Sunday morning in Greenwich. Tens of thousands of runners packed the start corrals, and somewhere in the mix were 76 people who weren’t just trying to finish. They wanted their names in a book.
By the time the last finisher crossed The Mall, 38 Guinness World Records titles had been set or broken. One of them belonged to Sabastian Sawe, who ran the marathon in 1:59:30 and rewrote what most people thought a human could do over 26.2 miles. Another belonged to a guy from the Netherlands who finished the same race in actual wooden clogs.
Both of them got the same medal. That’s the strange, brilliant thing about London.
Sawe finally puts a marathon under two hours, for real this time
Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019, but that effort had rotating pacers and a controlled course, and it was never going into the record books. Every official marathon since then had stayed on the wrong side of two hours. Some by a lot. Some by a heartbreaking few seconds.
Sawe ended the wait. He crossed the line in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Ten seconds faster than Kipchoge’s exhibition run, in a race anyone could enter, with standard pacing and a course used for record purposes. The two-hour barrier, the one runners have been talking about for the better part of a decade, is gone.
For the win and the world record, Sawe walked away with around $355,000 in prize and bonus money. He has already said he wants to go after 1:58 next.
Assefa keeps the women’s record in her name
Tigst Assefa wasn’t going to let the day belong to one runner. The Ethiopian extended her own world record for the fastest marathon by a woman in a women-only race, finishing in 2:15:41.
She has now held that mark across two London editions. Nobody is close.
Archie Hunt, dressed as a book character, ran a 2:27
Most people who put on a costume for London are aiming for a finish, a fundraising total, and a good photo. Archie Hunt ran 2:27:41 dressed as a book character, which is a time that would beat almost every club runner in Britain on a normal Sunday. He was the third world record of the day.
The clogs. Both pairs of them.
This is where London earns its reputation. Two different runners showed up in clog-based footwear, and both got records.
Harley Smith ran the entire course in foam clogs and finished in 2:47:42. That is a serious time. Foam clogs are not designed for forward motion at any speed, let alone for six hours of pounding pavement at sub-six-minute miles.
Then there is Jorden Teunissen, who decided foam was for amateurs and ran in actual wooden clogs. His finish time was 6:27:17. Take a moment with that. Six and a half hours, in shoes carved out of a tree. For comparison, take a look at the carbon-plated super shoes the elites were wearing up front.
Rhino Boy hits 132
Chris Green has a thing he does. He runs marathons dressed as a rhino, and he has done it more times than most people have run any marathon at all. On Sunday he pushed his career total in the same three-dimensional costume to 132. Nobody else is in the conversation.
A man knitted a scarf
Simon Fannon ran the marathon while knitting. He finished in 5 hours, 48 minutes and 8 seconds with a 5.59-metre scarf trailing behind him. There is no neat way to describe this except to picture it: 26.2 miles of London, click click click, a scarf getting longer.
Records that were never about the costume
Plenty of Sunday’s record attempts had nothing to do with novelty. Chelsea Grogan ran 2:59:32, the fastest marathon by a woman with multiple sclerosis, dipping under three hours with a chronic neurological condition. Jennifer Ferris ran 3:24:45 as the fastest finisher with a double mastectomy. Megan Sullivan posted 4:44:33 with a unilateral hip replacement.
Mark Goulder ran 3:16:46 blindfolded, tethered to a guide for the entire course. Matthew Akpan ran 3:19:16 in the II1 visual impairment category. Charlotte Laitner, 26 years and 244 days old, became the youngest woman to finish a marathon in the II2 category, with a time of 7:28:03.
Those finishes don’t make the highlight reels the way Sawe’s does. They probably should.
The full list of records set
For the runners who like the receipts, here is everyone who walked away from London on Sunday with a Guinness World Records title, according to the London Marathon, ordered by finish time.
- Sabastian Sawe — Fastest marathon (male): 1:59:30
- Tigst Assefa — Fastest marathon (female, women-only race): 2:15:41
- Archie Hunt — Fastest marathon dressed as a book character (male): 2:27:41
- George Carley — Fastest marathon dressed as a cheerleader (male): 2:46:48
- Harley Smith — Fastest marathon wearing foam clogs (male): 2:47:42
- Ben Green — Fastest marathon dressed as a supervillain (male): 2:48:15
- Alexander Betts — Fastest marathon dressed as an academic (male): 2:55:26
- Chelsea Grogan — Fastest marathon with multiple sclerosis (female): 2:59:32
- Mark Peart — Fastest marathon in a firefighter’s uniform: 3:02:57
- Keyur Gudka — Fastest marathon dressed in traditional Indian dress (male): 3:08:10
- Mark Goulder — Fastest marathon blindfolded (tethered) (male): 3:16:46
- Matthew Akpan — Fastest marathon (male) (II1): 3:19:16
- Sadique Ahamed — Fastest marathon dressed in traditional Emirati dress (male): 3:19:20
- Thomas Dixon — Fastest marathon in cricket kit (male): 3:19:28
- Boudewijn Dominicus — Fastest marathon wearing a suit and dress shoes (male): 3:21:42
- Jennifer Ferris — Fastest marathon with a double mastectomy (female): 3:24:45
- Tony Locke — Fastest marathon dressed as a sweet food (male): 3:24:58
- Dale Palmer — Fastest marathon in netball kit (female): 3:28:51
- Stuart Hayes — Fastest marathon dressed as an emoji (male): 3:31:39
- Sharon Jones — Fastest marathon dressed as a swimmer (female): 3:35:17
- Dan Hudson — Fastest marathon dressed as a microphone (male): 3:35:51
- Reef Rounding — Fastest marathon dressed as a camera: 3:36:50
- Tejmaya Regmi Sigdel — Fastest marathon dressed in traditional Nepalese dress (female): 3:37:50
- Harley Law — Fastest marathon dressed as a mythical creature (male): 3:49:56
- Rebecca Elliot — Fastest marathon dressed as a clown (female): 3:58:27
- Sebastian Burley — Fastest marathon in a full-body inflatable costume (male): 4:00:33
- Katie White — Fastest marathon dressed in traditional Korean dress (female): 4:13:03
- Joanne Robinson and Emma Langstaff — Fastest marathon in a two-person inflatable costume (female): 4:15:40
- Matt Batchelor — Fastest marathon dressed as a three-dimensional toy (male): 4:19:23
- Sotiris Georgiopoulos — Fastest marathon dressed as an electrical engineer (male): 4:21:05
- James Dowsett — Fastest marathon dressed as a Knight (male): 4:21:10
- Iain Grigor — Fastest marathon dressed as a train (male): 4:43:46
- Megan Sullivan — Fastest marathon with unilateral hip replacement (female): 4:44:33
- Harriet Lucero — Fastest marathon dressed in a football/soccer kit (female): 4:52:17
- Simon Fannon — Longest scarf knitted whilst running a marathon: 5.59 m in 5:48:08
- Jorden Teunissen — Fastest marathon wearing clogs (male): 6:27:17
- Charlotte Laitner — Youngest person to complete a marathon (II2) (female): 26 years, 244 days in 7:28:03
- Chris “Rhino Boy” Green — Most marathons run in the same three-dimensional costume (male): 132
