26th April, 2026. The Mall, London. The crowd is awaiting the arrival of the first of the elite runners to come into view, watching on the big screen as the Kenyan duo of Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei and Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa trade surges of pace along Birdcage Walk. It’s been over 2-hours of foot to the floor pace under the London sun, and the clock suggests we’re in for a special time. 

Further down the road, about 30 minutes behind, are the men, locked into a similar cage-match of relentless pace. The buzz has been surrounding the men particularly this year, with people humming about the trio of Yomif Kejelcha, Jacob Kiplimo and Sabastian Sawe, who, predictably, are streaking away from the rest. But the women ahead are equally credentialled and stars of the sport in their own right, and a record-breaking day is on the cards.

It’s Assefa who holds the women’s-only World Record of 2:15:50 which she set during the 2025 edition of the London Marathon. A curiosity of London is that it is one of the few major races where the Elite Women’s race sets off before the Men, and, by utilising a team of female-only pacers, is eligible for the “Women’s Only” world record. Hellen Obiri is a multiple-time majors champion, as is Jepkosgei, who won London in 2021. As they approached the turn in front of Buckingham Palace, Jepkosgei was the first to break from Assefa’s surging pace. The only thing she could do was watch as Obiri’s distinctive bobbing head and Assefa’s hyper-smooth gait streaked away. It was not long before Obiri similarly couldn’t hold. Assefa hit the next gear, pumping her arms and upping the cadence as the finish gantry neared. 

The time of 2:15:41 secured a repeat Women’s Only World Record for Assefa, although not a lifetime best which stands at 2:11:53 from Berlin ‘23 in the mixed race. Obiri trailed in 12-seconds behind, and Jepkosgei not far behind. The stands were suitably buzzing, the media scrum was rolling and camera bulbs flashing.

Meanwhile, it was at about this point that the trio of Kejelcha, Sawe and Kiplimo trundled past the Runlimited cheer-zone at mile 22. There was nothing to do except watch the freight train roll though, with Sawe at the helm, Kejelcha off of his shoulder and Kiplimo holding on by his fingernails. Little did we know that they were ramping the pace from 2:50/km down to 2:40/km, enough to test even the world’s fastest Half-Marathoner in Kiplimo. We’d already tuned in to the live stream to watch one world record for the day, but at this point, the air was tense with the fact we could see another – with the significant barrier of two-hours tantalisingly there to be broken if the pace was kept hot.

A few miles later, Kiplimo was offloaded from the back of the pack by Kejelcha’s relentless pace - for the debutant Kejelcha, he was racing fearlessly against one of the greatest road racers of the present day. Sawe’s poker-faced relaxation never looked fazed as the tall Ethiopian next to him drove the race faster. Sawe simply moved to his right, and threw the legs into another gear around Big Ben, and Kejelcha folded. Now, it was a race against the clock and we bet the house on Sawe. The amazing thing about watching Sawe is how his form looks precisely as it does with 600m left to run as it does at the start: sublimely smooth, eyes cast relaxed towards the ground 50m ahead. The final turn was all but a formality, with a minute left on the clock and 200m left to run, he simply looked effortless, crossing the line in 1:59:30 as the first man to break 2 hours for the marathon in legal race conditions. Kejelcha, for his efforts, became the second man under the barrier with a 1:59:41. You’d be forgiven for thinking Kiplimo would have been disappointed with third, but his 2:00:28 also brings him under the old World Record.

But with this said, what is it that powers these race performances? One thing that Sawe and Assefa have in common, other than both being Adidas athletes, is their fuelling system. Both are Maurten powered athletes, working closely alongside their team of scientists and researchers to develop optimal fuelling strategies and test products in real-life training situations.

One of the scientists that does just this is Maurten’s Head of Sports Technology and Product Scientist, Joshua Rowe. Based in Leeds, Joshua has worked closely with athletes to develop hydrogel carbohydrate fuelling systems that allow for high-carb intake with low GI distress. At The Club Lounge four days prior to the double world record day, we hosted a live podcast recording with Joshua to dive into the science and findings of this work, and more specifically his close work with Sabastian Sawe on the sub-2 project.

Amongst many of Joshua’s insights was just how closely he works with athletes in gathering data specifically for their own needs. Amongst his other work, Josh pointed us to an incredibly detailed study where he and Sawe’s team mapped the entire fuelling and carbohydrate oxidation rates of Sabastian during a 30km training run in the build-up to the London Marathon vs his build up to Berlin Marathon in 2025. The key takeaway was that his progressive fuelling strategy allowed Sawe to run a progressive pace in both training runs, highlighting the power of hydrogel technology to enhance maximal carb uptake.

Another note was the exact differences between hydrogels and ‘regular’ gels. Hydrogels effectively are ‘wrapped’ in a coating of gel, allowing them to be absorbed more cleanly into the system, whereas ‘regular’ gels sit in the stomach and can cause GI distress, particularly at high volumes of consumption and under high fatigue.

If you’d like to look back and listen to the full conversation with Joshua, you can do so here.

For more Maurten product, find the full collection online here and in-store at Runlimited.