Crippa’s Marathon Data Shows 191 spm at 2:06

Italy’s Crippa ran the New York City Marathon in 2:06:14, and the post-race numbers from his Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro make the performance easier to appreciate without pretending they explain all of it. According to Gadgets & Wearables, he averaged 2:57 per kilometre, 151 bpm and 191 steps per minute. At that pace, the rounded pace and cadence averages point to roughly 1.8 metres per step. Fast is one thing. Holding that combination for a marathon is another.

The 151 bpm average is the figure that will make plenty of runners stare at their own training graphs. It sounds remarkably controlled beside the heart rates recreational athletes often see at slower paces. But we should not turn it into a universal lesson about “easy” elite racing. We do not have Crippa’s true maximum heart rate, lactate-threshold heart rate or personal zones, so the number cannot tell us his precise physiological intensity.

Zepp Health reports a 171 bpm maximum recorded during the race, making the average about 88% of that race-day high. That is useful context, not a true max-HR calculation. The graph also apparently rises and falls rather than sitting flat, then climbs later in the race. That is the more interesting wearable takeaway: marathon effort is not always a perfectly smooth line, even at the front. Without course markers or underlying data, tying those changes to hills, surges or fueling would be guesswork.

What is missing is the full dataset. We do not know whether the reported heart-rate trace came from wrist optical PPG or another sensor, and we lack splits, elevation, conditions and Crippa’s personal benchmarks. The 18 km shakeout, reportedly at 3:53 per kilometre and 133 bpm only days before the race, is eye-catching too, but it needs the same restraint. One athlete’s numbers are not a cadence prescription.

Our verdict: treat this as a superb illustration of elite efficiency, not a target to copy. For runners chasing better marathon data, the useful comparison is your own pace, heart-rate trend and cadence over time, not Crippa’s 191 spm.