Forget shoes: adidas will provide you with regular reminders anyway.
Forget the superdrink: A member of our chat group wondered whether a much cheaper mix of coke, soda water, hydralite, chocolate milk, fruit, etc. might tick the same boxes. In response, I recounted my disastrous experience rehydrating with strawberry flavored milk in the early days of the Melbourne Marathon when the naming rights sponsor was Big M Milk).
Don’t even mention the tailwind. Although London qualifies as a legal record (the start and finish, although separate, are close enough – less than half the race distance – to be classified as a ‘loop’), it is mostly east-west with light winds blowing from the east on race day. My UK resident spotter noted that she “provided little assistance in the last few kilometres”.
Likewise, ignore the net height loss. Again, it’s only 1 meter per kilometer which would cause London to officially go downhill, but almost all downhills come early in the race, which helps runners set a fast pace with minimal energy expenditure (provided the pace isn’t too fast).
While we’re at it, forget the world record of 1:59:30 (and second place 1:59:41). The “world record” is 2:15:41 for women only (and 2:15:53 and 2:15:55 are second and third). Because in the end, what the 2026 London Marathon was about wasn’t the latest in shoe technology or nutrition. Nor world records, nor unicorn conditions.
Rather, what London 2026 was about was racing, a world-class race. Two men and three women battle it out for victory in the final stages. No quarter was given, and no ‘tactics’ – as running slower is sometimes euphemistically described – could be resorted to in search of victory: just an all-out race to the finish.
“Damn the torpedoes; full steam ahead.” That kind of thing.
I’m not privy to when and where Charles and Camilla left the UK on their trip to the US, but I’m confident they had enough time to finish the race on their front door before heading to the White House.
As most readers know, Sebastien Saoi won by 11 seconds over Yomev Kegelcha as they became the first two men to officially run under two hours in a marathon. Sawe’s 1:59:30 took 65 seconds off the world record previously held by the late Kelvin Kiptom. Kegelsha and three-time world cross country champion Jacob Kiplimo (third in 2:00:28) were under Kiptom’s lead in 2:20:35.
Sawe also ran the fastest marathon ever. His time of 1:59:30 was faster than Eliud Kipchoge’s unofficial sub-2 mark of 1:59:41 in Vienna in 2019. This performance was supported by a fast car and alternating teams of pacemakers, so it cannot be certified as an official world record.
Thus, Sawi has quelled any mystery about the fastest marathon to date, although he still has a long way to go to equal Kipchoge’s status as a double Olympic champion and multiple world record holder and his undoubted claims as the greatest long-distance runner of all time.
Now 31, Sawi may never be able to match Kipchoge in the long term. But he hasn’t put a foot wrong since he made his marathon debut in Valencia in 2024. He won then with a time of 2:02:05, and followed that up with victories in London last year (2:02:16), Berlin (2:02:27), and now London again. Don’t worry about the display, feel the quality.
Poor Kejelcha (we use the descriptor cautiously) continues to compile a tremendous performance record without ever winning anything. He is now the second man in under two hours, and the second fastest marathon runner of all time, to claim two silver medals at the 10,000m World Championships – Doha 2019 and Budapest 2023, behind Joshua Cheptegei and Jamie Gresier, respectively. He also holds the world record for the indoor mile and ranks fourth all-time in the 5,000 meters and seventh in the 10,000 metres.
The women’s race was a three-way battle between Tigist Assefa, Helen Obiri and Joykelinen Jepkosgei of a kind not seen since… Checks Notes… Sifan Hassan, Assefa and Obiri battled it out for the finish of the 2024 Paris Olympic race. Hassan then prevailed with a 15-second margin between the three medalists.
In London, the gap was closer to just 14 seconds between Assefa (2:15:41), Obiri (2:15:53) and Jepkosgei (2:15:55) in the fastest women’s-only race ever.
It’s always great to have fast races accompany close races in marathons. We only have to go back to the World Championships held in Tokyo last year for precedents. Five seconds separated the men’s medal winners, Alphonse Sembo and Amanal Petros both clocking 2:09:48 in first and second with Elias Aouani third in 2:09:53. Perez Gebchirchir beat Assefa by just two seconds, 2:24:43 to 2:24:45.
Then, as mentioned earlier, there were the eyeballs – and the elbows! – The superiority between Hassan and Assefa in the Paris Olympic race, with Aubiri in third place.
Our Deek team shared a close finish or two, chasing down the runaway Joma Ekanga in the 1982 Commonwealth Games marathon in Brisbane, then beating Carlos Lopez to win in Rotterdam the following year, in 2:08:37 to 2:08:39. Dick rose 14:47 from 35 to 40 kilometers and an estimated 400 final (by guessing?) in just over 60 seconds as he outpaced Lopez at every step in the final 5 kilometers.
They were happy days!
