Tune in on Wednesday for Episode 2 of Driven - Wilson Kipsang

Hard as it may seem for such a prodigious talent, Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang was not a running prodigy. 

In fact, he didn’t even know if his first performance, in a 10,000m race for Muskut Primary School in Iten, was any good.

“We competed against five schools,” Kipsang recalled. “By then, I hadn’t trained very well. I was still young, like 14-years-old. We get into the race, and the 10,000m is 25 laps. I am running from behind and from behind just catching all of these guys. I wound up finishing in position two and trying to figure out if it was a good position.

“I looked behind me and there was nobody. No number three. No number four. The rest of the guys just left the field.”

WATCH: Driven - Wilson Kipsang, Episode 1

Today, if Kipsang crosses the finish line, turns, and sees no trailing runners it is likely because he has left them in the dust.

The 33-year-old is carving a legacy as perhaps the most consistently fast marathoner of all-time. Since making his debut at the distance in Paris in 2010, Kipsang has completed half of his 12 marathons in under two hours and five minutes, including the former world record of 2:03:23 set in Berlin in 2013.

Not too shabby for a man few believed would become a champion runner, including himself.

READ MORE: Wilson Kipsang Beaten In London, But Not By Athletics Kenya

“As a youngster, you find that, I really started competing at the primary level in the schools,” Kipsang said. “But I didn’t really do it much. People could not really see me as an athlete. Before I decided to embark mainly on training I could really see myself doing business or other things.”

Even Brother Colm O’Connell, an Irish missionary who has trained 25 world champions and four Olympic gold medalists out of St. Patrick’s High School, failed to see the makings of a great athlete in the young Kipsang.

“I am almost 40 years here in Iten,” O’Connell said. “I have been associated with athletics all of those years. Wilson comes from this area. He obviously escaped my attention as a young schoolboy, as often is the case with some of our elite marathoners. They were not outstanding young runners. They maybe took up the sport a little later in life.”

Kipsang, who finished second in the Virgin Money London Marathon to countryman Eliud Kipchoge on April 26, would like to cement his status as one of Kenya’s all-time greats over the next 15 months.

A bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, he is hoping to don the Kenyan kit one more time next summer in Rio and make a run at his country’s second Olympic marathon gold.

To better prepare himself for the task, he plans to illicit the counsel of his running idol Paul Tergat, who won two Olympic silver medals in the 10,000m before embarking on a marathon career that included setting the world record of 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003.

“Right now as I prepare and focus for 2016, you find someone like Paul Tergat and you approach him and talk to him to see how fast we can really handle these kind of races,” Kipsang said. “You need that kind of advice because the Olympics can be tricky. You need a proper plan.

“I want to sit with him and see if I can prepare in this way because I think I need a different approach when it comes to preparing and focusing and for the tactics part of the race. When you want to win against strong competition, you need to make sure you win it at the right time and in the best way.”