MONZA, Italy -- Eliud Kipchoge was seconds from making history Saturday, as the Olympic champion finished just short of becoming the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours.
Kipchoge ran the 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 25 seconds, smashing Dennis Kimetto's world mark of 2:02:57 and raising hopes that one of the most famous sports barriers can be broken.
"We are human," Kipchoge said. "I am happy that I've reduced by 2½ minutes the world record. The wall is just 25 seconds away."
He added: "We are going up the tree. ... I have lifted a branch and I am going on to the next one. This is not the end of the attempt of runners on two hours."
The attempt at Monza's Formula One race course did not go down as an official world record, sanctioned by the IAAF, due to variables like pacers entering midrace and drinks being given to runners via mopeds.
Kipchoge, 32, of Kenya, did break his personal best time of 2:03:05, which was set at the London Marathon last year.
Organizers first listed his time as a second faster, then changed it to 25 seconds off the 2-hour mark.
"I rank this as the highest-ever performance in my life," Kipchoge said. "The aim of [Nike's] Breaking2 was to pass the message that running less than [a] 2-hour marathon is possible. That message is really special to me."
After three years of planning, Nike's audacious attempt at breaking the 2-hour barrier remained just that -- an attempt -- despite the aid of a shoe that designers say will make runners 4 percent more efficient.
"I've been part of many races over my career at Nike. I've seen the magic of gold shoes and swift suits. I've seen iconic athletes leave it all on the track," Nike CEO Mark Parker said. "But I've never seen anything like what we saw today.
"Today, millions of people around the world watched as running history was written. At Breaking2, Eliud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles faster than any human ever. ... This achievement represents more than a race. It's a moment of global inspiration that will encourage every athlete, in every community, to push the limits of their potential."
Two-time Boston Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa, from Ethiopia, and Eritrean half-marathon world-record holder Zersenay Tadese also were part of the Breaking2 project, which started at 5:45 a.m. local time, but they finished well off the pace.
Desisa was dropped after 50 minutes, with Tadese falling back shortly afterward. The duo still completed the 17.5 laps of the 1.5-mile Monza track, with Tadese shaving nearly four minutes off his personal best with a time of 2:06:51. Desisa finished in 2:14:10.
That left just Kipchoge chasing the landmark time.
He continued in his trademark relaxed style and passed the halfway mark in 59:54, but his average pace of 4:36 per mile was just not enough, despite his final sprint to the tape.
Kipchoge would have needed an average of less than 4:35 per mile -- an improvement of about seven seconds per mile on Kimetto's record, or around 2.5 percent.
"I tried to maintain the pace," he said. "As a human you are not a machine so you cannot go 2.50 exactly, and those micro-seconds really have an effect."