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Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

430 points by berkeleyjunk

by nikcub

16 subcomments

Stunning results at the top of the field. Some interesting takeaways on both fuelling and shoes.
Maurten spent months working with Sawe and other runners getting their gut capacity trained so they could absorb and burn 100 carbs per hour[0][1]
> The Maurten research team was embedded with Sawe’s team in Kenya for 32 days across six trips between last and this April. They were training his gut to absorb that load by mimicking race-day protocol in training. The hydrogel technology they have developed over the past 10 years now allows athletes to absorb 90–120 grams of carbs per hour without GI distress.
Second is the shoes. Adidas Adizero weigh 96 grams[2] with new foam tech and new carbon plates
Nike and INEOS spent millions over years to get Kipchoge to a sub-2 in artificial conditions, and now the elite end of the field are knocking that barrier out in race conditions. Unreal.
Running tech and training have been revolutionized in the past few years.
[0] https://marathonhandbook.com/sebastian-sawe-arrives-in-londo...
[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DXmvAUvkWaq/
[2] https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/gear/shoes/a71129333/sabasti...
edit: correct :s/calories/carbs thanks

by signorovitch

6 subcomments

Feel a bit bad for Yomif Kejelcha who also broke the 2-hour mark, with this being his first competition marathon, but managed to neither break a record nor win.

by vessenes

2 subcomments

Don’t forget Yomif Kejelcha who finished in 1:59:41, a world record up until 11 seconds prior. Amazing.

by spenjovewkwhalo

9 subcomments

Posted to my in-laws, who asked how:
Super shoes. Most shoes have carbon plates in them now, they act as a spring, storing energy and propelling athletes forwards.
Better understanding of fuelling. Most athletes are taking between 100-120g carbs (sugar) per hour. Bicarbonate of soda has also been effective.
Better planning tools. Athletes look at elevation, headwind, tailwind and will plan a strategy around going harder into the hard stuff and knowing when they can back off and rest.
And to be honest, probably a metric tonne of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) - unfortunately this is very common across all sports at the top level.

by dmurray

2 subcomments

There's something about the London course today that made for very good running.
Three athletes broke the men's world record. One athlete broke the women's world record, and three were in the all time top 5. An Irish record was also broken, likely other countries too that I'm not familiar with.
Not to take anything away from the achievements. Incredible running.

by bbcc90

2 subcomments

I'm a runner, and it's a bit sad that distance running is not longer purely about the runner.
Based on the quote below, next thing we will see is a "constructors championship" similar to F1 for winning shoe constructor in the 'major' marathons :-(.
" This dominance continued in 2024, with adidas athletes wearing Adizero models winning six out of 12 World Major Marathons – more than any other brand."
and yes, of course i race in super shoes :-).

by rhplus

3 subcomments

Is there also something beneficial about the shirt he wore? It has a unique embossed pattern on the chest. Is it just a nice design or does it also provide aerodynamic or heat wicking advantage?
https://news.adidas.com/sabastian-sawe---london-marathon/a/0...

by cowthulhu

6 subcomments

Wow, that’s ~13 mph, basically a full-on sprint for a mere mortal. Absolutely insane.

by ternaryoperator

1 subcomments

And the only place this appears on ESPN is if you click on "Olympics," which has nothing to do with this race. Where coverage should be: on the home page.

by adverbly

3 subcomments

Wait two runners beat it in the same race?
Was there perfect conditions.or something?
Insane you could run 1:59:41 and not win!

by codezero

5 subcomments

Those shoes are gonna sell like crazy now but it would be hilarious if they were to be found to have been giving an unfair advantage because of some mechanical property of the shoe.

by jonplackett

0 subcomment

These were Sabastian Sawe's splits
5km - 14:14 10km - 28:35 15km - 43:10 20km - 57:21 Half - 60:29 25km - 71:41 30km - 1:26:03 35km - 1:39:57 40km - 1:53:39 Finish - 1:59:30
Yomif Kejelcha also ran sub-two, clocking 1:59:41 on his debut marathon
You have to feel for Kejelcha - breaking 2h marathon and not even winning the race!

by stockresearcher

0 subcomment

3 people beat the previous world record in this race! This is some combination of improved tech and extraordinarily good weather.
London is a fast course. Let’s see what happens in Chicago and Berlin. If it was primarily tech that did it, we should see the record fall again.

by freediver

1 subcomments

Incredible result! (on the day I did my own 5K pb)
This is a nice video of the last 10 mins of the historic marathon race finish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1voTDQQQf5g

by not_a_bot_4sho

1 subcomments

Amazing to me that I'll never get my *half* marathon time close to his full marathon time.

by mellosouls

0 subcomment

Great achievement. Worth remembering also the previous world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum who sadly died at 24 in a car accident a couple of years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_Kiptum

by piker

4 subcomments

Insane; and second place was sub-2:00 as well. Relegated to trivia questions for the next decade.
It would be interesting to adjust this speed to account for the insane advancements in shoe technology over the last decade. Could it be as simple as measuring the delta in median marathon performance? Then look backwards to, say, 1996 and see what the technology-adjusted 2:00 mark is.

by kwar13

1 subcomments

2:50m/km. most people couldn't sustain that pace for even 2 minutes. id go as far as saying most people couldn't close their eyes and imagine consistently how fast that is.

by zhoujing204

0 subcomment

> Previous research indicates improvements of 2–4% in running economy (RE), which translates into an approximate 1–2% improvement in running performance when running in these shoes.
- https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0413/5/1/2
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29143929/
- https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/297

by elchief

0 subcomment

Kipchoge broke 2h a few years ago, but it was on a closed, low altitude track, with a fleet of rotating runners in front of him, providing wind blocking/drafting as well as pacing
Amazing these guys did it in a real race with no one in front of them (at the end at least)

by aucisson_masque

0 subcomment

He is the Armstrong of running, popularity wise and other things...

by geoffbp

0 subcomment

Very cool, amazing!
What effects does marathon running have on the body long term?

by readthenotes1

3 subcomments

A purist might want the athletes to wear the same gear as Pheidippides

by wavemode

2 subcomments

That's literally running a 4:30 mile, 26 times in a row. Jesus.

by Metacelsus

3 subcomments

It's always interesting to see East Africans doing so well. Even with technology like advances in shoes and diet/training, genetics is still a huge factor.
Also it must be an crazy feeling to be Kejelcha, the guy who came in 2nd place. It would have been a world record, except for Sawe!

by UebVar

0 subcomment

This is historic. To put this into perspective for people how to not follow running: This is about about as big as "derGrobe" beating the one-minute-mark in 4b2c.

by alex1138

1 subcomments

WHAT???? NO. WAY.
That's not me being sarcastic. I never, ever thought this would happen

by Daz912

0 subcomment

Capitalism does it again

by dnsb

0 subcomment

[dead]

by Noaidi

7 subcomments

[flagged]

by soopypoos

1 subcomments

I hope there was a runner dressed as the finish line

by clutter55561

1 subcomments

~~A car going as fast as him would have gotten a speeding ticket in the residential areas of Wales. Crazy.~~
Edit: I was thinking in km/h and mixed it up. Sorry.