Article/Profile: “How Eliud Kipchoge Broke Running’s Mythic Barrier” by Knox Robinson
https://www.gq.com/story/inside-eliud-kipchoge-kenya-training-compound
The profile is about Eliud Kipchoge running a marathon in under 2 hours. Nobody has ever managed to do it before him. The record brought him international fame but also sparked controversy about how innovation in running gear complicates the ethics of the sport of running. The writer traveled to a runner’s training camp in Kenya to spend time with Kipchoge. In the beginning, he wrote about the experience of training with the camp’s runners.
The first few paragraphs are about the morning routine of Kipchoge and some descriptions of the training camp and its surroundings. I think the entire training situation can be seen as an anecdote but even though it’s very interesting it’s a little too long in my opinion. By the time the writer writes about the actual topic – Kipchoge and the controversy around him – I didn’t really know anymore what the article was actually supposed to be about. There is a lot of switches between topics which makes the article chaotic. I also think that the writer puts himself into the story a little too much.
The paragraph that begins, “The runners ensconced in the camp—officially and grandly named the Global Sports Communication training camp—each log an average of 130 miles a week. But there’s something more than running going on here,” is the nut graf.
The writer establishes a “frame,” I think, that Kipchoge is a regular bloke doing extraordinary things. From there he documents those accomplishments.
The “controversy” doesn’t register in this frame