The Economist.
This year's London Marathon was a record breaker.
In the men's race, Sebastian Sawe became the first athlete ever
to run a competitive marathon in less than two hours.
An historic performance, 1:59:30, absolutely...
It was an astonishing new world record.
Around 10 seconds later, here he is, Yomif Kejelcha also managed
a sub-two-hour time in his very first marathon.
From a physical standpoint, that was something
I don't think any of us thought we would ever see.
In the women's race, Tigst Assefa managed to retain her title.
Well ahead of everybody.
She also set a new world record by about 10 seconds.
If the events of the weekend have inspired you,
then you're listening to the right podcast.
Here at The Economist, we regularly scrutinize the science behind the health advice,
the fads and the fitness trends in the news for our Well Informed column.
This week the question on our minds was
how have athletes managed to get so much faster in their running?
We've been combing through the scientific literature to bring you