The 2 hour barrier was finally broken last week at the London marathon when winner Sabastian Sawe and runners-up Yomif Kejelcha achieved the breakthrough, the latter running only his first marathon.
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| The podium |
What lead to the breakthrough? Perhaps due to a "perfect storm" or convergence of many of the following factors.
Sawe's team said he was running in excess of 200 km a week in the 6 weeks leading up to London, with a maximum of 241 km (150 miles). The volume of his training runs is likely an important factor for him to break 2 hours. Not many elite runners can tolerate that sort of volume, especially when most of it is done at low intensity (or Zone 1). High training volume done at relatively low intensity (Zone 1) is associated in faster marathon performances (Muniz-Pumarez et al, 2024).
Sawe's 5 km splits from 30 km onwards were superb. 30-35 km : 13:54 min, 35-40 km : 13:42 min. His final 2.2 km was 5:51 min. His 24th mile was 4:12 min - the fastest single mile ever run in a marathon. As the finishing line beckoned, he was still accelerating. No way he could have done this if he was not fueling well.
Sawe's nutrition was exceptional. I'm not plugging names here, in fact I've not even tried their products, but Sawe is a Maurten athlete. Elite athletes train their gut take up to 120 grams of carbs while competing without GI distress. The previous recommendation was 60 grams per hour previously. Sawe's reported intake was 115 grams an hour. Maurten's research team was with Sawe in Kenya for 32 days across 6 trips between last year and this April to train his gut to absorb that amount.
Please note that 120 grams of carbs are NOT recommended for the recreational athlete. That is probably why cycling races and marathons are getting faster since there is no depletion in carbohydrate levels.
Sawe also used sodium bicarbonate (also from Maurten) to buffer his lactic acid build up during the race. He took the sodium bicarbonate early since it peaks in the bloodstream roughly 60-90 minutes after ingestion so the timing of 2 + hours before the race would put peak buffering capacity at the start.
What about his shoes? Adidas says those were the fastest and lightest super shoes ever made. Actually, Adidas had a great day as 4 of the top 5 men were wearing the same Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. It weighs 97 grams (for men's size 9), 30 percent lighter than its predecessor with a stack height of 39 mm (below the 40 mm limit by World Athletics).
The Lightstrike Pro foam used is 50 percent lighter than the previous version, along with the carbon plate. Research suggests that the foam and carbon plate can affect the "spring like" bounce of the body as the foot strikes and leaves the ground. The shoes help to store and release energy and acts like the runner is pushing off a springboard so less energy is needed for the run.
London is considered a relatively fast course (though not as fast as Berlin) and the weather conditions was between 13-17 degrees Celsius, close to ideal.
There you have it, exceptional athlete physiology, high mileage training without injury, efficient biomechanics, super shoes , optimized fueling and favorable conditions. The recipe for success for running marathons.
Reference
Muniz-Pumares D, Hunter B, Meyler S et al (2025). The Training Intensity Distribution Of Marathon Runnersd Across Performance Levels. Sports Med. 55: 1023-1035. DOI: 10.1007/s40279-024-02137-7
