Olympic Games Paris 2024 - Source: Getty

"My deepest respect to all you long-distance runners!" - Jakob Ingebrigtsen felt he 'was about to die' during Copenhagen Half Marathon

Modified Sep 17, 2024 15:36 GMT

Jakob Ingebrigtsen made his half marathon debut on Sunday, September 15 at the 2024 Copenhagen Half Marathon and it turned out to be quite a struggle for the 3000m world record holder, who claimed he felt he was about to die during the race. The Norwegian's respect for long-distance runners increased following his debut, which saw him finish 34th.

Ingebrigtsen skipped the 2024 indoor season due to an injury and opened the season directly in May at the Prefontaine Classic in the Bowerman Mile. He lost to Josh Kerr but went undefeated until the Paris Olympics, where he failed to defend his 1500m Olympic title. The Norwegian finished fourth in 3:28.24 as USA's Cole Hocker took a surprise gold medal.

Four days after losing the 1500m, Ingebrigtsen ran an impressive 13.13.66 to take the 5000m title. He followed the gold medal with impressive wins on the Diamond League circuits before breaking the 3000m world record at the Silsea Diamond League. The 25-year-old concluded his track season at the Diamond League Finals with a 1500m title and then decided to make his half marathon debut two days later.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen started off well on his debut and kept up with the leading group in the first half of the race, running a national record time of 27:27 for the first 10 km. However, he completely faded out afterward before making a stop. The 5000m Olympic champion restarted after a bit of rest and after multiple stops, he crossed the finish line in 63:13 to finish 34th. Ingebrigtsen later called the race his worst.

“I ran until I was about to die, and stopped, ran until I was about to die again and stopped. It’s probably not a very smart or clever way to run a half-marathon. This is the worst run I have ever had. The worst before was the cross country race in Aarhus in 2019 [when he was 12th]. It’s an insane mental and physical strain,” he said (via Times).

"I felt like I was about to die during half-marathon," he added.

Following the race, Ingebrigtsen wrote on Instagram:

"Just realized the meaning of the term «run like hell». 😮‍💨 My deepest respect to all you long distance runners! And thank you @cphhalf for the warm welcome! ❤️."

Jakob Ingebrigtsen aims to break all ten distance running world records from 1500m

Allianz Memorial Van Damme 2024 - Diamond League Final 2024- Jakob Ingebrigtsen - Source: Getty

Jakob Ingebrigtsen currently holds the world records in 3000m, 2000m outdoor, and 1500m indoor. He aims to add seven more fastest times to his name from the 1500m to the marathon. After breaking the 28-year-old 3000m world record at the Silesia Diamond League, the Norwegian posted on Instagram:

"Making history. What it’s all about! Three down, seven to go! What’s next?"

He has 5000m, 10,000m, half-marathon, and marathon world records in his sight and he believes it is possible to break all those records.

"I think it's possible to break every record. All the different records are beatable. But you can't just wake up and jump in a race and break a world record. Everything needs to be aligned... if you need to make a couple of attempts, at least you need to make everything perfect, " he said (via Olympic.com).

While it's quite an uphill task, Jakob Ingebrigtsen has the potential to at least break three or four world records.