Eliud Kipchoge: The main reason I want to run with Obama

Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge has revealed why he wants to get on track with former US President Barack Obama.

Kipchoge, who is the only man to run a sub-two-hour marathon on the planet, had previously divulged that he would like to invite former US President Barack Obama to run with him in Kenya.

"I think I would choose Barack Obama," Kipchoge told a press conference last month when asked which person, living or dead, he would like to share a morning run with.

"I would invite him to Kenya to run.... Obama has a character of inspiration, the character of unity, and it goes beyond all human nature," he added.

And in a new interview, the marathon champion says he wants to talk and discuss ideas with Obama, whom he describes as an inspiration.

"When I get time to run with Obama, because I believe Obama is a real inspiration to all leaders in the country and outside, I will run with him and share," Kipchoge told NTV on Monday.

He noted that great ideas tend to come to him when he is running and thus the track would be his perfect place to chat with the 44th US leader.

"When you are running, ideas come and so I want to share the ideas with him on the run and put it on paper," Kipchoge said.

When Kipchoge set the record as the first person to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019, Obama termed it a "remarkable example of humanity’s ability to endure and keep raising the bar."

Most recently, Kipchoge broke his own world record at the Berlin Marathon on September 25 after running a spectacular 2:01:09, slicing 30 seconds off the two-time Olympic champion's performance at the German capital in 2018.

Asked what keeps him going even after the massive success he has gained in his career, the 37-year-old said: "the love of sport and the inspiration that I am instilling to the next generation and the whole human family."

"I am receiving a lot of text messages and on social media people embrace what I am doing. That is what makes me jump out of bed at 5 in the morning and go for a run," he noted.