Ingrid Kristiansen in action at the 1985 London Marathon (© Getty Images)
As the defending champions stood poised on the start line for the 1985 London Marathon, Ingrid Kristiansen just along from Charlie Spedding, the veteran television commentator David Coleman highlighted some of the sights that lay ahead of them on the 26.2mile journey from Blackheath to Westminster Bridge.
“The collection of historic ships at St Katherine’s Dock includes Discovery, in which Scott made his historic voyage to Antarctica,” said the BBC’s venerable voice of athletics.
By the time the television cameras caught their first glimpse of Kristiansen in action, passing the Cutty Sark, just after the 10km mark, it was clear that the 29-year-old Norwegian was embarking on her own voyage of discovery – a potentially historic one.
“Believe it or not, she suggests that she’s going for 2 hours 20 minutes, which would smash the world record for a female marathon runner,” said Coleman.
Having scorched through 5km in 15:25, Kristiansen passed 10km in 32:52 – 2:18:30 pace for a marathon. Joan Benoit’s world record (or ‘world best’, as it was officially termed at the time) stood at 2:22:43, set on home ground in Boston in 1983.
“The first man to break 2 hours 20 minutes was Jim Peters,” said Coleman.
“And how great was he!” interjected Brendan Foster, an expert summariser with the pedigree of an Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist and world record breaker at two miles and 3000m.
“He was an institution, one of the greatest marathon runners of all time. He ran under 2:20 in 1953, and here in London today Ingrid Kristiansen is quite seriously attempting to run close to that time.”
Motherhood, the turning point
When Peters died in 1999, he was lauded in The Independent on Sunday as: “one of the giants of 20th century sport, the man who transformed marathon running from a plodding battle of endurance into a high-speed race against the clock. He pushed the world record through the 2:20 barrier, wearing a pair of Woolworth plimsolls.”
The plimsolled pioneer produced the marathon’s first sub-2:20 performance with a 2:18:40 clocking at the 1953 edition of the celebrated Polytechnic Harriers race in the western suburbs of London. A full-time optician, Peters improved to 2:17:39 in the 1953 ‘Poly’ Marathon.
By the time of the 1985 London Marathon, 40 years ago today, he had long retired from running and from work.
Peters sat gripped in front of his television at home in Thorpe Bay, 45 miles east of London, as a relatively recent entrant into motherhood clipped along at 2:18:30 marathon pace on the streets of the UK’s capital city.
It was almost exactly two years since Kristiansen had sought medical advice after feeling sluggish when finishing a disappointing 35th at the 1983 World Cross Country Championships. Her doctor told her she was four months pregnant.
After the birth of her son, Gaute, Kristiansen forged a major breakthrough in the marathon.
She won the 1984 London race in 2:24:26, an improvement of 62.7 seconds on the European record held by Grete Waitz, the Norwegian trailblazer who led women’s marathon running into the modern era, smashing through the 2:30 barrier.
Ingrid Kristiansen (F1) in action at the 1984 London Marathon (© Getty Images)
It put Kristiansen second on the global all-time list, behind Benoit’s 2:22:43, and she proceeded to become a barrier-breaker herself, cracking 15 minutes for 5000m with a 14:58.99 clocking on the hallowed Bislett Stadium track in her adopted home town of Oslo.
In her youth as a Norwegian cross country skiing prodigy, the Trondheim native won the European U20 title in 1974 and had been selected as a reserve for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
Spurred by Olympic disappointment
She headed to the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles with high hopes but missed out on a medal in the inaugural Olympic women’s marathon, placing fourth behind world record-holder Benoit, world champion Waitz, and European champion Rosa Mota from Portugal.
The disappointment cut deep, driving Kristiansen to new heights in training through a bitterly harsh Norwegian winter. She hammered away on a treadmill in her basement, facing a mirror and a poster of Benoit crossing the line in world record time in Boston in 1983, also venturing out on her cross-country skis for 10 to 25 miles most mornings.
The benefits of her punishing regime were evident on the streets of London. Another significant advantage was the company of male runners.
The previous year Kristiansen and the rest of the elite women’s field had a 10-minute start on the main field. She was out in front on her own until Spedding caught her at 30km.
This time the women set off with the men. Kristiansen was helped along the way by two of her male training partners from back home and by a host of British club runners with international experience.
After passing halfway in 1:10:09, half a minute down on her target schedule, she clawed her way back inside 2:20 pace, with splits of 1:20.7 at 15 miles and 1:46:40 at 20 miles. Thereafter, however, dehydration caused her to slow. Suffering from a stomach upset, she had taken little liquid on board.
Ingrid Kristiansen after winning the 1985 London Marathon (© Getty Images)
Still, Kristiansen made it to the finish line in 2:21:06 – 1 minute and 37 seconds inside Benoit’s world best. “We’ve witnessed the most aggressive piece of running in women’s athletics history, one of the greatest runs of all time,” Foster proclaimed.
Kristiansen herself reflected: “I wanted to run fast today because I wasn’t satisfied with the Olympics. I could have played it safe and gone for 2:25 but I took the chance of going for 2:20 and maybe not finishing.
“In the last 7km I slowed down and lost one minute. But you have to dare to try.”
Intrepid Kristiansen
The daring Norwegian went on to become the first runner – male or female – to simultaneously hold world records at 5000m and 10,000m and at the marathon. She also won world 10,000m gold in Rome in 1987 and the world cross-country title in Auckland in 1989.
Her marathon world record stood for 13 years, until the Kenyan Tegla Loroupe clocked 2:20:47 in Rotterdam in 1998.
Not until the third millennium was the 2:20 barrier breached by a female marathon runner.
Japan’s Naoko Takahashi was the history maker, running 2:19:46 in Berlin in 2001. It was the intrepid Kristiansen, however, who brought the landmark into view.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage
