On the morning of May 24, Eliud Kipchoge finished the Cape Town Marathon in 2:13:29. The 41-year-old averaged 5:05 pace and was 16th place overall and second place in the masters division.
Although he hasn’t officially retired from competitive running, Kipchoge says he’s more focused on being an ambassador for the sport than on competing for World Marathon Major titles. At the New York City Marathon last November, where he finished 17th, Kipchoge announced plans to run a marathon on each of the seven continents.
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He chose Cape Town for the African leg and said before the race that he wasn’t strictly focused on performance. “I am training normally, preparing my mind like any other race,” he told Olympics.com in March. “But it is a different race. It’s more for inspiration and to reach more people than in the [past] marathons.”
“I am not giving a stipulated time that I need to run in Cape Town…” he continued. [I want] to run a good race, a beautiful race that everyone will enjoy. I want to spread my inspiration and make people understand sport more than ever, make them treat sport as a profession.”
Kipchoge has two more international marathons lined up this year. He’ll run the Porto Alegre Marathon in Brazil on July 12, checking South America off his list. And on October 11, he’ll line up at the Melbourne Marathon in Australia. His races in North America, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica have not yet been announced.
Huseydin Mohamed Esa of Ethiopia won the men’s race at Cape Town in 2:04:55, and Dera Dida Yami, also from Ethiopia, took home the women’s title in 2:23:18. The South African marathon is a candidate race to become the eighth World Marathon Major, and if it meets the necessary criteria, it could be added to the circuit as early as 2027. The Shanghai Marathon in China is also undergoing the candidacy process.
Last year, the Cape Town Marathon was canceled 90 minutes before its start time because of high winds. Before the cancellation, race organizers had decided to move the race from October to its current May 24 date.
Even if Kipchoge never podiums at another race, he’ll still be remembered as one of the most dominant athletes in running history. His consistency at the peak of his marathon career was remarkable.
From 2014 to 2023, Kipchoge won 11 World Marathon Majors, earned two Olympic gold medals, and broke the marathon world record twice. In 2019, he became the first person to break the two-hour barrier, running 1:59:40 in an exhibition race.
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Theo Kahler is the senior news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:37 in the half marathon, and finished 40th at the 2025 New York City Marathon. He enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
