Kipchoge is a beast. Even under those conditions, I went in thinking I'd be shocked if they came in under 2:02....and quite possibly would be considerably worse if the early pace fried them. I thought that'd be the case after 2 of them were out of it before halfway and that we were looking at a major flop, but he gutted it out. I wouldn't even say he looked uncomfortable until maybe the last 2 laps or so.
And I have to say, in spite of all the commercialism, it was a really neat process to watch. You had a sizeable contingent of world class runners sacrificing their personal racing schedules to come out and help. Just seeing how well coordinated the pacing aspect was and how super into it they were, especially with cheering him on so forcefully at the end was pretty cool.
