Original subtitles

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Race Control.

Two hours until race time.

Mike, checking to see if you can give us an update when the athletes are heading over.

MAN (over radio): Gonna head over in a few minutes.

Lelisa's on his way.

We're at the Mike.

Just did a lap, course is clear.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Copy that.

Getting set and locked for the start.

WOMAN (over radio): The athletes are here.

HAJI: Okay, let's go.

-Temperature's still dropping.

11.3.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): 10 minutes until the start of the race.

- The big three are getting changed in the start tent.

We're getting close.

- So when they drop out, then. - Yes.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Athletes should be heading to the start line at this time.

MAN (over radio): They're on their way.

-Let's go!

RACE CONTROL (over radio): One minute.

-One minute!

One minute to the start!

RACE CONTROL (over radio): All three of the elite athletes are at the start area.

MAN (over radio): Copy that.

15 seconds!

-We gotta clear, clear!

RACE CONTROL (over radio): 10 seconds.

9, 8, 7, 6,

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!

(horn).

BRAD: Can a human being run a marathon in under 2 hours?

That's the barrier that's in front of us.

When you run a marathon, your body's screaming, "Stop."

Your head's screaming, "Stop."

Everything's telling you to stop.

You're just doing everything you can to keep one foot hitting in front of the other.

-Dennis Kimetto!

ANDY: The current world marathon record is 2:02:57 by Dennis Kimetto.

In order to go sub-2, we need to take seven seconds per mile off the speed that the current

world record was run at.

- We're asking the athletes to cover 26.2 miles in 2 hours.

That's 4:34 per mile.

This is insanely fast.

- In marathon running, runners are known by their time.

If you run 2:04 you're the 2:04 guy, if you run 2:03 you're the 2:03 guy.

There's only been one 2:02 guy in history, and we are looking to take three guys

and make them 1:59 guys.

This is not just difficult; this is practically impossible.

-Lelisa's a two-time Boston Marathon champion who's a real up and coming star.

-In his early twenties, he was winning major marathons before most guys

had even run a marathon.

ANNOUNCER: Lelisa Desisa is the 2013 Boston Marathon champion.

- Zersenay is the "Rocky Balboa" of this group.

-He's actually one of the most accomplished distance runners of all time and I don't think

he's got the credit that he deserves for that.

Not only is he the world half-marathon record holder, he also has the second fastest

half-marathon time ever run.

ANNOUNCER: There is absolutely no doubt, we are watching the greatest

half-marathon runner in history.

For the fifth time, Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese is the world half-marathon champion.

- Eliud's the Olympic marathon champion.

One of the best marathon runners of all time.

He's run eight marathons; he's won seven of them.

ANNOUNCER: Eliud Kipchoge loves the big crowd.

He is the champion.

That is the second fastest marathon of all time.

- This is the VO2 data here. - Yeah.

- And then you have the economy.

- So, race prediction for this athlete.

- Yeah, that will put him under the 2-hour mark for sure. - Yeah.

If they can sustain these economies the whole time without that fatigue, here.

Two years ago, I put together a team to put the science into practice,

to see if it's possible to run a marathon under 2 hours.

Did you get the liters per minute VO2?

I didn't feel like we needed a large team to do this;

we needed the right team to do this.

-His shoulder angles are so steep, whereas his are just like stable and compact.

BRAD: We needed the right expertise and the right people.

PHIL: Once we start getting the tests we'll be able to give you a little

bit more insight about,

you know, how um, how slowly or how quickly to push the mileage.

- We sought out the people who believed what we believed.

-Those sorts of speeds simply aren't sustainable, and when we go for the sub-2-hour

marathon he has to be reaching a steady state.

BRAD: Our role is to engage with the athletes.

I'm going to just draw a little bit of blood from your arm.

And to understand how we can play a collaborative role in getting under two hours.

- This is going to fit kind of like a backpack.

- Lelisa is the young gun of the three really.

He's achieved some incredible things at really a young age.

As far as marathon runners go he's absolutely one of the best that we've seen.

-For somebody to be able to do this they need a very, very high VO2 max.

What that means is that their ability to use oxygen to produce energy

is really, really high.

- Beautiful running, well done.

Keep it going.

- Lelisa's VO2 numbers were extraordinarily high.

- 30 seconds! - 30 seconds Lelisa!

- This is one of the best tests we've had

EVERYONE: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

(cheering).

(singing in native language)

*

ANDY: Traditionally, marathon runners have come to the marathon very late

in their career.

But Lelisa's completely different.

You know, right from the get-go he went straight into the marathon.

(cheering)

ANNOUNCER: That is fantastic running.

PHIL: Zersenay Tadese is extraordinarily fast.

One of the things we measure in sports science is lactate.

And that tells us how much stress the muscle is under.

The more lactate, the more it rises in the muscle,

the harder you're pushing the muscle.

-Nice job Zersenay.

Keep on it.

-What we know from Zersenay is that even at world record pace,

we're barely torturing the engine.

He makes very little lactate.

-Go Zersenay.

Settle into that speed.

That's good, looking good.

- Nice job, Z! - Bravo, bravo.

ANNOUNCER: Zersenay of Eritrea joining the leaders.

ANNOUNCER: Tadese of uh, Eritrea now moves past to take over the lead.

And Zersenay will sprint for the line and there he takes the bronze.

*

-Next steps.

We will put this pack around the shoulders.

And then the oxygen system sits on the back.

And then the mask on the front.

-Eliud is the favorite.

I think Eliud has the best chance of doing it.

- Feel okay? - He has a very, very good running economy.

So that's basically how much energy is required for you to run a certain speed

for a certain distance.

-Go.

-The least energy you can waste, the better your running economy score's gonna be.

-Great work, Eliud.

-When we see Eliud go, you immediately look at him and realize there's never been

anybody like him.

He may be the greatest of all time.

(man singing in native language)

*

(applause).

*

-Go.

-They have a degree of trust in us now, but I think that that trust over the next two

months is going to be crucial.

-Nice job Eliud.

-I was very impressed with Kipchoge today, I think his intelligence

really shined through.

- Oh yeah. - He's been thinking about this for quite a while actually.

-And that's, it's great that he's so switched on, I mean it makes our job so much easier.

But I found it interesting that we have three orld-class athletes in such different

states of involvement in their own training.

-Zersenay sounds like he hasn't been training and jumps on the treadmill

and looks great.

BRAD: And then Desisa, during his max test, he would do one more and then he would do one

more and 22K an hour, he's like giving us a thumbs-up, right?

-I have the feeling that these guys are going to pull out something extraordinary.

- I'm 100% confident that we'll set a new world record.

I think 2 hours and 1 is almost certain.

But it's that extra 30 seconds is the worry.

Realistically, I think it's 50/50.

- You think that low? - Yeah, I think it's not by any means guaranteed.

-Yeah.

If it was easy it'd be done, and it's an extremely hard thing to do.

And 50/50 is probably a little high for me right now.

I, probably closer to 30 or 40%.

*

(singing in native language)

*

- Lelisa's best marathon time is 2:04:45.

And so it's a real big jump to go to 1:59:59.

(overlapping greetings).

- Ah, nice to see you. - It's good to see you again.

Hi.

-Hello.

-We're going to ask him to do around eight or possibly nine, 1200-meter repetitions.

- Yeah. - So three laps each time.

-The first one is very slow but they'll gradually build in speed until the last two or

three will be quite hard.

- It doesn't look right. - No, I agree with you.

He looks stiff, he looks.

-One of the goals was to have Lelisa do, uh, a test which shows us his fitness level.

And we measure lactate out on the track, so blood lactate from a finger prick system.

PHIL: We looked at his numbers and we see that his lactate turn point,

the point at which his muscles start coming under much more strain,

happens at about 20.5 kilometers an hour.

-Perfect, well done, good.

-20.5 is a fantastic lactate value, but it's not 21.1, which is race pace.

- Well let's see what he looks like when he's going quicker.

He's really not at the level of fitness that we would expect at this stage,

but on the other hand in the past he's shown great resolve and great fortitude.

ANNOUNCER: And there they go.

ANNOUNCER 2: On the way to Boston and 30,000 behind them.

Micah Kogo on the left, Lelisa Desisa in the middle, and Gebremariam on the right.

ANNOUNCER: This is the move.

Desisa has made the move, Kogo doesn't look like he can respond.

This is stunning.

ANNOUNCER 2: Lelisa Desisa is the 2013 Boston Marathon champion.

(explosion)

-We have some breaking news.

- It was about 15, 20 minutes ago, near the finish line.

I'm here in Boston but I heard two explosions.

REPORTER: Two consecutive explosions, one right after the other.

(sirens).

(applause).

ANNOUNCER: The man who gave his medal back to the city for the bombing that's on

permanent display now comes back to achieve greatness again.

Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia.

*

(man singing in native language)

-Zersenay's personal best for the marathon is presently 2:10.

Seems almost absurd to have selected him until you become aware of what he's

achieved in the past.

PHIL: He owns the two fastest times over the half marathon distance.

The question is, "Why hasn't he been able to parlay that into the marathon distance?"

-We think we know why.

-2:10, 2:11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Excellent.

- He's barely making any lactate.

He's barely breathing hard.

And it's world record marathon pace, guy's a monster.

-We've discovered that in all of his long distance races,

he's not taken a drop of water.

- I just thought that was crazy.

How can you run a 2:10 marathon without drinking anything?

-These things are known to take minutes off of marathon times.

-Come on Zersenay, last lap!

-And so we think that even just by addressing his hydration,

we can take literally minutes off of his time.

-Eliud is the most established marathoner of the three, and he's run 2:03:05,

which is incredible, but how much faster could he go?

And I think that this challenge has given him a whole new way of looking at

the marathon.

-It's amazing to see all of what the science says he should be doing,

is exactly what Eliud is doing.

BRETT: Eliud's opportunity for improvement's not nearly as big as some

of the other individuals.

He's already top on his nutrition, he's got a great training program.

-He already does everything almost perfectly, when we analyzed him in terms of his

training, when we analyzed the things that he does in a mathematical sense,

I find very few places for us to intervene and that makes him a very unique problem for

the scientists.

-Man, he's just so smooth.

Did you feel like it held you in here?

-Eliud's camp is really incredible, has a special feel about it.

The runners are elite of the elite, top-notch, world-class athletes.

(speaking foreign language).

(laughing).

ANDY: Eliud must be a multi-millionaire, he's one of the most successful distance

runners of all time, and yet you would not think that if you spend any time with him.

Our search for the perfect course led us to the Formula 1 racetrack in Monza, Italy.

It's the bastion of speed.

The fastest Formula 1 lap ever was recorded at Monza.

- We're here today to run a 60-minute half-marathon.

This is a test event.

So if there's any questions at any time, please ask us.

This is primarily just to give us information for the actual event.

-This way, no, no. -Ah. -Over there.

-Ah, okay.

-If we are expecting them to run two hours in May, they ought to be able to run one

hour for the half now.

-5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!

(horn)

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Okay, they're off guys.

-With elite athletes, the margins for improvement are much smaller.

There's less room for maneuver.

So the big question for us is: "What can we bring them?"

PHIL: We're taking the latest advances in training, taking the latest advances in

technology, the latest advances in shoe design, um, and we're saying is,

"Can we add these things together?

Can we get a bunch of marginal gains, that makes the impossible possible?"

-What the ideal course needs is to be flat, and to have minimal turns in.

If you have hills, and if you have twists and turns that costs energy.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): This is race control, lap one has been complete.

ANDY: One of the potential, limiting factors in the marathon,

is the buildup of body heat.

So colder temperature is better because it enables a better gradient from the core

of the body to the environment.

They're still ahead of schedule.

They look like their break 60 at this stage.

The higher you go, the amount of oxygen you can take in with each

breath goes slightly down.

The lower it is and the closer you are to sea level, the more enriched

the atmosphere is with oxygen.

(inaudible radio).

BRETT: Any time we run, we're losing energy.

If I have a good cushion, then I can capture and use the energy that I'm

trying to run with.

-There has been technology advances that allows significant increase in the

amount of energy you get back from every foot strike.

So we've developed shoes that have allowed us to increase running economy.

So about 3 to 4% less energy is required for you to run every kilometer.

How that translates to running over the entire marathon, is really still unknown.

But we'll take anything we can get.

In most major marathons, they have pacers to set the pace.

So we're optimizing pacers in our race for draft.

So they're going to run in a triangle formation, because the amount of energy required

to run behind this triangle formation is going to be significantly less,

than if the runner was by themselves.

Every single lap, three pacers are going to come off, and three pacers are

going to come back on.

That's going to happen throughout the entire race.

-This decision was a big deal, because any time an athlete enters a race who's not been

on the start line, you can't be ratified for a world record.

-We would love this to be a world record marathon, but that's not what

we set out to do.

We set out to prove that it's physically possible for a human to run a

marathon in under 2 hours.

- Guys, we got Lelisa hurting here. - Dropping off the pace?

- Yeah, he's not going to make it.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Yeah I don't think Lelisa's going to make it.

- Yeah Lelisa! - Go Lelisa!

*

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Last K was 2:48.

Yeah, Kipchoge's leading the pack.

MAN (over radio): The guys are just exiting the S turn now.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): (Unintelligible) we're taking all pacers off on this lap.

-Last lap.

One more, one more, one more!

(cheering).

Nice job buddy, nice job.

(cheering).

- Whoo! - Wonderful job, wonderful.

-They went all out.

They actually turned out to be quite encouraging for at least two

of the athlete's performances.

-Eliud did his Eliud thing, which is, "I want to make sure,

that you all know that I'm number one."

- Kipchoge's got the psychology. - Tadese's got the legs though.

I think if they're both in it, 100 meters to go, I don't th-I don't,

I don't think Tadese gets beat.

(cheering).

Lelisa ran a 62:50-ish, which is obviously almost three minutes off the

pace we want him to be at.

I'm hoping that his confidence isn't totally blown up and I, and I hope

the press doesn't tear him apart.

-The only thing that he can do in the next eight weeks is take a completely different

approach, 'cause he simply cannot continue to do what he's been doing 'cause he

won't get any better.

BRAD: There's some work that we need to do with Lelisa.

He definitely has the endurance, he has the engine to be able to do this,

but he needs to run faster.

He needs to do more intervals at high speeds to be able to sustain

those speeds for 2 hours.

So we need to increase the speed of his workouts.

-So there's no surprise Zersenay can make a 60-minute half-marathon.

He's the world record half-marathon champion.

The key will be how does he translate that to the marathon.

BRAD: What we want to see out of Zersenay between now and May is more distance work.

We know he's fast enough, he can run at these speeds; he needs to be able to run at

them for longer.

So a little bit more volume, longer types of runs.

Seeing maybe a light bulb moment go off, to me that was a big moment of like,

this is something we could really help him with that could really

drive down his times.

(applause).

(speaking native language)

BRETT: The end of the marathon, the last little bit, it's so tough,

because the body has undergone pounding for all those kilometers.

One after another, after another.

In the back of your mind, you're like, "I want to stop, I want to stop."

And then the other side of your head says, "No."

Body and the mind are absolutely battling.

Eliud has the strongest mind.

Never seen anything like it.

I, I had no idea basic, I don't even know how to describe how he's shown me how

important the mind is.

I have all the physiology numbers and I have all the numbers around wind

resistance, air resistance, shoe quantification, all that kind of stuff,

but I have a big blank open box for, "How do I quantify the mind?

How do I quantify a person's ability to push beyond what we thought was possible

based on physiology alone?"

*

-Careful.

BRAD: It is, I think, a Wednesday, May 3rd.

If everything goes to schedule and the weather holds we are about 3 days

away from a "Breaking 2" attempt.

It's emotional to come to an end, even though it's not the end yet.

It's in our DNA to explore.

To go places that we've never gone.

It has to do with human potential and pushing the limits of what that can mean.

We've set out to do what we want to do and if we fail, we've done something amazing,

we had the balls to do it.

You know, we can control or optimize all the conditions in the world but these guys have

to run 26.2 miles at 13.1 miles an hour.

No matter what we do, that still has to happen.

(alarm).

ANNOUNCER: We are here at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza to see if we can really break

this, this barrier.

This is something that has been in the making for 2 years.

BRETT (over radio): This is Brett.

Is anyone on this radio?

Checking in.

BRAD (over radio): Brett, this is Brad.

Good to hear your voice.

ANNOUNCER 2: This is the ultimate team effort, you know, it's the athletes,

their coaches, it's their training partners, it's also the scientists who have been

behind them from the start.

-It's go time.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): We should, uh, make sure that we have an all-clear course,

everyone should be off the course.

MAN (over radio): Primary athlete one, Eliud Kipchoge is on track.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): 2 minutes to go.

MAN 2 (over radio): Lelisa is on his way to the starting line.

MAN (over radio): Course is clear.

MAN 3 (over radio): I have Zersenay at the start line.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): One minute.

Getting set and locked for the start.

ANNOUNCER: This is incredible.

As we stand by for the start.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): 30 seconds.

-Holy (bleep)!

RACE CONTROL (over radio): 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,

4, 3, 2, 1, go!

(horn).

CONTROL: Everything's clear off the start.

ANNOUNCER: Two years in the making, these athletes have been working to get to this

moment in which we try to see what's on the other side of the human spirit,

and possibly make history.

ANNOUNCER: You can see that pace car at the front there,

that is being precision driven.

ANNOUNCER 2: You want to hit 2:50 per kilometer, uh around 4:34 per mile.

ANNOUNCER 3: It's probably also worth pointing out the green line you can see

projected there is where they need to keep up to.

CONTROL: When you come around turn 3 and turn 4, please let me know how that looks.

ANNOUNCER: We're trying to, to shave off just under three minutes here to

break this barrier.

ANNOUNCER 3: The world record sits at 2:02:57, but to go under the 2 from there,

it's a phenomenal jump.

CONTROL: Vehicle is coming out of turn number 2.

VALENTIJN: First changing zone is coming up.

-We'll get our first group in, just remember to be calm, do what you do.

ANNOUNCER 2: And here you see that first change of the pacers coming in.

That will take place on a regular basis.

ANNOUNCER: The manner in which they switched in and out, it's perfect.

It's like they're running as one unit.

-Really smooth, they look good.

(cheering)

-They're at a 59:51 pace guys exactly where we want them to be,

you guys are doing a great job.

- Close as you can on the left side.

-Haji says drink all.

- That's it fellas, looking strong!

- They're killing it. - 32 13K.

Guys, the triangle is working perfect.

Perfect pace!

ANNOUNCER: Around 13 miles an hour.

ANNOUNCER 3: I think we can't, by any means, underestimate the scale of

what they're trying to do here.

(cheers).

STEPH (over radio): Hymen, this is Steph.

- Lelisa's starting to feel it a bit.

Here we go guys.

- Okay guys. - Stick with it Lelisa, that's good mate, go on!

-It's okay, patience.

Patience Lelisa, it's okay.

MAN (over radio): Brad this is Cap.

RACE CONTROL: Come on guys.

Oh man, Lelisa.

(heavy breathing)

-Here we go.

Go, go, go, nice job guys.

- Here we go Zers, come on Zers. - Come on Zers.

RACE CONTROL (over radio): Hey, Kirby how does pace feel out there?

- 3:22 under world record, I'll take it.

ANNOUNCER 2: Zersenay has had a couple hard moments in this last lap.

He just seems to be having trouble holding on.

-Cap, we need a fresh group to go with Z and he's 6 seconds behind the leaders.

- Come on Zersenay, you're on for a fantastic time!

-You're there, you're there!

(cheering).

-So right now, it looks like Eliud is still under 2-hour pace by a couple of seconds,

but Zersenay lost about 30 seconds in the last lap so he's

about 1 minute behind now.

And then Lelisa is about 3 minutes behind Zersenay.

Eliud still looks very good.

ANNOUNCER 2: You see Kipchoge.

He is looking strong.

The lone of the three.

- We're down to the business end of the race now.

-Here we go, this is it.

- This is historic guys; he's still on course here.

Well done Eliud settle in mate.

-He's cruising it.

(cheering).

-Do we actually have a projected finish time at the moment?

Is it still just sub-2 or are we bang on 2 or just over?

I mean, anybody know?

- Dave can you confirm what projected is right now?

- I could see him speeding up a lot in the last mile. - Yeah, that's what they think.

- Yeah I agree. - He says he can cover 15 seconds if we need to.

-Stay on the green line.

That is your target line.

2:00:04 prediction.

Those 4 seconds you will make, don't worry.

PACER: We need to bring him home slowly by negative splitting.

You know, every second, getting faster, and faster,

and faster all the way to the finish.

- Bring him, bring him home.

- 15 minutes until the end of the race. - Come on 5K to go, Eliud!

5K to go!

Two laps, Eliud!

Two laps, go on!

- He still looks like he's got stuff in the tank.

ANNOUNCER 2: He's currently projected to run just over 2 hours.

2 hours and ten seconds at the moment.

PACER: No matter what happens, the man is amazing.

MAN (over radio): Copy that.

-He's going with the pacers, we're just going to keep the car in front

and he's going with the pacers.

So now it's basically on him.

- Use arms and the legs follow.

Relaxation, come on Eliud.

Rhythm.

Rhythm and light.

- He can get 10 seconds. - Yeah.

ANNOUNCER 2: Here it comes, coming up now to 1 lap to go, and this is where it's really

important to talk about the fact that in the London Marathon he's run sub 4:40

miles in the last two miles.

That's what he's facing now as he comes up to this last lap.

(cheering).

ANNOUNCER: We are knocking on the door of history here in our last lap.

(heavy breathing)

- Patience boys, Eliud's doing his thing.

Patience.

*

1 K Eliud, 1 K!

(cheering).

- If he doesn't get it, it's going to be close.

(cheering)

RUNNER: Stay in it buddy, stay in it!

(cheering).

*

(cheering).

*

- Just that much less. - It's an extraordinary performance even if.

- It's something small. - I know.

(cheering).

(cheering).

-Eliud Kipchoge literally had nothing left in the tank at the end of that race.

He knew today was the day to give it everything he had, and that's what he did.

-Sub-2 is tantalizingly close, it's another 1 second per mile only to take us to 1:59:59.

How can you ultimately be disappointed with 2:00:25?

I mean, I think it was an outstanding achievement.

-All 3 of them committed from the gun and that's why the other 2 fell off.

- Here comes Zersenay. - Here comes Z.

(cheering).

- Let's not take away from Zersenay either.

He set a 4-minute personal best.

And he, and he ran out there almost by himself.

-Well done.

Okay?

Personal best.

-Thank you, thank you.

(applause).

I'm excited about what he'll do now that he's a bonafide marathon runner.

(cheering).

(cheering)

- Here comes Lelisa. - He's done well to finish.

(applause).

-You know Lelisa, he committed to the pace at the beginning and was right there.

He did what we asked him to do, and that was take himself to the limit, and he did.

(applause).

- You've gotta throw caution to the wind sometimes.

You've gotta go what might appear to be suicidaly fast and see if you can hang on.

-Big, big, big race you did man amazing performance what you did.

(laughs).

I know, I know.

(cheers and applause).

(cheering).

(cheering).

(cheering).

(music plays through credits)

(singing in native language)

Subtitles Diego Moraes(oakislandtk) www.opensubtitles.org