The under-2-hour marathon mark has been broken officially for the first time—twice—by a pair of African runners at this year’s London Marathon.
Thousands cheered as Kenyan champion runner Sabastian Sawe passed the finishing line at 1:59:30, a long-awaited and practically fabled achievement that has captured the hearts of sport for decades.
Indeed, Sawe said as much when he spoke to the media afterwards. “What comes today is not for me alone, but for all of us today in London.”
He didn’t only run a marathon in under 2 hours, but also shattered the previous world record 26.2-mile run by 65 seconds.
Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who was running his first London Marathon finished in 1:59:41, also breaking that 2-hour mark, while Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda came in third, finishing in 2:00:28, which while not clocking in at under 2 hours, was still faster than the previous world record marathon time held by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum.
So the podium included three world-record beaters, and two sub-2-hour marathons: a truly special moment for track and field.
It was a sunny, mild day on the mostly-flat London streets when Sawe, Kejelcha, and Kiplimo laced up their ultra-light, custom made running shoes—the perfect conditions. Sawe ran the second half of the marathon faster than the first at 59 minutes and 1 second.
“I think they help a lot,” Sawe said of the fans who showered him with applause, “because if it was not for them you don’t feel like you are so loved … with them calling, you feel so happy and strong.”
Runners have had their sights on the 2 hour mark for more than 20 years, and in 2019, Kenyan long distance runner Eliud Kipoche achieved it as part of an unofficial, specially-tailored running experiment called the “1:59 Challenge” that was done on perfect conditions with a cast of 41 rotating pacemakers.
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Kipoche finished this non-official race in 1:59:40, but Sawe and Kejelcha have allowed the sport to say definitively: with no special treatment other than the sophistication of their shoes, a man can run 26.2 miles—a distance supposedly brought down to us from Ancient Greece—in under 2 hours.
What will the next sought-after achievement? Well, at the moment, the women’s race is about 15 minutes behind the men’s, so surely the next 20 years will features an interest in a sub-2-hour marathon time for a female.
A three-and-a-half minute mile might be another one to watch, with humanity currently 13 seconds and 13 milliseconds off that mark.
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