Why Eliud Kipchoge smiles during sub-two hour marathon – the science behind the historic grin
- The Kenyan has a big grin on his face as he pushes human limits, but it’s not because he is enjoying himself – in fact, it is the opposite
When Eliud Kipchoge ran into the history books, a huge smile was on his face as he became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, with a time of one hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds. Confusingly, he had been smiling kilometres from the end, long before the result was certain.
The smile was not a sign he was having a great time, rather the opposite. It was to trick his body into feeling better as he plunged further into the pain cave than ever before.
In short, sometimes you smile because your body is producing endorphins – a hormone that boosts happiness – but sometimes you produce endorphins if you smile.
“When you smile and you’re happy, you can trigger the mind to feel your legs,” Kipchoge once said.
In Canadian long-distance runner Alex Hutchinson’s book, Endure, which explores the physiology and psychology of athletes, he points to an experiment conducted in 1988. Volunteers were made to hold a pen between their teeth. Gripping the pen involved the same muscles used to smile. Those with the pen in their mouth reported finding a cartoon funnier than those who did not. The idea became known as “facial feedback”, when emotions can be amplified by the physical response.
The same seems to be true in sport – weightlifters reported higher levels of perceived effort if they grimaced instead of having a relaxed face.