Earlier this month and last month, two marathon world records were broken over the course of just two weeks, one in Berlin, and the other in Chicago.

On Sept. 24 in Berlin, Ethiopian runner Tigst Assefa ran 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 53 seconds, smashing the women’s world record by over two minutes. The previous record set by Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei in 2019 stood at 2:14:04.

Assefa started off as a short distance runner, representing Ethiopia in the 2016 Olympics for the 800m, but was unable to secure a medal. She then switched to longer road races as an Achilles tendon injury prevented her from running in spikes. Her marathon debut featured a relatively modest time of 2 hours and 34 minutes, in which she placed just seventh overall due to an injury. She then came out of nowhere in her second race to win one of the fastest in the world, the 2022 Berlin Marathon. Finally late last month, she broke the world record in just her third marathon ever.

In Chicago, on Oct. 8, the men’s world record was broken by Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum with a time of 2 hours and 35 seconds, bringing the world closer to breaking the 2-hour barrier. 

Kiptum has run only three career marathons so far, all in just ten months, and finished with some of history’s fastest times: 2:01:53 in Valencia and 2:01:25 in London. His third marathon broke the world record by 34 seconds, previously held by Eliud Kipchoge.

Kipchoge had been known as the world’s best marathon runner for much of the last decade and won two Olympic gold medals for the race. He is also the only person to have run a marathon in under two hours when he finished in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 40.2 seconds in Vienna, Austria. However, that time was ineligible for the world record as he ran with pacers who deflected air resistance and saved him an estimated three and a half minutes.

For now, the two hour marathon is still out of reach, but Kelvin Kiptum’s new record is a step in the right direction to finally achieving it.