The WhatsApp text arrived soon after the race, sent by someone deeply entrenched in the elite running scene, who knows the marathon inside out: "What have we been watching?"
It was eight days ago, and Ruth Chepngetich had just obliterated the women's marathon world record by almost two minutes, clocking a staggering 2:09:56 in Chicago. Across the running world, people tried to make sense of a time that seemed plucked from a different stratosphere.
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