Kenya's Sabastian Sawe crosses the line to win the men's race in a new world record time at the 2026 London Marathon in central London on April 26, 2026. Kenya's Sabastian Sawe broke the two-hour mark for the first time in history on Sunday in winning the London Marathon. Picture: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
Image: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
There are few better sights in sport than Sacha-Feinberg Mngomezulu scoring a scintillating try, Heinrich Klaasen smashing a six, or Mo Salah reeling off a thunder strike, but that’s because all these sports are extremely relatable.
Anyone can run with a rugby ball, whack a cricket ball, or kick a soccer ball— but of course, not everyone can do these things well.
When it comes to running, again, any healthy person has run at some point in their life.
When we’re kids, we run everywhere and all over the place. It’s natural.
But when Kenyan Sabastian Sawe set a new world record in the men’s marathon last month in London, his time of 1:59:30 for 42.2km is simply not relatable.
Though it was the first time any runner had broken the two-hour barrier in an official race (runner-up Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha was only 11 seconds behind Sawe), it’s a time that sounds impressive but it’s also utterly intangible.
That time is close to what the average runner does for a half marathon of 21.1km. But again, that’s roughly going at half the pace that Sawe achieved, so it’s not a good comparison.
Most people, though, can sprint flat out for 100m. As a runner, I can do that only after about 25 to 30 minutes after a warm-up, as I would definitely pull something if I had to get up from my chair and immediately attempt any kind of sprinting.
If you’ve done a good warm-up, then you can finally have a go at running 100m at the same pace that Sawe does for 42.2km. The time you have to run it in? That’s 17 seconds. For anyone over the age of 35, that’s a tough ask.
It’s achievable, but only just. By my estimations, the average healthy person under 35 can do that— but won’t be able to keep that up for any longer than that.
It’s a flat-out sprint, and once you’ve crossed the line, it’s perfectly acceptable to collapse in a heap on the ground while you recover. That’s the normal human response to running 17 seconds for 100m.
Sabastian Sawe, and Yomif Kejelcha for good measure, did that same pace 420 times in a row. If you can relate, that’s superhuman.