Chumo eyeing racing comeback, still recalls pace-making for Eliud Kipchoge

Kenyan distance runner Victor Chumo goes back to 16 February 2020 as a source of inspiration and motivation, as he aims to recover from injury and get back to what he loves and does best - road running.

With his last marathon race, as per Worth Athletics, being the Hapa Marathon in Hamburg,Germany - which he placed 54th and in a time of 2:34:43 - the moment in the Barcelona Half Marathon, where he finally dipped under an hour clocking 59:58, is one he remembers up to date.

“When I saw the clock I realized that I am almost going above 60 minutes and really pushed,” Chumo told Views from the concourse in an interview. “It was just a race against the clock. I was just looking at the clock trying to say, please let me do it today.”

As it turned out, his win, which came against an elite field, provided some sense of reprieve, as Chumo had always missed the ‘under 60 minutes’ mark.

“I wanted to float with people that ran 59,” the man who had two wins in Italy at Trento and Cremona in 2016 and 2018 timing 62:14 and 62:01 respectively. “I wanted to belong to that 59 club.”

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His closest opportunity pre breaking the barrier, was in Lille, where he was three seconds out from his objective.

As part of the NN Running Team, Chumo has also been a man that is not used to being on the limelight when others win, as he has been involved as a pacemaker, famously pacemaking for Eliud Kipchoge in the 2020 London marathon.

“As a pacemaker, I have helped several athletes to register their personal best and I get pride from that knowing that at the end of the day, I have changed someone’s life in a positive way,” he added.

His biggest moment as a pacemaker, was, however, in 2019, then 32 years old, when he was part of the INEOS 1:59 Project group, helped Kipchoge achieve global recognition for being the first man to run a marathon in under two hours, clocking 1:59:40:2.

“The best in the world were gathered in Austria just to help one person achieve a monumental thing in history,” Chumo said. “That was the highlight of what I take pride in, seeing Eliud achieve this kind of grand performance. There is joy in my heart knowing that I was part of this.”

As a return nears, the 37 year old believes that running is not only a job for him, but a passion, and one that has opened his eyes to see the world and how beautiful it is.

“[Running] comes from my heart and I don’t need to be reminded by either coaches or colleagues that hey its time for training,” he said. “On one hand it is a passion because it is something that I don’t really struggle to do, and on the other it is a job in the sense that this is where I get my daily bread.”