“There was this perception that running is an individual sport, it is no longer the same.”
As Eliud Kipchoge broke the two hour barrier, striding down the Hauptallee and pointing to the assembled crowd, one man knew he had played his part.
Victor Chumo has spent his career racing throughout Europe. More race wins in Italy than most Italians, he has dominated in France too. You’ve even likely watched him as one of Kipchoge’s pacemakers at the 2020 London Marathon.
Chumo sits in anonymity, a silent lieutenant in a sport where the biggest names draw almost all the attention. A self-confessed introvert, it is a position in which he seems comfortable.
There’s a perception in western audiences that athletes are owed more than the broadcasters bestow on them. Quite fairly Chumo could have that complaint.
He doesn’t. Entitlement is absent from the Kenyan, bitterness a foreign term. Chumo is safe in his knowledge:
“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.”
You get the sense he means it. Researching Chumo prior to our conversation a few results stick out.
Three wins over 10km in France in 2014 including the prestigious Corrida Pédestre Internationale de Houilles in 28:04, Chumo’s specialism became the half marathon.
Two wins in Italy at Trento (62:14) and Cremona (62:07) in 2016, in 2018 he attempted to break the hour mark for the first time.
Ten seconds out (60:10) in Venlo he finished second before breaking the field to win in Lille.
Three seconds separated him from his objective.
In 2018, Chumo was 31, by the time he appeared at his next half marathon he was touching on 33. His only experience of racing in 2019, pacing two legs of the INEOS 1:59 project.
A key year in his career in essence sacrificed to help a friend achieve a greater goal:
“The best in the world were gathered in Austria just to help one person achieve a monumental thing in history. 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.”
Chumo had to wait six months for his next attempt at the barrier:
“I wanted to float with people that ran 59. I wanted to belong to that 59 club.”
As the pack hits the final kilometres of the Barcelona Half, six are still in contention. Four wear the vest recognising their place in the NN Running Team.
Leading is the graceful figure of Chumo, the only indication of the speed with which they travel, the strain on the face of Moses Koech behind him.
As the race reaches its conclusion, one minute is left till the clock slips past the hour. Chumo hits the first of four banners signalling the final straight.
“When I saw the clock I realized that I am almost going above 60 minutes and really pushed. It was just a race against the clock. I was just like looking at the clock trying to say, please let me do it today.”
Watching back the TV angle foreshortens the finishing straight. With ten seconds to go, an hour looks broken but five seconds later the tape is still not cut.
59:56. 59:57, 59:58. Chumo passes the line, a look to his watch, no celebration of a victory against a world-class field. Just mild concern.
But he has done it.
Three years later, the 59-minute man now 37, Chumo sits in the Global Sports Communication garden, one of the only men on site not in leggings or shorts.
Injured, Chumo is on the way back, hopeful that greater days await.
For now, however, that moment in Catalonia provides the fuel. Those pacemaking roles where others have had their own, the tinder on top.
Running has given him a livelihood but it has given him so much more:
“On one hand it is a passion. On the other hand it is a job. It is a job in the sense that this is where I get my daily bread, a passion because it is something that I don’t really struggle to do.
It comes from my heart and I don’t need to be reminded by either coaches or colleagues that hey it’s time for training.
I can travel to many parts of the world, meet different people, different cultures, forge friendships. Running is adventurous, it has opened my eyes. I have seen the world and wow this is the beauty of it.”
Plenty of characters will take far greater plaudits than Chumo, many sit less than ten feet away from him in the camp.
In him, however, you see a lesson for all.
External validation can only get you so far. At some point the broadcast will stop, the cameras cease snapping, weeks pass and the name slowly slip from public consciousness.
The memories won’t. Those emotions, that moment where everything comes together, where you achieve something you had doubts would ever come, that lingers.
Chase that perfect race. Embrace the journey. Take others along the way.
That passion may burn brighter than ever.
Featured images by Jorrit van Ooyen and the NN Running Team
