Ahead of the London Marathon, we caught up with Eliud Kipchoge to hear about his partnership with Lingo by Abbott, his running goals, and how he defines success. Kipchoge also shares about the types of running stories that impact him most, his vision for growing the sport globally, and what he’s looking forward to most in the months ahead.

This interview with Eliud Kipchose has been edited lightly for length and clarity.

It's been a couple of years that you've been working with Abbott and using the Lingo sensor. Take me through how it fits into your training.

It has been a really long and good time for me and the team to work with Abbott and with Lingo. The sensor and Abbott has been a great journey for me and Lingo – especially on tracking glucose on time, getting all the data on training, sleeping, racing, everything.

Above all, I have a great team. I have a data analyst who can share data on what’s happening in my body. I’ve got a lot of positives. I’ve gained [information] on what to put in my body, what to eat, what not to eat, and above all, what can I do to get a lot of energy?

Lingo has served me in a good way. That started the whole team. We have a lot of knowledge now. We can spread knowledge to everyone in the sport – to those who like running on trails, marathons, everything. We have a lot of knowledge and can confirm that Lingo is the way to go.

Abbott supports the World Marathon Majors and in the past, you’ve been vocal about your lifetime goal to win all six. Then it became to run all six. Now there's seven, and there's maybe going to be nine in the future. How has your goal changed now that the series has changed? What’s your goal?

My goal is still to run, to inspire people, to get a lot of people into running in every street, every city, and to make people keep running as their lifestyle. With the help of Lingo, there is no need to fear. Lingo can give you real time [data] as far as glucose is concerned. You can get all the knowledge, move on, get the whole family to run.

But all in all, it's a good driver for all seven World Major Marathons. I trust that it will grow and Abbott will give people a good opportunity to explore their opportunity…to run as many marathons as they can. You have the tech, know what to eat, what can give you energy, and what can make you recover fast through lingo. Then people enjoy running.

Let's talk about training a little bit. You’ve got the London Marathon coming up. How does this marathon buildup compare to last year when you were preparing for the Paris Olympics?

Training is going well. I've been building for the last three months. All is well. I’m waiting for the big day. I'm really looking forward to the 27th of April this month to run. I'm very happy to go to London for the sixth time.

What was the recovery process like for you after Paris? How much time did you take off and when did you start back up with training?

I took a lot of time to reflect on what happened in Paris and to reflect on all of my career for the last 22 years. It took me a lot of time.

When you're at this point in your career, how do you define success now? For a long period of time, it was about winning and setting records.

I define success as inspiration – that the more I inspire people, the more I'm becoming successful. I believe that in humanity, you need to touch a human being's life… What is in my mind is to inspire, to bring people together, and to make running the family lifestyle and to make this world a running world. That's how I define success.

When you went to Asia at the end of last year, how did you assess the state of running there? How do you hope to expand running around the world?

The state of running in Asia is awesome. I went to China and there were a lot of people running. In every city, there are four million people running every day in the morning. It's a huge success as far as running is concerned.

I went to Thailand and it was awesome. Everybody was running. I have a big plan for all of Asia. I want to make Asia know about running and love running. We launched something called Runfest. It combines all the marathons in Asia. They give an opportunity to anybody who is living in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and India to have a chance to go around their big cities and run. Bring all the people together and why not explore beautiful Asia? 

What are the stories in running that move you emotionally? What moves you when you talk to runners?

I talk to a lot of runners and what moves me is the way they internalize running. It's the way that they start running at a later age. They are running the marathon for five hours. After running the marathon for five hours, they use that running and that pain that they’re getting for five hours to improve their lives. Both in their families and their daily activities that they are doing. Those are the stories that move me because running has helped everybody to get what they want. It's an accomplishment.

What moves me is getting somebody to tell me the story of feeling accomplished. Just running for three hours, but feeling accomplished. Then the next day, he or she is in the office doing a wonderful job. Above all, many families come together, travel to every city, every continent, running their marathons, and at the end of it, come back home as a solid family and move on with their daily lives. That's what moves me. That's why I still run. That's why I still have energy to move and push to make this world run.

You’ve already signed up for the Sydney Marathon – stop number seven on the World Marathon Majors. You chose Sydney because it's the first year, but I also heard that you want to see the kangaroos. How excited are you to see kangaroos for the first time?

I'm really excited. In Africa, we don't have kangaroos. Kangaroos are very intelligent animals. Australia is a different country and continent. I want the spirit of running in Australia. I want to make Sydney a running city. I want to make Australia a running country. I want to try and sell the idea of running.

___________________

Keep up with all things track and field by following us across Instagram, X, Bluesky, Threads, and YouTube. Catch the latest episodes of the CITIUS MAG Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For more, subscribe to The Lap Count and CITIUS MAG Newsletter for the top running news delivered straight to your inbox.