Sabastian Sawe Ran 1:59:30 at London. The Film Behind the Number.

April 26, 2026. The London Marathon. Sabastian Sawe crossed the finish line in 1:59:30. That is not a typo. Sawe, 23, from Kenya, became the first person in history to officially break the two-hour barrier in a sanctioned World Athletics marathon event. Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 2019, a controlled environment with pacemakers on a closed circuit, but that run was not eligible for world record status under standard competition rules. Sawe's 1:59:30 was. In the same race, Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha finished in 1:59:41. Two men under two hours, in the same race, in one afternoon. ## 97 Grams. The Shoe That Ran It. Sawe wore the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 at the 2026 London Marathon. The shoe weighs approximately 97 grams. For reference, the average human foot weighs roughly 1,300 grams. A running shoe at 97 grams is approaching the weight of a thick sock. The Evo 3 was the debut race appearance of the shoe. Adidas did not release it before the London Marathon. They brought it to the start line for the first time in competition, with the athlete who held the previous world record (Sawe had already run 2:02:27 in London 2025 and 2:02:16 in Berlin 2025), and it broke the barrier that no standardized competition had broken before. The shoe technology that made this possible: a carbon-fiber plate embedded in a foam stack designed to return energy at the moment of toe-off, the specific phase of the running stride where efficiency determines over 40% of metabolic cost at marathon pace. The Evo 2 was already the lightest marathon shoe in the performance category. The Evo 3 is lighter by eleven grams. ## "Chasing Sub 2" Is a Full Documentary Film Adidas produced a full documentary film called "Chasing Sub 2" documenting the campaign to break the two-hour barrier. The film traces Sawe's preparation from 2024 through the London finish line in April 2026. It is available now on Adidas' YouTube channel, which is where the Instagram signal pointed: "Watch the full Chasing Sub 2 film on adidas YouTube now." The decision to release the film simultaneously with the race result is a specific rollout strategy. Adidas had access to the footage during Sawe's training blocks, during the Berlin 2025 race where he set the previous record, and during the London buildup. They held everything until the moment the barrier was broken, then dropped the full narrative arc in one piece. That is the film world's equivalent of the album drop over the single cycle. No pre-release clips. No trailer. The entire story, from first training session to 1:59:30, in one sitting. ## The Record Sawe Is Not Talking About Yet Sawe's London 2025 result, 2:02:27, was itself a course record for that year's field. His Berlin 2025 result, 2:02:16, set on the world's fastest certified marathon course, put him at the front of the pre-London 2026 conversation. The progression, 2:02:27 to 2:02:16 to 1:59:30, is not linear. That last step is a 2:46 improvement in six months. Sport scientists covering the result have noted that Sawe's training block between Berlin and London included a specific altitude protocol in the Kenyan highlands that his coaching team has not detailed publicly. The Evo 3 shoe is part of the story. The training methodology is the larger part. ## What Adidas Just Moved on the Market Nike has the Vaporfly and the Alphafly. For the last five years, those two shoes have been associated with every major world marathon record set under competition conditions. Kipchoge's Vienna 1:59:40 was in a Nike prototype. His Berlin 2023 world record (2:00:35 at the time) was in the Alphafly 3. Sawe's 1:59:30 is now the number everyone references first. It happened in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a shoe that weighs 97 grams and had never raced before the morning of April 26, 2026. Adidas is not the shoe brand associated with breaking limits in marathon racing. Was not, until last week. The "Chasing Sub 2" film is the document that gets shown in boardrooms and shoe stores and running community group chats for the next decade. If Sawe runs 1:58 in Berlin this fall, that film is already made.