Running a marathon- Nuala Hynes

     Okay, so I know none of you want to read about running from me...again, but that's what this is going to be about. Okay, so I follow all the different running accounts on instagram. FloTrack and MileSplit are my personal favorites. Recently, as in the past two months, two new marathon world records were set. Eliud Kipchoge, coming from Kenya, ran 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 1 minute, and 39 seconds. That means he was holding about an average pace of 4 minutes and 36 seconds... for 26.2 miles. He shattered Dennis Kimetto's 2014 world record by 1 minute and 14 seconds, an insane gap in the world of running. He set this record at the Berlin Marathon this past September.
     Another record, this time international instead of a world record, was set in an age group by Tierney Wolfgram (a fifteen year old), who ran a marathon in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 3 seconds. That's barely over a 6 minute mile pace over 26.2 miles and it was ran by a fifteen year old.

     For those of you that don't run, you may not understand the endurance that it takes to run a marathon. By mile 20, you hit something referred to as "The Wall", a barrier that is caused by your body literally depleting itself of glycogen, which is stored up energy, causing the average runner to slow down his/her pace considerably or even walk. These two runners blasted through the wall because they has to maintain their paces. People hit the wall basically no matter how slow they run. Now imagine running slightly above a 6 minute pace or slightly under a 4:40 pace and the wall seems as if it should be unbreakable. For the majority of us who aren't superhuman, it does seem like a impossibility but for these two runners, it's who they are. -Nuala Hynes