Wow, Sabastian Sawe set a world record with a 1:59:30 marathon. “They call Sabastian Sawe the silent assassin. But it was impossible to ignore the beautiful destruction on the streets of London as the 30-year-old Kenyan…”
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Incredibly, the second place finisher also finished under two hours and the third place finisher came in under the pervious world record:
Ridiculously fast race.
For anyone who has ever done a Cooper test (how far can you run in 12 minutes) this guy just ran a 4220m Cooper test. And then another 9 of them, without stopping. Staggering.
I like to make the comparison: Go to your local 400m track, probably at most high schools. Warm up however you like. Then run one lap in 68seconds.
Then imagine doing that **104** more times, plus a 100m sprint at the end for good measure. Without stopping.
(And then realize that you're on rubbery track that gives you some rebound and thus requires a little less effort than running on pavement.)
26 years ago those consecutive 400s only had to be in 72 (4:48 mile pace)! The WR pace has dropped 4 seconds a quarter in that time, that is nuts.
I used to run, a lot. I was good enough at it. Never great. I estimate at peak, I could probably now hang at WR pace for maybe 1.3-1.5 miles. Then I'd be SPENT, completely done. Sebastian keeps going for another ~25 miles.
Lots of discussion in the running community about this. Despite the vast problems with Kenya's anti-doping programs, Sawe's commitment to being tested lends hope that he is a clean runner.
So how did this happen? There are likely 3 major factors:
1) Super shoes with foam and carbon plates not only make you far more efficient during the race, they enable you to train far more frequently at these higher paces and recover quickly.
2) Nutrition improvements that greatly improve the amount of energy athletes can ingest during the race, avoiding GI distress and pushing back the point at which you bonk.
3) Belief! After Kipchoge ran sub-2 under controlled conditions a few years ago, runners knew it was possible. It was only a matter of time.
https://tenor.com/kaRXcugCr9f.gif
A well-trained endurance athlete can store around 2hrs of glycogen (the high-octane carbs used in a threshold effort), so these guys can probably get away without having to take on carbs while running.
I used to do Olympic-distance triathlons (~1:50) on water only, relying on "breakfast" that was eaten around 10pm the night before.
Fueling was a huge part of Sawe's race. Roughly 115 grams of carbohydrates per hour.
https://marathonhandbook.com/how-sabastian-sawe-fueled-his-sub-two-hour-marathon-london/
That's great information - thanks for sharing the link to his fueling strategy. Can't imagine ingesting food of any kind at that high intensity. But as the article said, they trained it as they wanted to race it - just like the actual running speed / tactics.
I can't get over this. according to @stevemagness.bsky.social: Sawe's *second half* of the marathon was faster than the US half-marathon record. a century ago people wondered if it was physically possible to run a mile under 4 minutes. Sawe's *24th* mile was 4:12, only 12 seconds slower than that
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