In partnership with

If you follow running, unless you’ve been living under a rock you will already be across Kenyan Sabastian Sawe’s remarkable London marathon win, where he became the first person to break the two hour mark in an officially sanctioned race.

Apologies if you are already all over this story, but I can’t let that jaw-dropping achievement pass without writing about it this week.

In case you have been under a rock, Sawe won London in 1 hour 59 minutes 30 seconds. That took 65 seconds off the previous world record set by the late Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023.

But more remarkable was the fact he ran 42.2k in less than two hours. This has been done before, famously by another Kenyan, the legendary Eliude Kipchoge. But that was under conditions stage managed by Nike.

Kipchoge’s achievement, which was astonishing, featured pace runners forming an aerodynamic windbreak and was run on the flattest of flat courses in Vienna with no other competitors. Very different from Sawe’s race day experience in arguably the world’s biggest marathon.

The stats attached to this race are incredible. I like to break a marathon down into Parkrun-sized chunks. It makes races of that distance more relatable (for me at least) to think of them as eight-and-a-half Parkruns.

Sawe’s SLOWEST 5km sector in London came between 10k and 15k. He ran that at 2 minute 55 second pace. His fastest was the final full 5k which he completed at 2:44 pace. And he sped up from there, covering the last 2.2k at 2:40 pace. That’s insane.

It also meant he negatively split the race, running the first half in 60:29 and the second half in 59:01. Across 42.2k he averaged just over 21km per hour. His average pace for every mile was 4:33 and he averaged 16.9 seconds for every 100m. That’s even more insane!

This pace is so extreme I find it hard to relate to. So I turned to the recent results at my local Parkrun, Mitchelton in Brisbane. It’s a flat, fast course with a pretty big field - rarely fewer than 400 runners and walkers and sometimes more than 600.

In the past eight events, the fastest finishing time (there’s no single “winner” at Parkrun - everyone who fronts up is a winner) was 17:26 and the slowest 18:04. Believe me, to this 25 minute-ish Parkrunner, those guys look fast.

But if you take those eight most recent fastest times and add them together, you get a time for 40k of 2 hours 21 minutes and 9 seconds. So Sawe was 21 minutes 39 seconds faster AND ran an extra 2.2k.

I first became aware of the majesty of marathon running in the early 1980s when Robert de Castella was the best in the world. He held the world record for a period at that time and won back to back Commonwealth Games gold medals in the event in Brisbane and Edinburgh.

Deeks was the first person to break 2 hours 9 minutes. His then world record time of 2:08:18 would’ve only been good enough for 15th place in London, two places in front of the fastest Australian in the race, Tim Vincent, who finished in 2:09:41.

It’s also worth noting this was Sawe’s fourth marathon and he’s won them all. His “slowest” time was 2:02:27 in London last year.

So how did he do it?

If you’re pondering this question, unless you’re wearing thongs or slippers or you’re in bare feet, the answer is probably at the end of your legs. While Sawe’s professionalism, training and genetics are not to be underestimated, it’s been the emergence of “super shoes” in the past few years that has made these crazy times possible.

Nike began this race to develop ever lighter and faster shoes, most notably via their “Breaking 2” project, which culimated in Kipchoge’s achievement in 2019. Ironically, Sawe was wearing not Nikes, but a brand new pair of Adidas super shoes in London.

To make matters worse for Nike, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa also wore a pair of Adidas in breaking her own world record at the London race, finishing in 2:15:41. Men’s second-place getter, fellow Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, was also wearing Adidas and also broke the 2 hour mark, finishing in 1:59:41. Not bad for a man making his marathon debut!

They were all wearing Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a shoe so new it’s not even available in stores yet. When it does drop though, sometime next month, it won’t be cheap. The Adios Pro Evo 2 will currently set you back a cool $750. And that’s old technology!

So what’s so special about the Evo 3? The shoe companies are involved in a tech arms race at the moment, with the aim to create the lightest, most responsive shoe possible within the regulations set down by the governing body of world athletics.

Carbon plates have been a key feature of this boom in shoe tech, acting as a spring with each stride. Weight reduction has also been central to progress. The Adios Pro Evo 3s weigh less than 100 grams per shoe. That’s like having a small packet of potato chips on each foot!

To its credit, Nike acknowledged Sawe, and by extension Adidas’s achievement, in a post on its Instagram account. I have no doubt there’s an army of engineers and designers currently working away for Nike - and the other major shoe brands - looking to take the crown from Adidas.

But there’ll never be another shoe that’s the first to break two hours for an official marathon. It’s a crown Adidas will enjoy wearing, a fact that must taste bitter for Nike.

Reflecting on this, my takeaway is that it’s astonishing what the human body is capable of. But it hasn’t lit a marathon running fire in me. Running New York was one of the great experiences of my life last year and while London remains a marathon ambition, I will be sticking to the trails.

After the race, Sawe spoke to UK network ITV, saying he knew the race was fast, but had no plan to break two hours until he hit the finisher’s tape.

Upcoming Events

There are way too many events for me to list everything that’s happening around the country, but here is a selection of upcoming races (with a bias towards South East Queensland).

The Running Calendar website is a great source if you want a comprehensive understanding of what’s available around the country.