Marathons are notoriously brutal. And even more so when you’re looking to smash the historic two-hour barrier. Nearly seven years have passed since Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in Vienna, Austria, at INEOS’ carefully curated 1:59 Challenge. The wait for an equivalent performance in record-legal conditions, while always a case of when and not if, had been getting tantalisingly longer.

But that fabled sub-2-hour time for a marathon has been broken, officially, in a once-inconceivable achievement in sports. Not by one runner, but two. In what ESPN called “a race for the ages”, Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds on Sunday, shattering the previous men’s world record by an astonishing 65 seconds. Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, running his first marathon, finished second in 1:59:41.

So what’s going on? The Athletic says a few things have happened at once. The conditions are key. Last year London was especially warm and sunny, while winds made things challenging in 2024. Temperatures on Sunday were around 13C (55F) at race start and 16C (60F) by the finish. For east Africans, these are mild conditions.

And then there are the shoes. This year marks a decade of the super shoes era, defined by the pivot to chunky, maximalist sneakers embedded with a carbon plate. These have revolutionized the sport. While it was Nike who broke the market with their Vaporfly, other brands have caught up and adidas dominates the podiums currently.

And Sawe told the Associated Press that he hopes the stringent testing regime he underwent before the race will prove to the world he is competing clean. There have been a slew of high-profile doping cases involving Kenyan runners in recent years, notably women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepng’etich getting a three-year ban in October. So, in agreement with his coaches and management team, Sawe said he volunteered to undergo “multiple” doping tests to dispel any suspicion around his own performances, including victories at last year’s marathons in Berlin and London.

There’s still not much progress to report in terms of a peace deal. As King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived at the White House Monday for a four-day U.S. visit, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who pledged to do “everything” possible to bring peace to the Middle East, amid the stalled talks.

Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, but Trump is not keen on this second proposal sent by Tehran. An official told Reuters that Trump was unhappy it did not address nuclear concerns.

Meanwhile, Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz said that America is “being humiliated” by Iran, as he criticized Washington’s attempts to extricate itself from the war. But perhaps he’s just upset as brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is still well above $100 a barrel and hovering around a three-week high.

Losing your hair, for men, was once largely inevitable and nearly universal. Two-thirds of American men will experience hair thinning by their mid-30s, and 85% will experience significant hair loss by 50, according to the American Hair Loss Association. Today that’s no longer true. Celebrities and others who can afford it shell out up to $20,000 to get hair transplants, but prevention and hair-growth treatments are certainly easier (and more affordable).

And scientists may’ve discovered that there’s a drug-free option that works by jump-starting circulation where it matters most—something current options barely touch. Researchers believe that sugar naturally occurring in the human body can help stimulate healthy hair growth. The team simulated testosterone-based balding in mice and treated them with deoxyribose sugar, which stimulated blood vessel formation and ultimately caused hair regrowth.

With only two drugs licensed by the FDA to treat male pattern baldness, a naturally occurring condition brought on by genetics, aging, stress, and hormones, Popular Mechanics reports that doctors now believe that researchers are on track for something altogether new. Something effective and without any worrisome side effects.