When Eliud Kipchoge, the 31-year-old from Kenya, claimed the London Marathon victory on Sunday it seemed all anybody could talk about was that he missed the world record by eight seconds. 

Where did Kipchoge lose those precious moments? Comparing the record-setting performance by Dennis Kimetto at the 2014 Berlin Marathon to Kipchoge’s race this weekend shows a few variables. Kimetto started off slower, but then he dropped a blistering 14:09 split from 30K to 35K—the same point at which Kipchoge temporarily faded to a 14:54. At that same point in Kimetto’s race, he was dueling with Emmanuel Mutai, while Kipchoge was trying to ensure a win against Stanley Biwott, so race tactics and strategy influenced both times.

Here’s a comparison between the world-record race and Kipchoge’s, which is the second-fastest marathon on a record-eligible course.

Missed by 8 seconds
Dan Fuehrer
How the races compared