World record was a marathon, not a sprint

The man who made marathon history by breaking the two-hour barrier spent Oct 18 celebrating the achievements of thousands of other runners in Beijing.

After rain the previous day, sunshine returned to the Chinese capital, where a clear blue sky and crisp autumn air greeted participants of the 2026 Beijing Marathon.

Kenyan world-record holder Sabastian Sawe, 31, presented awards to race winners, met with participants and handed out commemorative gifts to finishers at the mass-participation event, which brought 32,000 runners to the streets of the nation's capital.

For Sawe, the visit offered a chance to connect with runners whose ambitions extended beyond the elite field.

During his first visit to China, he also met runners at the Temple of Heaven and students at Peking University, sharing lessons from a career shaped by patience, discipline and persistence.

His message was simple: extraordinary results are built through ordinary efforts, repeated day after day.

Sawe made history at the London Marathon on April 26, clocking 1:59:30 to become the first man to complete a marathon in under two hours in a race eligible for official records. He lowered the previous men's world record of 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, by 65 seconds.

His performance followed Eliud Kipchoge's 1:59:40 run at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 2019. Although Kipchoge was the first person to cover the marathon distance in under two hours, his time did not qualify as an official world record because the event was not conducted under standard competitive conditions.

Born in Kenya in 1995, Sawe won the men's half marathon at the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships. He made his marathon debut in Valencia, Spain, in 2024, winning in 2:02:05, before claiming victories in London and Berlin in 2025.

Asked whether he had ever considered giving up during the demanding and often repetitive preparation, Sawe said he had remained focused on his goal.

"If you have prepared for something, you keep focusing on it and working to achieve good results," he said.

Yet his visit to Beijing was not solely about the numbers on the clock. In conversations with runners and students, Sawe returned to a theme familiar to athletes at every level: progress requires patience, and the pursuit of faster times must be balanced with care for the body.

At the Temple of Heaven on Oct 17, Sawe took part in an event exploring the relationship between time, effort and the pursuit of athletic goals. During a calligraphy activity, he wrote the traditional Chinese proverb yifengengyun, yifenshouhuo — which conveys the idea that sustained hard work brings rewards — a fitting reflection of his belief.

Sawe spoke about the difficulties runners encounter along the way, including injuries and periods when progress seems to stall.

Rather than treating such obstacles as reasons to abandon a goal, he emphasized the importance of remaining patient, maintaining discipline and continuing to work steadily toward improvement.

That message resonated with Ng Ka-nok, captain of a Hong Kong-based running team, who attended the event.

Ng said he was delighted that Sawe had been invited to China, describing the opportunity to meet the world-record holder as particularly meaningful for someone involved in running. Ng said he had been impressed by the Kenyan's dedication to training.

"Breaking the two-hour barrier is an incredible achievement. As runners, we are excited to see what he has accomplished," he said.

Ng added that Sawe's presence at the Beijing Marathon could inspire recreational runners, many of whom aspire to break three hours. Sawe's discipline and experience, he said, offered useful lessons for runners facing setbacks of their own.

"His story of overcoming injuries and not giving up can encourage runners to keep training and working toward their goals," Ng said.

The importance of patience was also central to Sawe's meeting with students at Peking University, where he led a running master class and shared advice with young people interested in the sport.

For young runners, Sawe emphasized the importance of enjoying the sport, building fitness gradually and following a structured training plan.

"When you're new to running, you need to love what you're doing, be patient and disciplined. Don't rush your training programs, and follow what your coach gives you," he said.

"Don't push yourself to your limit," Sawe said.

He advised young runners to follow their coaches' guidance and give recovery the same attention as training. Massage, physical therapy and proper nutrition, he explained, can help athletes manage the physical demands of running and reduce the risk of injury.

The advice reflects a central challenge in distance running, where the desire to improve can sometimes lead athletes to increase their mileage or intensity too quickly. For recreational runners, especially those preparing for their first marathon, gradual progress and injury prevention can be just as important as speed.

Sawe's own career has also involved managing physical setbacks. He withdrew from the 2026 Berlin Marathon in August because of injury, missing the race scheduled for Sept 27. His withdrawal was a reminder that even elite athletes must sometimes step back from competition to recover.

As Sawe shared his philosophy off the course, the pursuit of new milestones continued on it. On Oct 18, Olympic champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia won the Beijing Marathon in 2:03:10, setting a new course record. The second — and third-placed finishers also bettered the previous mark, while China's Li Dalin clocked a personal best of 2:08:30 to top the domestic men's field — proving that the drive to push boundaries remains as strong as ever.