The Science Behind the Sub-2 Hour Marathon: Alex Hutchinson on Sawe, Kejelcha & the New Era of Running

SUPPORT OUR SPONSOR:Lagoon pillows help us sleep better, so we run better. Want to try? You can save 15% with code MARATHON. Go to https://LagoonSleep.com/marathonhandbook and take the 2-minute sleep quiz to find your match. The two-hour marathon barrier is gone. At the 2026 London Marathon, Sebastian Sawe became the first person ever to run under two hours on a record-eligible course — and Yomif Kejelcha did it too, in his marathon debut.Outside columnist and Endure author Alex Hutchinson joins Michael Doyle, Alex Cyr and Katelyn Tocci to make sense of it.We get into:Why Hutchinson thinks the shoes (the Adidas Adios Pro Evo 3) are still the biggest single factor — and why Nike has lost its grip on the super-shoe raceSawe's astonishing negative split: 60:29 out, 59:01 back, with a final 5K that put him on 1:52 marathon paceWhether the marathon is even the same race anymore — and whether "marathon pace" as a training concept is dyingNorwegian-style threshold blocks vs. classic long marathon-pace workResilience and durability — what they are and how (or whether) you train themBicarb / sodium bicarbonate: the science of why it works, and whether marathoners should botherWhy drafting "like a zombie" might be the most underrated tactic in distance runningWhat's actually possible from here: 1:57? 1:56? Are we further from our potential than we think?The recreational-runner takeaways: shoes, fuel, sleep, and what to skipA wide-ranging, occasionally contrarian conversation about an inflection point that may reshape the sport for the next decade.📚 Books by Alex Hutchinson:Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human PerformanceThe Explorer's Gene📰 Sweat Science Substack: alexhutchinson.net