One hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. That’s the winning time for Sunday’s London Marathon winner, Sebastian Sawe, who did something no human had ever done before: run a marathon in an official race in under two hours. In case you were wondering, that is an average pace of 4:33 per mile or 13.16 miles per hour. (For comparison, in 1862, a runner named George Farran set the world record for the mile by running at 4:33.)
And yet, not only did Sawe break the 2-hour barrier for a marathon win, but the second-place runner, Yomif Kejelcha, also broke that barrier with a time of 1:59:41–in his marathon debut. A first-time marathoner managed to run one of the two fastest marathons in history, likely because of who he happened to be running next to.
Sawe’s pace was helpful to Kejelcha, and Kejelcha’s pace was helpful to Sawe’s. Both are highly skilled runners, and together, they pushed each other to success. The concept is simple: If we know someone else can do something, then we can too.
It’s why I purposely seek out ambitious and skilled friends, and you should too.
To keep reading, click here: Two Men Broke a Barrier No Human Had Ever Broken. Neither Did It Alone.