Distance Star Earns 2018 Pro Performer of the Year Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Pro Performer of the Year poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Eliud Kipchoge

With 56.46 percent of the vote, Eliud Kipchoge won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Shelby Houlihan with her second-place tally of 13.32 percent.

Kipchoge was the Readers' Choice award recipient in 2017 and he retains the title in 2018.

His dominance in the marathon goes back to 2013 when he made his marathon debut. That year Kipchoge won the Hamburg Marathon, running 2:05:30 in his first ever attempt at the distance. He followed that with a second-place finish at the Berlin Marathon, behind Wilson Kipsang, who broke the world record on the day.

Wins in Rotterdam, Chicago, London and Berlin followed over the next two years as Kipchoge lowered his personal best to 2:04:00. However, it was 2016 when Kipchoge put his stamp as the top marathoner in the world.

It started in London, where Kipchoge ran away from the field to win by more than 45 seconds and finish within eight seconds of the world record. In the process of running 2:03:05, Kipchoge lowered his personal best by 55 seconds. At the time, his performance made him the second-fastest man in the world.

Kipchoge's second marathon in 2016 was the Olympic marathon. He was considered the class of the field. The other runners had such respect for his ability, the surges he made to make sure he was able to pick up his hydration bottles came with communication that he was not going to run away from them, yet. Kipchoge won, earning his first Olympic gold medal to go along with bronze and silver medals he earned in 2004 and 2008 in the 5,000 meters on the track.

Last year, Kipchoge skipped the spring marathons, namely the London Marathon, so that he could take part in Nike's Breaking2 Project. He teamed up with experts from around the world to find ways to improve his mechanics, his fueling and his training. Then he and two other marathoners, aided by a pace car and a group of rotating pace makers, took to a car racing track in Monza, Italy to chase the two-hour barrier.

Kipchoge came close in his effort, only falling off pace in the final few miles. He crossed the line in 2:00:25. The time would not count as a world record. It was not a proper race. Yet it showed what he could do with perfect conditions.

Following the Breaking2 Project, Kipchoge returned to the main racing circuit. The Berlin Marathon was set up to be a proper world record attempt for Kipchoge, or Kenenisa Bekele and Kipsang. In the end, a severely rainy day hampered results, causing Kipchoge's main competitors to drop out of the race. However, Kipchoge still pulled out the win and ended the year as the world leader.

Editors’ Choice: Eliud Kipchoge

Following 2017, it seems as if every time Kipchoge toes the start line of a marathon, a world record is expected. Despite the heat in London for the London Marathon this year, the spectators were hoping to see the record broken.

And for his part, Kipchoge set off at a pace that would get him the record, assuming he could hold on. Unfortunately, the heat did force a toll to be paid. The record was not to be for the top marathoner in the world, but he added another victory to his tally.

When it came to the Berlin Marathon, all eyes were once again on Kipchoge and whether he could break the world record. He remained coy about his goals, holding to statements about wanting to run a personal best. Of course, for a man with a best only eight seconds off the world record, even those statements gave him a good chance to break the record.

Again, Kipchoge set off on a pace only he could stay with. Kipsang, who also had stated world record goals, took a more conservative approach in the early going, letting Kipchoge go and hoping he could reel him back in later in the race.

However, as it turned out, there would be no chance for catching Kipchoge. With each mile he moved more and more ahead of world record pace. When his pace started to put him more than a minute ahead of record pace, everyone watching new something special was about to happen.

Kipchoge crossed the finish line in 2:01:39. That took 1:18 off Dennis Kimetto's world record from 2014. And he skipped over the 2:02's entirely, improving his personal best by 1:26. In an event that saw runners take a few seconds off the record at a time over the past 10 years, it was a massive improvement that leaves Kipchoge's competitors asking what they can do to compete with him.

There were many great performances this year, including several other world records. In fact, Kevin Mayer of France broke the decathlon world record on the same day of Kipchoge's big record. However, no other athlete can quite compare to the zen master of the marathon that Kipchoge has become.