Sabastian Sawe’s amazing London marathon speed surprises everyone as an incredible stat comes out
Sabastian Sawe’s incredible marathon world record has amazed everyone – and one fact really shows just how fast the Kenyan runner was.
Sawe smashed the previous record in London on Sunday, becoming the first person to run a marathon in under two hours during a real race.
This was only Sawe’s fifth marathon ever. He used to be a pacemaker in a half marathon back in 2022, but now he finished the full marathon with an unbelievable time of 1:59:30 to win.
The old world record was 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum.
Sawe, fueled by bread and honey and running about 150 miles a week in training, made history when he crossed the finish line at the Mall after 26.2 miles.
Eliud Kipchoge also ran under two hours in 2019, but his time wasn’t official because it wasn’t an official race and had rotating pacemakers helping.
Social media has been buzzing about Sawe’s amazing run, and many people can’t believe how fast the 31-year-old ran.
One journalist, @tommyr345, even pointed out that if you rode a London Lime scooter at top speed (12.5 mph) around the marathon course, you’d still be over a mile behind Sawe by the time he finished!
He said, “If you rode a Lime scooter at full speed without stopping, by the time Sawe finished, you’d be more than a mile behind him. That’s just crazy!”
Sawe ran the first 5k in 14 minutes and kept that fast pace the whole way. He hit 10k in 28 minutes and ran two half marathons under 60 minutes, making this his biggest win yet and earning a big bonus.
After winning, Sawe celebrated by holding up an Adidas shoe with his world record time written on it. He and four of the top five finishers wore the Adios Pro Evo 3 shoes, which weigh just 97 grams and have special foam and a carbon plate—people call them “super shoes.”
If you want a pair of the shoes that helped break the record, they’ll be available to order starting April 30.