What BYU coach Ed Eyestone said about 2 runners breaking the 2-hour barrier at the London Marathon

Sebastian Sawe from Kenya celebrates winning the men's race at the London Marathon in London, Sunday, April 26, 2026. | /Ian Walton, Associated Press

A quarter century ago, as Ed Eyestone was retiring from distance running, he was asked when the world record marathon finish would break two hours.

“Not in my lifetime,” Eyestone said. “When you only have a few guys who have run under 60 (minutes) for the half-marathon, it’s going to be a long time before we get people under two hours.”

Sunday in London, two men pulled it off.

Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe ran the 26.2 miles in 1:59.30 and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha was right behind him at 1:59.41.

“April 26th should go down in history in every bit of relevance as when the four-minute mile was broken in 1954,” said the former NCAA cross country national champion and United States Olympian, who back in his day, ran an impressive 2:10.59. “It’s pretty historic. The fact that two of them did it is huge.”

Super shoe

The arrival of such a record so soon surprised Eyestone, but the path to get to this moment has been evolving for years.

“World-class equipment, coupled with world-class athletes, world-class nutrition, world-class training and due to the internet, a lot of these secrets are shared,” he said. “It’s a perfect storm for marathon speed.”

Eyestone credits the biggest change to the shoe. Today’s “super shoe” weighs about as much as an apple (97 grams). The shoe Sawe ran his record run in was the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which sounds like something NASA would come up with. Every serious shoemaker has a similar model.