Sub 2 Hour Marathon

Back in 2017, renowned sports scientist Dr Ross Tucker wrote that a sub 2 hour marathon was unlikely to occur for generations. Then Nike introduced the Breaking 2 project which resulted in Eliud Kipchoge running under 2 hours albeit in a paced setting, not in an official race. 

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.

The podium

Sawe beat the previous world record by 65 seconds, finishing in 1:59:30 hrs. He ran an amazing negative split, 60:29 for the first half and the next half in 59:01 min. Kejelcha finished 2nd in 1:59:41 hours. The race was so fast that third place finisher Jacob Kiplimo also broke the previous world record (set in 2023) by 7 seconds. He clocked 2:00:28 hrs.

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

Does Lactic Acid Affect Your Appetite?

One of our blog's more popular post was regarding lactic acid or lactate. For our new readers, that post came about after a massage therapist asked me if lactic acid in our bodies can form 'crystals' in our muscles with too much running.

A few of his patients who run had gone to this particular massage place and was told by a massage therapist there that 'crystals' left there by the lactic acid/ lactate will affect their running if the 'crystals' are not removed by sports massage.

Yes, lactic acid/ lactate is produced as a by product during intense exercise, but it starts to clear or leave your body once you slow down and especially when you stop your exercise. You do not need help to get rid of it. It certainly won't form 'crystals' in your muscles!

What lactic acid/ lactate does according to recent research is that it can blunt your appetite by altering your appetite hormones (Vanderheyden et al, 2020).

What the researchers in the study did was to have volunteers do an interval workout of 10 x 1 min really hard with 1 min recovery on an exercise bike. They repeated this protocol twice at the same intensity on separate days at least a week apart. For the first time, the participants were given a dose of baking soda and the other time a dose of salt as a placebo.

Baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate) helps to partially counteract rising acidity in your bloodstream during intense exercise (to prevent you from accumulating too much lactic acid in your bloodstream). It is often used as a legitimate and legal performance enhancing drug by some runners (especially middle distance) and track cyclists.

Please note that consuming baking soda can be associated with stomach distress although there was no apparent difference in this particular study.

This allowed the researchers to compare lactate levels in the subjects' bloodstream during and after the 10 x 1 minute intervals since baking soda will decrease lactate levels.

The researchers found that the response of the subjects' appetite hormones were lower when there was more lactic acid/ lactate in the bloodstream.

Ghrelin (which measure hunger levels were lower meaning less hunger) and two appetite suppressing hormones, *GLP-1 and PYY were higher meaning less hunger were indeed different in the two groups during and 90 minutes after the intense exercise.

Previously, when I use to compete and still did really intense training, I definitely do recall that I do not feel like eating after the workout ends. I usually only felt like drinking an ice cold Coke. Well, those were the days .....

What I'm actually wondering is whether changes in our appetite hormones can affect our eating patterns on a long term basis and thus affect weight for serious endurance athletes. If you're training reasonably hard, surely weight isn't gonna be something you worry about.

To conclude, you do not need to flush lactate (lactic acid) out from your body after intense exercise, it starts to dissipate once you stop exercising. Nor do you want to take too much baking soda in a race if you're trying to lower your lactate levels as it can give you stomach distress especially if you haven't tried it in training.


Reference

Vanderheyden LWN, McKie GL et al (2020). Greater Lactate Accumulation Following An Acute Bout Of High Intensity Exercise In Males Suppresses Acylated Ghrelin And Appetite Post Exercise. J App Physiol. DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00081.2020.

*GLP -1 glucagon like peptide-1

*PYY - active peptide tyrosine-tyrosine