Sebastian Sawe runs the first sub-2 hour marathon in a time of 1:59:30.
Sabastian Sawe runs first sub-2-hour marathon race, shatters world record in London
A HISTORIC MARATHON WORLD RECORD!!! || The 2026 London Marathon Was ABSOLUTELY INSANE(YouTube)
Yomif Kejelcha runs his debut marathon in 1:59:42 and places second.
“Breaks” the record doesn’t do it justice. Shatters? Demolishes? It broke the record by 65 seconds. Absolutely amazing. From 30-35 km, he and Kejelcha ran a sub-14 minute 5K, which is insane.
15 years ago, I didn’t think I’d see a sub-2:00 in my life. But as super shoes entered the scene and numbers started dropping, it was inevitable.
I just watched the video of the finish, but he looked so relaxed and easy in the last minute. My best half-marathon time is just a few minutes faster than this full marathon time.
I feel sorry for Kejelcha, but hopefully this can turn into great rivalry.
What’s nuts is the record was broken by the crazy speed up in the second half.
25K-30K 14:22
30K-35K 13:54
35K-40K 13:42
The world record for a road 5K is 12:39
Overall the negative split over the second half was 1min 28 sec.
This is like what happens when you rub a magic lamp and tell the genie, “I wish to break the two-hour mark tomorrow!”
Just like Paul Tergat 20 years ago:
Wait, his debut? As in, this is the first (official) marathon he’s ever run? How does anyone smash a world record so thoroughly on their first try?
Though I suspect that the wind just happened to be especially favorable at this particular race. A small effect, maybe, but at world-class-athlete levels, every small edge helps.
Beginner’s luck.
Was there anything in particular about this race that made it faster? I’m not sure if it’s applicable ever for marathons, but I know some 100m records aren’t official because of wind.
To qualify as a world record, the start and finish lines must be less than 13 miles apart (which is one of a few reasons than Boston times can’t qualify as a WR). So you can’t have a course with a tailwind the whole way. But otherwise, there are no specific rules around wind like in track.
At London, there was a ~6 mph headwind at the beginning of the race and tailwind for the last five miles. This certainly helped the times – you fight the headwind when you’re strong and there are many other runners to draft, then reap the tailwind when you’re tired and have separation.
Like you say, a small effect but not huge.
You can if the wind happens to change at just the right moment. Or if there’s a local eddy in the wind direction. Neither of which is common, but if you have enough marathons, you’ll eventually hit the jackpot, and at that marathon where it happens, you’ll probably get some extremely good times.
The Boston Marathon was just run on Monday. John Korir won in 2:01:50, which broke the old course record (set in 2011) by more than a minute. That seemed to portend a drop in records to come, but I didn’t think 2:00:00 would be broken 6 days later.
Wikipedia doesn’t show Korir’s time as a record, so maybe it hasn’t been ratified as official yet. The start of the Boston course is 450 higher than the finish, which is another reason that times from Boston aren’t considered as world records.
Is the Boston marathon always the same course? The Cleveland marathon varies it a bit every year, so it’s not always the same people inconvenienced by it.
The Boston course was originally shorter, before the official marathon distance was set at 26.2 miles, but I think has stayed the same since 1924. Particular parts of the course are famous among runners and Boston residents; the scream tunnel where students at Wellesley College cheer on the runners, and a sequence of hills, culminating with Heartbreak Hill, between miles 20 and 21.
This really is an astonishing achievement. Over a distance of 42.195 km, Sawe maintained a pace just under 2:50 per km.
Never mind 42+ km - what percentage of humans could run 100 meters in under 17 seconds?
More than you might think. I was never blessed with speed but I could go under 16 for 100 meters.
The trick is stringing together almost 426 without stopping.
Just your username is enough to suggest that you’re well above the typical human, though (or at least were: I think I remember that you’ve had some injuries that slow you down?).
“Those who can’t do, teach.”
My times in college and high school were quite mediocre.
I was hit cycling to work 22 years ago, my left leg was badly damaged. I can walk with a cane, my avatar is the handcycle I ride.
Your times were mediocre as compared to other high school and college track athletes. At a rough estimate, what, 1 in 30 high schoolers are on the track team? And even less in college? OK, granted, there are probably some folks who chose not to join the team despite being faster than the slowest team members, but that still puts you (the old you) in the top few percentiles of human running speed.
Though, of course, you’re right that the trick is getting hundreds of those sprints in a row. But just to be pedantic, isn’t 100m still short enough that acceleration is relevant? I think I’ve heard that the middle 100 m of a 200m race is often faster than the 100m by itself.
World class sprinters reach their absolute top speed around 60 meters(roughly 26-28mph) but can only hold that peak for 15-20 meters.