record times - he has broken the world record in each of his last two victories in the German capital - Kibet says he is not focused on the world record, nor is he targeting Gebrselassie's mark.
"I know right now people are thinking of me going and breaking the world record," Kibet said. "But I'm just going there to perform my best. I'm not looking at the record. I just want to improve my time."
For the better part of a year, it was widely believed that another Kenyan, Sammy Wanjiru, would be the one to challenge the standard set by the great Gebrselassie. The 22-year-old Wanjiru captivated the distance-running community with his victory at the Berlin Olympics, the first ever by a Kenyan at the Games. He followed that victory with a course-and personal-record run of 2:05.09 at the London Marathon on April 26. The marathoning landscape was altered three weeks earlier when Kibet out-dueled Kwambai to the finish in Rotterdam and broke Paul Tergat's Kenyan national record of 2:04:55.
"I was shooting for 2:06 high or 2:07 low but it was a matter of us having a good pacemaker," Kibet said of his Rotterdam goals. "When we got to 15 kilometers, that is when we tried to push a little bit harder. That was me, James Kwambai, Abel Kirui and Patrick Makau. But we didn't know we would run 2:04. With 10 kilometers left we thought we were going a little faster but I didn't have that time in mind, actually. When I saw the time, I was extremely surprised."
Everybody loves a winner, and race directors covet those that can run fast even more. Kibet learned that first hand after Rotterdam, when he basically had his pick of fall marathons to choose from. "It (Kibet's victory) changed my life because I didn't get into races that easily," Kibet said. "I didn't have any trouble getting into Berlin and I already know I'm going to run in London next year."
Kibet said he settled on Berlin because of the fall marathons he figured the flat nature of the course gave him the best opportunity to run another personal-best. He also knew that Gebrselassie would be there, and if there was any runner in the world who could pull him to a PR it's Geb.
"I'm going to be running behind Haile Gebrselassie and I actually respect Haile a lot," Kibet, who paced Gebrselassie's failed world-record attempt in Dubai on January 16, said. "I will stand a high chance of attaining the feat if he goes for the world record. The Berlin course is fine. I need good pacemakers, like those we had in Rotterdam."
Then, Kibet said, he started calculating what type of Gebrselassie might have to request and the thought of running similar splits boggled his mind.
"It has affected my mind because I wasn't thinking about going 2:03 before," Kibet said. "But Haile's gone 2:03. He's run the world record, knows what it feels like, and it's actually scaring me. I need to cross the 35km mark at between one hour and 40 to one hour and 44 minutes at this world record pace. What I'm going to do is try to stick behind him and the pacemakers through the first 35K. After 35K I will see if I'm in a position to stay behind him."
Kibet said his training has gone extremely well and he is in the best shape of his life. Before finishing his training program on Sept. 12, Kibet said he ran a minimum of 25 miles per day since May. Those training sessions often involved him driving to the Kaptagat Forest a few miles from Eldoret in the morning, parking roadside in the middle of the woods, and embarking on his long runs, most of which were 18 miles. When he finished, he would bathe in a stream near the forest and return to Eldoret to rest before running another six to seven miles in the evening.
"I used to believe that one day I'm going to run 2:05 or maybe 2:04," Kibet said. "That's the timeI had in mind. I believe in the training I do here in Kenya is very good training and I don't think there is any other Kenyan camp in the world that is training as tough as we are." Whether or not that training is good enough to carry Kibet to a victory over the fastest runner in history, or to a time faster than he ever dreamed he could run remains to be seen. Until that performance happens, Kibet said he'll leave the speculating to outsiders.
"People are expecting me to do good, which is fine," he said. "I expect myself to do good too."
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