{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Marathon Handbook Podcast","title":"The Science Behind the Sub-2 Hour Marathon: Alex Hutchinson on Sawe, Kejelcha & the New Era of Running","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/1bbeb479\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4523,"description":"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.\nThe 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.\nOutside columnist and Endure author Alex Hutchinson joins Michael Doyle, Alex Cyr and Katelyn Tocci to make sense of it.\nWe get into:\nWhy 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 race\nSawe's astonishing negative split: 60:29 out, 59:01 back, with a final 5K that put him on 1:52 marathon pace\nWhether the marathon is even the same race anymore — and whether \"marathon pace\" as a training concept is dying\nNorwegian-style threshold blocks vs. classic long marathon-pace work\nResilience and durability — what they are and how (or whether) you train them\nBicarb / sodium bicarbonate: the science of why it works, and whether marathoners should bother\nWhy drafting \"like a zombie\" might be the most underrated tactic in distance running\nWhat's actually possible from here: 1:57? 1:56? Are we further from our potential than we think?\nThe recreational-runner takeaways: shoes, fuel, sleep, and what to skip\nA wide-ranging, occasionally contrarian conversation about an inflection point that may reshape the sport for the next decade.\n📚 Books by Alex Hutchinson:Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human PerformanceThe Explorer's Gene\n📰 Sweat Science Substack: alexhutchinson.net","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/a3NORpFIoIUQrTnE2xXScFo8HEhxH6G0foNOPSlAx7c/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kMWVh/ZTE1YzI3MDk3ODJm/NDFmYmIzNWRkNGM0/NDc0Ny5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}