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Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

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Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#211

Post by schoen »

whycome wrote: post #37
groggo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One gram of carbs is 4 calories., so more like 400 calories per hour. It was confusing when the running industry switched from calories to grams of carbs, but that's all anyone talks about now.

It’s also confusing that most nutritional labels say “calories” (Cal) when they really mean kilocalories (kcal). And those are different from regular (‘small’) calories (a measure of energy needed to heat 1g water 1c). 1 food calorie as listed on a food label is enough to heat 1kg of water by 1c

This was the explanation for why the scotch and soda diet doesn't work:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2008/11/16/the-mensa-diet/

(If the nutritional calories in the drink had been only the same number of thermodynamic calories, the drink would have been energetically negative for the body because of its low temperature.)

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#212

Post by rao-v »

nl wrote: post #154
spenjovewkwhalo wrote: post #68

Posted to my in-laws, who asked how: Super shoes. Most shoes have carbon plates in them now, they act as a spring, storing energy and propelling athletes forwards. Better understanding of fuelling. Most athletes are taking between 100-120g carbs (sugar) per hour. Bicarbonate of soda has also been effective. Better planning tools. Athletes look at elevation, headwind, tailwind and will plan a strategy around going har…

> probably a metric tonne of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) Note that Sawe funded extra testing drug testing for himself for the 2 months before winning the Berlin marathon. The testing followed Athletics Integrity Unit protocols (so surprise testing etc): https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/04/how-sabastian-sawe-conv...

This is news to me and genuinely impressive. Putting extra work into ensuring your attempt at one of the few records that will last the duration of humanity is damn smart.

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#213

Post by bbcc90 »

nerder92 wrote: post #184
bbcc90 wrote: post #173

I'm a runner, and it's a bit sad that distance running is not longer purely about the runner. Based on the quote below, next thing we will see is a "constructors championship" similar to F1 for winning shoe constructor in the 'major' marathons :-(. " This dominance continued in 2024, with adidas athletes wearing Adizero models winning six out of 12 World Major Marathons – more than any other brand." and yes, of cours…

It was never about the runner, it has always been about technology and innovation. Shoes tech is just one of them. Better nutrition, novel training techniques, better air quality etc. Of course innovation in shoes will have a bigger marginal impact (because physics).

For sure but most of that innovation pre-super shoes was optimizing the runner, not the shoes

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#214

Post by jfengel »

bbcc90 wrote: post #173

I'm a runner, and it's a bit sad that distance running is not longer purely about the runner. Based on the quote below, next thing we will see is a "constructors championship" similar to F1 for winning shoe constructor in the 'major' marathons :-(. " This dominance continued in 2024, with adidas athletes wearing Adizero models winning six out of 12 World Major Marathons – more than any other brand." and yes, of cours…

The winner is doing a completely different sport from me. I never even see the winners at a marathon. They are long gone by the time I get to the start line, and they've gone home by the time I finish.

There are age group leaders as well. That's perhaps a hundred people, of the tens of thousands running next to me.

Marathons are about running my own pace. The fact that there exists a world record is a piece of trivia.

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#215

Post by rpearl »

tedggh wrote: post #182
nikcub wrote: post #12

Stunning results at the top of the field. Some interesting takeaways on both fuelling and shoes. Maurten spent months working with Sawe and other runners getting their gut capacity trained so they could absorb and burn 100 carbs per hour[0][1] > The Maurten research team was embedded with Sawe’s team in Kenya for 32 days across six trips between last and this April. They were training his gut to absorb that load by m…

I normally consume 90g of carbs per hour when long distance biking, so do a few other riders I know. No GI issues. I use Skratch some other guys like Precision.

it is a lot more challenging when running than when biking. The jostling is not your friend.

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#216

Post by gregdeon »

cflewis wrote: post #205
darth_avocado wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I know competitors want to always strive to be the best, as a completely normal human who struggles to complete a half marathon under two hours, I do not feel bad for the guy. He’s still one of the only two people to do it (outside of the very controlled run from Kipchoge). Not a feat to feel bad about at all.

The majority of people in the world cannot complete a half marathon, let alone under two hours. I was pleased to train enough that I managed under three. You're doing great!

Sub 3 is incredible, congrats!

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#217

Post by nickcoury »

spenjovewkwhalo wrote: post #82
k2enemy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most shoes have carbon plates in them now, they act as a spring, storing energy and propelling athletes forwards. This seems unlikely to be true, although it is repeated in every article I read about carbon plated shoes. The people that study them in a lab environment seem to disagree. See some of the papers here: https://www.wouterhoogkamer.com/science2 However, I agree wholeheartedly with the overall points in yo…

Ooooh, interesting- I’ll take a read, thanks! I’m guessing like most things of this nature, you’re likely to have super-responders, responders and non-responders?

Yes, most of the studies show there is a very large individual variation. The original 4% figure and similar studies were an average of something like 1-7% across runners.

Also interestingly, the shoe in this record uses much less carbon than past shoes, both saving weight and allowing even more super foam where much of the energy return comes from. Though there so much variance in shoe design and materials there are only theories on how much comes from the plate vs foam vs stack height vs weight vs other factors.

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#218

Post by nickcoury »

giarc wrote: post #200
spenjovewkwhalo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooooh, interesting- I’ll take a read, thanks! I’m guessing like most things of this nature, you’re likely to have super-responders, responders and non-responders?

Maybe even placebo effect?

Quite possible there's a psychological benefit from super shoes, they certainly feel fast. Though there are enough plausible mechanisms it's unlikely to be the major factor.

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#219

Post by lostlogin »

tokai wrote: post #46
nikcub wrote: post #12

Stunning results at the top of the field. Some interesting takeaways on both fuelling and shoes. Maurten spent months working with Sawe and other runners getting their gut capacity trained so they could absorb and burn 100 carbs per hour[0][1] > The Maurten research team was embedded with Sawe’s team in Kenya for 32 days across six trips between last and this April. They were training his gut to absorb that load by m…

Pro cycling has been on the high fueling strategy for a while, with huge results for record times. Its a game changer for endurance sports.

[dead]

Re: Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

#220

Post by glenngillen »

signorovitch wrote: post #111

Feel a bit bad for Yomif Kejelcha who also broke the 2-hour mark, with this being his first competition marathon , but managed to neither break a record nor win.

But he has the best average time of any competitor in the history of the event! ;)
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