Major barrier broken in London. Sub 2 hour marathon.

[Palatine]

This would normally be gigantic sports news. For some reason it isn't.

Marathon milestone shattered: Sabastian Sawe breaks the fabled 2-hour barrier by 30 seconds

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya has become the first person to break the fabled 2-hour barrier in the marathon in a huge moment in sports history.

apnews.com

 

[Fishy]

It’s a pretty niche sport, but within that sport, I think there’s a line of thought that the two hour mark isn’t what it was because of the massive jump in shoe tech.

Yesterday’s marathon was probably a 2:04 carried to 1:59 by those adidas kicks. Second place broke 2:00 in his debut. Last week, the Boston record fell by 70 seconds and yesterday in freaking Toledo, a decent but far from elite college runner debuted at 2:05.

Also, and you really see this in cycling, the amount of nutrition these guys take in during a contest has changed radically in the past few years - athletes are not hitting walls the way they once did. Cyclings are bonking and elite runners are not hitting walls at mile 20. They do not reach the end of their energy stores.

The numbers are no longer the numbers we’re used to.

 

[CTpessimist]

Why is this the soccer thread?! Does the runner play soccer?