CELEBRATE THE RUN - DAY 4 - MILE 26.2: Throwback Thursday to the Five World Records Set at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon

CELEBRATE THE RUN - DAY 4 honors the five world records that have been broken at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a throwback Thursday blog.

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon became one of the fastest-growing modern-marathon road races in the world in the ’90s, due in part to its largely fast and flat course. This type of course facilitates the pursuit of personal records and world record performances. The typical race time temperature (mean temperature of 57 degrees) and humidity levels are the ideal range for optimal marathon performance. Last year 12.6% of finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon.

As a result, world records have been broken in Chicago five times.

In 1984, Steve Jones broke the world record with 2:08:05.

In his first completed marathon ever, the runner from Whales broke the world record two months after he placed 8th in the 10,000-meter at the Olympics in Los Angeles. He reached the 10-mile mark in just 48 minutes and 48 seconds, surprising himself so much that when talking to Runner’s World he asked his competitor De Castella, “Have they got that wrong?”

At the 17th mile, his competitor Geoff Smith nearly fell at an aid station due to the rainy conditions. In the 20th mile, he made his push to secure the world record.

In 1999, Khalid Khannouchi was the first to break 2:06:00 with 2:05:42.

The marathon boom was in full effect by this time. The 1999 race had more than a 25 percent increase in entries over 1998.

In the 1999 race, the lead pack fell apart around the 17-mile marker.  Khannouchi took up the chase to catch the leader Moses Tanui, who had a 33-second lead. Khannouchi caught Tanui and passed him with one mile to go on a cold 33-degree morning to break the 2:06:00 marathon barrier securing the world record. While happy to have the world record, he knew how quickly it could be taken from him. "I'm happy to hold it, even for one hour.” Khannouchi was quoted saying after the race.  

The women's record was broken in two consecutive years. In 2001, Catherine Ndereba set a new world record with a time of 2:18:47.

Ndereba began to pick up the pace, covering miles 3 through 10 at an average of just under 5:18 per mile.  She ran the 11th mile in 5:07.8 and dropped her competition immediately and finished with a new world record. 

Ndereba said knowing that Naoko Takahashi had broken 2:20 at the Berlin Marathon two weeks prior made it easier for her. ''That barrier just disappeared and it said that women can race in 2:18 or under,'' Ndereba said. ''You think in the future that women can go 2:15.''

Paula Radcliffe surpassed that mark with 2:17:18 the year after. 

In 2002, Paula sliced over a minute off the world record time set by Catherine Ndereba the year before. Radcliffe made a strong surge just before the halfway point.

The gap at 20 miles was 24 seconds and she quickly dropped the pack. Her reward was to become the first woman to break the 2:18:00 barrier. She later revealed she tore her colon while breaking the marathon world record.

In 2019, Brigid Kosgei won in a world record time of 2:14:04.

 Kosgei’s run came a little more than 24 hours after fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge became the first man to cover 26.2 miles within two hours, clocking 1:59:41 in Vienna. Kosgei’s half-way split of 1:06:59 suggested a finishing time of about 2:14:00. The race was hers from start to finish. She showed no signs of fading in the closing stages. The pacemakers peeled away before the final two miles as Kosgei forged on alone.

It was almost 7 minutes before the second-place runner, Ethiopia's Ababel Yeshaneh, followed Kosgei across the finish line.  "I ran here last year so I knew it was a good course. There was a little bit of wind but it was okay.” said Kosgei.

This new record broke Radcliffe’s longest-standing marathon world record – men’s or women’s – in the post-war era. "We always knew the time would come when the record would be broken," said Radcliffe.