Kaptagat, Kenya: Ketika dia mula terbabit dalam larian pada awal 2000-an, Eliud Kipchoge hanya mahu menaiki penerbangan dan berpindah ke Eropah.
Dua dekad berlalu, legenda maraton Kenya itu menuju ke Sukan Olimpik Paris 2024 yang mungkin menjadi penampilan terakhirnya di temasya terbesar dunia itu.
Pada usia 39 tahun, dia mahu melakar sejarah pada 11 Ogos depan sebagai manusia pertama menang acara maraton tiga kali berturut-turut, mengatasi pencapaian atlet Ethiopia, Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) dan Waldemar Cierpinski dari Jerman (1976, 1980).
Di Paris pada 2023, Kipchoge yang ketika itu berusia 18 tahun membuat penampilan hebat di pentas antarabangsa apabila memenangi kejohanan dunia dalam acara 5,000 meter (m) mengatasi peserta pilihan, Hicham El Gerrouj dan Kenenisa Bekele.
Tetapi, hadiah utama pertama Kipchoge ini menjadi satu-satunya kejayaan tunggalnya di atas trek.
Kemudian di atas jalan raya, selepas gagal layak ke Olimpik London 2012, dia mencipta legasi dan kejayaan demi kejayaan.
Dia dua kali memecah rekod dunia maraton dengan catatan 2:01:39s pada 2018 dan 2:01:09s pada 2022.
Dia muncul lelaki tunggal menamatkan larian sejauh 42.195 kilometer (km) iaitu jarak bagi maraton di bawah masa dua jam iaitu ketika acara yang dianjurkan khas sebagai bukan perlumbaan rasmi pada 2019.
Dia memenangi 16 daripada 20 acara maraton rasmi sejak mula berlari pada 2013, termasuk 11 kemenangan dalam acara utama (lima di Berlin, empat di London, satu di Tokyo dan Chicago), selain emas Olimpik pada 2016 dan 2021.
The youngest of four children, Kipchoge was raised by his mother, a kindergarten teacher, in the village of Kapsisiywa in the foothills of Kenya's Rift Valley.
His father died when he was a baby.
Young Eliud loved running but didn't dream of glory.
"Running is normal in our village, in our community, you run up and down to school, to the shopping centre," he told AFP in an interview.
He decided to take a chance in athletics, "but it was not about aiming to become a big runner... I just wanted to get into a plane and fly to Europe," he said.
"I didn't know that being an athlete can put more food on my table for my family and my siblings."
As a teenager, he often spotted a neighbour during his training sessions, someone he had watched on television winning silver at the 1992 Olympics: 3,000 metre steeplechaser Patrick Sang.
In 2001, Kipchoge approached him to ask for a training programme and Sang scribbled one on his arm.
"Then he kept coming for more," said Sang.
"At that moment, I could not say that there is something special about this guy. But in retrospect... I can say that this is somebody who knew where he wanted to go. He was really determined."
Since then, the two men have barely left each other's side, developing a quasi-filial relationship.
Kipchoge devotes his life to running, carefully recording each of his training sessions in notebooks.
Since 2002, he has lived nine months a year at an elite camp run by management agency Global Sports Communications in Kaptagat, a village in western Kenya at an altitude of 2,500 metres.
He rises early, with eating, shopping and rest punctuating his monastic existence. He meets his wife and three children on weekends at the family home in the neighbouring town of Eldoret.
His spartan lifestyle contrasts with his income estimated at several million dollars, the fruit of his victories and world records but also sponsorship deals with companies such as Nike, INEOS and Isuzu.
True to his origins, Kipchoge also owns a dairy and maize farm, and a tea plantation.
His taste for reading (favourites include Paulo Coelho and Stephen Covey) and love of mottos, as well his cool composure, earned him the nickname "philosopher."
He is an enthusiastic sports fan – a supporter of Tottenham football club, keen on motor sports, boxing and ultimate fighting, two sports in which he sees a parallel with the marathon.
"These people train for six months and fight for 15 minutes. And you can be knocked out in a few seconds."
As a marathon runner, Kipchoge has known little failure but in Boston in 2023 he came sixth and was 10th in Tokyo in March this year – his worst ever finish.
"In Tokyo, I spent three days without sleeping," he told the BBC in May after experiencing months of online harassment and even death threats.
Trolls accused him of being involved in the death of Kenyan marathon prodigy Kelvin Kiptum who was killed in a car crash in Kaptagat in February, just months after beating Kipchoge's world record.
"I received a lot of bad things: that they will burn my investments in town, they will burn my house, they will burn my family," Kipchoge said, adding that he lost "about 90 percent" of his friends.
Kipchoge was deeply affected by the ordeal but said he had to bounce back.
"Marathon is life, you find ups and downs, you become tired, you hit the rock, you come back," he said.
Of his protege's hopes in Paris, Sang said: "That's his dream, to make history, to win a third Olympic title.
"Look at the span of years he has been at the top. More than 20 years. That is history in itself."
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