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

bbc.com

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

#41

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

nradov wrote: post #35
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #5

Amazing to me that I'll never get my *half* marathon time close to his full marathon time.

A 1:59 half marathon time is achievable for pretty much anyone who doesn't have a serious physical disability and is willing to put in the necessary training. I've done it a few times and have no particular talent for running.

That's a 9m10sec per mile for 2 hours. While I'd agree that there are millions or even billions of people who could train to do that, I think it's wrong to suggest that "pretty much anyone" could do that.

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

#42

Post by nradov »

Noaidi wrote: post #21

[flagged]

No asterisk needed. The criteria for record-eligible courses have been clearly defined. The weather was good, but not quite ideal. In slightly colder conditions I think Sawe could have gone a few seconds faster.

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

#43

Post by Noaidi »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #31
Noaidi wrote: post #21

[flagged]

That’s a wild reason to withhold a true record. People run marathons in all sorts of conditions since it became a thing. It is unlikely this is the best weather ever for a record set and even if it was, it’s never been a factor when deciding to qualify a record. That’s beyond unfair.

I am surprised at the push back on this. It is just science and it mentioned it in the article.

https://marathonhandbook.com/large-scale-marathon-study-iden...

I just said it needs an asterisk, not withholding anything. What if someone runs one second slower in higher humidity and temperature. Now that I would applaud.

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

#44

Post by wry_durian »

piker wrote: post #16

Insane; and second place was sub-2:00 as well. Relegated to trivia questions for the next decade. It would be interesting to adjust this speed to account for the insane advancements in shoe technology over the last decade. Could it be as simple as measuring the delta in median marathon performance? Then look backwards to, say, 1996 and see what the technology-adjusted 2:00 mark is.

I suspect there would be larger deltas due to improvements in nutrition and fueling. As another poster has mentioned, today's runners are ingesting so many more carbs per hour than 20 or 30 years ago. And if doping trends have changed over time, that's another factor. (No clue either way, but it's a potential factor.)

There's been lots of research into shoes though, so you might be able to work something out. For instance Jack Daniels (the running coach, not the beverage!) found that adding 100 grams to a running shoe increased aerobic effort by around 1%.

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

#45

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

Noaidi wrote: post #21

[flagged]

Better weather has, to the best of my knowledge, never been part of marathon record keeping. People do note in accounts of (e.g.) the Boston marathon that the weather was particularly atrocious in some years (hence a general slow down across the field), but weather "aided" fast times are not considered illegitimate or even worthy of note.

Obviously, barring wind, which is why some marathon courses are not eligible for world records.

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

#46

Post by tokai »

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.

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

#47

Post by Noaidi »

soupfordummies wrote: post #29
Noaidi wrote: post #21

[flagged]

So if the weather was bad the accomplishment would mean more then? I don’t think this is how it works. Sports don’t happen in a vacuum.

Yes. If sports does not happen in a vacuum then comparisons are unfair. If I go to the moon and break the record for long jumping should I be applauded?

I thought there were scientists on here...

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

#48

Post by Noaidi »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #45
Noaidi wrote: post #21

[flagged]

Better weather has, to the best of my knowledge, never been part of marathon record keeping. People do note in accounts of (e.g.) the Boston marathon that the weather was particularly atrocious in some years (hence a general slow down across the field), but weather "aided" fast times are not considered illegitimate or even worthy of note. Obviously, barring wind, which is why some marathon courses are not eligible fo…

> Better weather has, to the best of my knowledge, never been part of marathon record keeping.

It should be.

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

#49

Post by canucker2016 »

piker wrote: post #16

Insane; and second place was sub-2:00 as well. Relegated to trivia questions for the next decade. It would be interesting to adjust this speed to account for the insane advancements in shoe technology over the last decade. Could it be as simple as measuring the delta in median marathon performance? Then look backwards to, say, 1996 and see what the technology-adjusted 2:00 mark is.

Second place male runner was running his first marathon race as well.

Sub-2hr marathon, beat the previous world record before Sunday, on your first try, and you don't win! Bad timing...

Prize money for London Marathon 2026 - https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/38880592/london-marathon-2026...

Looks like first place male gets US$330K. Second place will get US$180K.

Divide by 2 to get the approximate hourly rate. :)

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