What if the same pair of shoes were behind three marathon world records—and the extraordinary feat of the first marathon completed in under two hours?

The 2026 London Marathon is a historic event already, thanks to the time recorded by Kenyan Sabastian Kimaru Sawe. He is the first athlete to complete a 26.2-mile race in less than two hours, something long considered impossible for humans, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds.

Making the London Marathon even more memorable was the performance of Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who stopped the clock just 11 seconds after Sawe. Both performances shattered the previous record of 2 hours and 35 seconds set by Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023.

These resounding runs were enriched by another twist. Fans who filled the streets of the English capital witnessed another world record achieved by Ethiopian Tigst Assefa, who finished the women's marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 41 seconds.

Fancy Footwear

Along with talent and a lifetime of training, Sawe, Kejelcha, and Assefa have another element in common: They each wore the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 shoe, which Adidas debuted on the eve of the London Marathon. (The shoes will also go on sale soon for $500, though only through Adidas’ official app.)

The shoe that propelled all three runners to world record performances are the lightest model of sneaker ever made by the German manufacturer. At just 97 grams, the Evo 3 features carbon-fiber elements integrated into the sole that improve the shoe’s stiffness. The Evo 3 uses Adidas’ Lightstrike Pro Evo foam, which is the company’s lightest and springiest composite. The outsole features a rubber panel on the forefoot.

The new shoe was designed by a team led by Patrick Nava, an Italian engineer who joined Adidas in 2019 and has headed up the running division since last October. The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is the result of a long development process between tests at the company's labs at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, (about 120 miles north of Munich) and field tests at high altitude in Kenya and Ethiopia that gleaned the athletes' sensations and reactions.

“It was a long process, because at the highest level every detail really matters, so we measured everything down to the nanogram,” Nava says.

Stepping Stones

The running world arrived at this new era for the sport on the first road test of the new footwear. Adidas has been in fierce competition with Nike for years. The Oregon company has its own Breaking2 project to make shoes that would enable runners to break the two-hour mark. In 2017, Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in 2 hours and 24 seconds in Monza, Italy. He then cleared the two-hour mark two years later in Vienna, Austria, when he stopped the clock at 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds. That time was not considered and official world record because of privileged race conditions: It wasn't part of an officially sanctioned race, and pacemakers took turns running with him.

But Kipchoge’s runs remain significant milestones in approaching the historic time recorded by Sawe who, under the guidance of his coach Claudio Berardelli, has dedicated the past two years of his life to this challenge. This is his fourth marathon win, and he has undergone doping tests during the entire preparation period in order to clear the field of possible suspicions about an unprecedented performance.

This story was originally published by WIRED Italia, and has been translated from Italian.