Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon

by Ed Caesar

Just published to extraordinary acclaim in Britain as “Hoop Dreams for runners” (The Spectator) and “a celebration of the human spirit” (The Observer), Two Hours is the first book from a blazing new talent who “has established himself as perhaps the best new long-form magazine writer since the arrival of John Jeremiah Sullivan” (The Guardian) and whose “reportage has the wonderfully old-fashioned feel of the very best of American journalism” (The Sunday Times).

Two hours to cover twenty-six miles and 385 yards. It is running’s Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we can glimpse the mountaintop. The sub-two hour marathon will require an exceptional combination of speed, mental strength, and endurance. The pioneer will have to endure more, live braver, plan better, and be luckier than anyone who has run before. So who will it be?

In this spellbinding book, journalist Ed Caesar takes us into the world of elite marathoners: some of the greatest runners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, like Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, around whom the narrative is built, Caesar traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology, and psychology involved in running so fast for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its brutal, enthralling appeal—and why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit.

Two Hours is a book about a beautiful sport few people understand. It takes us from big-money races in the United States and Europe to remote villages in Kenya. It’s about talent, heroism, and refusing to accept defeat. It is a book about running that is about much more than running. It is a human drama like no other.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, Science, Audiobook, Biography, Fitness, Kenya

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 16, 2015

About the author

Ed Caesar is a British author and feature writer who contributes to the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Outside, the Sunday Times Magazine of London and British GQ. Caesar was named Writer of the Year in 2013 by the U.K.'s Professional Publishers Association.

Reviews

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are hardwired to discover new ways to challenge ourselves

To run a 26 miles and 365 yards of a marathon in under two hours it would be necessary to run at an average pace of 4 hours 34 seconds per mile. This book sets out to explore the likelihood of this happening and, if it were to happen, what the key levers would be that would enable this achievement.

OK, so maybe it’s one for running aficionados! But lots of people do run – not to anything remotely close to the standard required to approach this level of performance, but sufficient to be able to fully appreciate what a crazy pinnacle this really is. To put it into some context, the average finish time for over 38,000 runners in the 2014 London Marathon was around four and a half hours. A decent goal for a good high school runner would be to run a single mile in under 5 minutes.

The author delves into the history of the race and digs up some interesting facts about its origin and its growth into a mass participation event. It seems that just about every large city has its own marathon these days and having run in London, Berlin and Paris (amongst others) I certainly appreciate the appeal of these events. It’s an opportunity to participate (albeit distantly) in the same event as world class athletes. At the same time, it’s a chance to challenge yourself and often to raise money for a worthy cause.

But the main focus here is on the elite athletes as they chip away at the world record time and get ever closer to the two-hour mark. The current world record is 2:02:57. Not so far off then? Well, maybe not but some experts still suggest it is physiologically impossible for humans to achieve this goal. In this book the author takes a different stance and feels that the achievement is inevitable… eventually. The physiological, mental, environmental and training impediments are closely examined – often using outputs from serious scientific study. I found it all totally fascinating.

So that’s the history and the science, but the secondary element to this book – and the one that really grabbed me and hauled me through it in two sessions - is the account of top Kenyan runner Geoffrey Mutai. Geoffrey comes from the Rift Valley area of Kenya and, in fact, originates from a tribe that produces most of the best marathon runners in the world. Like just about everyone he grew up with he didn’t wear a pair of shoes until his teenage years and his childhood and early adolescence were memorable mainly because of its general impoverishment and the sheer effort required just to get by, day to day. His story is interspersed with the scientific study and it works really well. It elevates what might have been considered a pretty dry academic text into something with much more depth and feeling.

I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’d urge anyone interested in marathon running or even sport in general to take a look at it. I found it inspiring.

[Ilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good journalism and storytelling. Being perfectly honest I don't know how much interest this book will hold for non-runners, but I found it fascinating. There are four main themes there - the history of marathon running, the assault on the titular "two hours" record, the analysis of Kenyan running phenomenon and the story of one of the top Kenyan marathon runners - Geoffrey Mutai. The themes are interlinked and well balanced. I personally enjoyed the history of the marathon racing the most.

I have two minor criticisms with this book, which prevent me from giving it five stars. One is perhaps rather childish - it is about the following phrase:

"In the first Olympic marathon, in 1896, only the Greek winner, Spyridon Louis, broke three hours. Now any club runner worth his salt can run faster."

I know that this is the book about the marathon elite and from the elite point of view the 3-hours marathon represents a snail pace, but I dislike this statement nevertheless. Especially considering that Ed Caesar does not mention his own marathon PB :)

Secondly all the talk about the reasons why the Kenyan runners are superior seem to diminish their achievements. With superior genetics and running-favouring conditions they are in a league of their own. Nobody denies them hard work and grit, but all these natural gifts make it more difficult to relate to them as book characters.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Mutai is a Kenyan, a Kalenjin, and a Kipsigis. He was born in the village of Equator, which sits at nearly 9,000 feet in the lush highlands at the western escarpment of the Rift Valley, and, as its name suggests, at the belt-line of the world. He is a husband, a father, a son, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin, a coach, a businessman, and a potentate. He is a rich man who grew up without shoes.”


A retelling of the marathon, from its roots of origin, to how it exists today. You will read of the history of how it has found its way to cities like Boston, New York, and London. He has put before the reader facts, true lives he accounts on, and one great runner he expounds on right from his youth to his most recent achievements. The author successful puts in the readers mind a story behind the face, the winner, the elite athlete, Geoffrey Mutai, his life, his struggle, and the whole human drama and journey the marathon incorporates.

The telling, the facts, read well, and the author handles them with style and presents to the read a work that is insightful, easy reading, and a joy to read at the same time.
This tale would appeal to the athlete, the casual jogger, and to the reader that is just curious of what the marathon is about.

Excerpts

“Why does it matter whether the sub-two-hour marathon is possible? And if it is possible, what will it mean when the first 1:59:59 marathon is run? At one level, the achievement will signify nothing. To complete 26 miles and 385 yards in less than two hours using only one’s God-given gifts would be, of course, an exceptional feat of speed, mental strength, and endurance. But the marathon length is a scruffy figure, only fixed by the Olympic Committee in 1921 to match the course of the 1908 London Olympic marathon, which was itself designed to accommodate the peculiar viewing demands of the British royal family. Why should we care if some extraordinary person can run this arbitrary distance in just over, or just under, two hours? For curious reasons, we do care and it does matter. Twenty-six miles and 385 yards is not just a distance. It has become a metaphor. Nobody finds the marathon easy—even professionals, especially professionals. The distance is democratic that way. Everyone who runs a marathon is running against his or her limits. Everyone is forced to manage a certain amount of pain and to recruit hidden reserves. Whatever one’s talent or preparation, nobody runs an easy marathon. Geoffrey Mutai’s prayer at the startline is not to win the race, but to finish it. On the other side of the coin, the marathon is also a race that is possible for almost anyone with enough patience and willpower to complete. The distance is democratic that way, too. For this reason, it has become an event against which hordes of everyday people—fat people, thin people; people crooked by time and people sprightly as foals; rich people and people in need—test themselves. I’m running against cancer. I’m running for my dad. I’m running for a personal best. As Chris Brasher, cofounder of the London Marathon, once said, the race has become “the great suburban Everest.” Now, in the popular imagination, the marathon is not primarily a test of athletic talent, but a test of character. The race has become a carnival of men and women, some in outrageous costumes, each attempting to overcome a personal hurdle for the public good, or a public hurdle for a personal good. A British man named Lloyd Scott is perhaps the most extreme of these charitable masochists. Among other stunts, he has completed both the New York and London marathons in an antiquated deep-sea diving suit weighing 130 pounds, and has raised nearly £5 million for charity in the past decade. When he received the MBE (Member of the British Empire) honor from the Queen for his fund-raising feats, he said that it should stand for “Mad, Bonkers, and Eccentric.”

“In these final moments of stillness, however, Mutai banished impure thoughts and the crowding, conflicted voices. He attempted to focus. Psychologists talk about a Zen-like state of instinctual action in which the greatest sporting performances are attained. They call it Flow. The French cyclist Jean Bobet described a similar but distinct experience called La Volupté, which “is delicate, intimate and ephemeral. It arrives, it takes hold of you, sweeps you up and then leaves you again. It is for you alone. It is a combination of speed and ease, force and grace. It is pure happiness.” Mutai has his own term: the Spirit. The way he understood it, the brutality of his training regime—125 fierce miles a week—was endured to attain this sensation. Thousands of hours of suffering for these minutes of sweetness: speed and ease, force and grace. The more harder you train, he would say, the more you get the Spirit. . . . It gains on you. So far, in his career, the Spirit had allowed Mutai the courage to remake the sport of marathon running, and to destroy previous conceptions of what was possible; to lose his own fear, and implant it in the hearts of his competitors.”

“In Boston, Mutai picked as never before. On the cold morning of April 18, 2011, with a breeze at his back, he beat his countryman Moses Mosop in a thrilling race, and finished in a time of 2:03:02-a course record by nearly three minutes, and almost one minute faster than Haile Gebreselassie’s world record of 2:03:59. Mosop finished four seconds behind Mutai, in 2:03:06. These were absurd, freakish times. Despite its length, the professional marathon is a sport of tiny margins—a few seconds here, a few seconds there. Nobody in the modern era had broken a course record at a major marathon by nearly three minutes before Mutai. Looking on, the American marathon great, Bill Rodgers, who was himself a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon, thought the clocks were broken. “It was something incredible,” said Rodgers. “I ran with a tailwind in Boston one day, and I ran 2:09:55. He ran more than six minutes faster!” The clocks were working. However, Mutai’s run would not stand as an official world record. It is one of many bizarre quirks of the sport of professional road running that, despite being the oldest continuously contested marathon in the world, Boston does not count for world record purposes.”

“It was not a brick wall. On May 6, 1954, despite dire prognostications from armchair pundits, some of whom believed a human would die if he attempted to run a mile in under four minutes, a junior doctor named Roger Bannister ran 3:59:4 for the mile at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford, England. The world of athletics moved on fast. Six weeks after Bannister made history, Landy himself obliterated the new world record, running 3:58 dead. In the years that followed, sub-four-minute miles became commonplace among elite athletes. (In 2011, the fifth American high school boy broke the barrier.) The four-minute mile was only unbreakable until one man broke it. “Après moi,” said Bannister, “le déluge.”

Review also at more2read.com/review/two-hours-by-ed-caesar/

[Tara - runningnreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not exactly what I'd expected, Ed Caesar has done a remarkable job of cohesively stringing together information that he's gathered over much time spent with elite Kenyan (primarily, there is also some exposure to Ethiopian elites, as well) runners; he has given generously of his time, resources, skills and goodwill to make these interviews and fact-finding missions possible. In return, he has been provided unprecedented access to international races, athletes, their coaches and their culture to share an update with readers, in layman's terms, on the quest to get closer to a mythical marathon finish time.

Although he interviews and writes about several other elite-level distance runners, and gives a succinct history and breakdown of the marathon as a distance race, the primary focus of this book is Geoffrey Mutai; Caesar formed a special bond with the athlete during his research for this book, and Mutai was very open with him about his background, his culture, the secrets of training in Kenya, his goals and dreams for the future. It's an inspiring and powerful story, and I'm grateful to the author for having shared this. If you've read a lot of other literature related to Kenyan running (for example, Running with the Kenyans) this may not be "news" to you; since I have not, I was very interested to hear about the background of some of these athletes and their lives outside the racing scene.

Having just finished watching the NYC Marathon last weekend, it was pretty fun to read about it's impact on the international racing world (as one of the World Marathon Majors) in this book. Normally, international elite runners are simply names on a bib (especially those from Kenya, since they seem to stay away from the press); it was interesting to have a little more story to go along with some of the faces. Caesar also explores the subject of drug use and recognizes the efforts of shoe companies to work with athletes toward this two-hour goal; what company wouldn't want to have their sponsored athlete hit this mark?

The ending is a little more abrupt than I prefer but, overall, I was impressed with his debut effort. In addition, I must draw attention to Caesar's notes at the back of the book; there is some fantastic information that was worth going through but I wish I'd done it while reading the book, instead of after I'd finished. I would recommend this to anyone who appreciates or is interested in the sport of distance running, runner or not; definitely worth the read.

[Matt Zar-Lieberman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fly-on-the-wall insider account is a hallmark of sports literature, and when the subjects are open and engaging and on-field happenings dramatic and captivating (think A Season on the Brink and more recently Collision Low Crossers) these books can be some of the best of genre. Long-distance running, more spectator-unfriendly than most other non-Curling sporting activities and beset by slim literary pickings once fictional (the John L Parker novels are decent but always dragged for me when Quentin wasn't running) and instructional (Lore of Running and Daniels' Running Formula are essential training guides but not exactly beach reads) fare are excluded, has never been subject to the insect-atop-plaster treatment.

This changes on October 27th, a little less than a week before this year's New York City Marathon, with Ed Caesar's Two Hours, a much-needed book that finally addresses the gap. Two Hours peels back the curtain on elite Kenyan runners and their training through three years of reporting and extensive interviews. Primarily centered around 2011 Boston Marathon champion Geoffrey Mutai, Caesar offers a peek into the life of an elite Kenyan marathoner and what it is like to subject oneself to running an elite marathon time (spoiler alert: turns out it's rather unpleasant). Many people may see the winners of big-money marathons as a revolving door of genetically-gifted Kenyans with amusing names and boring personalities (I'm sure that whole "English as a third/fourth language" thing doesn't help matters). Caesar does a phenomenal job at humanizing and making the reader care about Mutai, writing about how he channeled his restless drive to go from crushing rocks to form cement as an 18 year-old to traveling the world running marathons and becoming a millionaire in developed-world denominations (yet still spending most of his training time in a cramped house shared with other athletes without any electricity or running water). It's truly a fascinating look into the lives of top African marathoners with a level of detail that is, to my knowledge anyway, unprecedented.

Two Hours offers more than just these insider accounts. Its promotional blurb dubs it "the first major book about the marathon," and while PR departments are predisposed to immodesty and hyperbole, this is actually an accurate description. Caesar pursues a variety of detours into other aspects of marathon with Mutai's narrative serving as the major thread linking all the sections together. He chronicles the history of the marathon, profiling luminaries in the field ranging from Pheidippides to Emil Zatopek to Mutai and how humanity has managed to shave almost an hour from the top marathon time over the last century-and-a-half. There are also sections on performance enhancement and interviews with trainers and busted athletes and the science and genetics behind whether runners will ever break two hours in the marathon. Though topics such as the big business and complex logistics of putting on a major marathon aren't really touched upon and some readers may quibble with the fact that there are only a few fleeting mentions of female runners over the entire book, Caesar largely touches all the major bases around organized running events lasting 26.2 miles.

Two Hours is somewhat deceivingly named because it is already clear to any current marathon fans (there are dozens of us!) that runners remain several years away from being capable of sniffing such a time (if they even ever can at all). Caesar makes this point evident to the reader pretty early in the book as well. Instead, Two Hours is largely about elite marathoners in general and Mutai specifically and recent attempts at pushing the record closer, but now below, 2 hours. Mutai himself primarily focuses is on the slower and rabbit-less New York Marathon when Caesar follows him. There is no nail-biting account of some penultimate event where a top marathoner tries to go sub-2:00, though there are extended discussions about the science behind it (which are mercifully laymen-friendly yet scientifically sound and very well-explained) and the optimal conditions for such a race (a special track that strikes a perfect balance between springy and firm, rabbits to pace and allow drafting, and only a few elites to avoid multiple parties throwing down surges). At its core, Two Hours is basically everything you wanted to know about the marathon rather than being limited just to running a time with a 1 in front of it.

Caesar is a British author whose work has been featured in the likes of The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine. He is a gifted writer with a knack for lyrical and detailed prose on the act of running, adeptly describing each runner's unique gaits (including how Haile Gebreselassie had an awkward bend in his left elbow resulting from years of running carrying his schoolbooks) and the excitement of the surges and tactics of elites dueling in major marathons. I'm not sure whether Caesar is actually a runner or has any marathons under his belt (unsurprisingly he opted not to run alongside Mutai during his training sessions and instead used a motorcycle) but he writes with the same love for running and detail as the member of your local track club who gushes about the newest foam roller and spills seas of e-ink opining on the various merits of the different Garmin GPS watches.

As a marathoner who loves to geek out on LetsRun and honestly would seriously consider bringing Lore of Running to the beach (assuming I could fit that Brobdingnagian tome in my beach bag without breaking it) I've been eager to read Two Hours since I saw the positive review it received in The Economist when the book was released in the UK this summer. I'm pleased to report that it exceeded my expectations and may likely go down as my favorite sports book released in 2015. While depth is sometimes sacrificed for breadth, Two Hours is the best general-interest book on the marathon and a vital addition for any runner looking for an entertaining and comprehensive volume about long-distance running. I have tried to read everything I can get my hands on about running and marathoning, and I was still constantly learning new trivia tidbits (including how the pace clock for the lead pack stalled at an incorrect time during the 2012 Berlin Marathon and threw off runners' times, a thorough debunking of Pheidippides' claim to marathon trailblazing, and how the 1908 Olympic Marathon in London which standardized the 26.2 mile distance was actually found to be 174 yards short of 26.2 miles itself when re-measured roughly a century later, among many others) in addition to Caesar's in-depth examination into Mutai's life as an athlete. If you strictly prefer your ambulation with one foot always on the ground and don't understand all the hubbub around the marathon and its record times then you probably won't enjoy Two Hours. Given its subject matter I'm not sure Two Hours has the same crossover appeal as Chris McDougall's Born to Run which had a more extended and cohesive narrative and spearheaded an athletic shoe cushioning movement (that is actually somewhat debunked in Two Hours as many elites are now clamoring for firmer shoes with more cushioning and higher heel drops). That said, I can't recommend Two Hours strongly enough if you are even somewhat interested in participating in or following distance running as it is the best non-instructional book I've read on the topic.

9/10

[Nicolene Murdoch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on recommendation of my marathon-man husband. I really enjoyed it, because it does not only speak to running as a science and hobby, but also telling the personal and inspiring stories of running heroes who grew up in the mountains of Kenya and ended up breaking world records and making significant breakthroughs. I enjoyed the history of marathons and how it has become signature events in cities, not only for professional runners, but for people like me doing half marathons or even fun runs. I would be interested in the author's views on the latest achievements of Eliud Kipchoge in the INEOS 1:59 challenge in Vienna last year.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring, even though you will never come close to any of these athletes
I am a big fan of Ed Caesar, and read this book not for the running, but for Ed.

But I stayed for the running.


This is Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich.

You are not Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich.

And unless you are a Kalenjin from Kenya's Rift Valley - and probably not even then - you are not Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich.

What I mean by the above is that these runners just have fundamentally different bodies than you and I - born of genetics, training, and running six miles to school each way from an early age.

When they run, they expend less energy.

Their strides are longer, and more effortless -

I could go on and on, and yet -

This book is inspiring.

You will not break two hours for the marathon, but you do not need to

This book is filled with running - most of it competitively - but it is filled with running.

That in and of itself is inspiring.

And though only Kalenjin from one part of Kenya tend to get in the realm of breaking two hours for the marathon, they share a common humanity with the rest of us on the sidelines.

And that is what makes this book great - it shows human extremes, but we are along for the ride - cheering and hoping the runner makes it there in time!

[Tobias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof, this is a book that did not age well. I might have given it 4 stars, but the progress of the world record times for marathons and the individuals involved, have made this book rather... Stale. So three stars it is. The premise is fairly straightforward but the authors expectation was that a sub two hour marathon is still decade's away.

The book was published in 2015. One year before Nike launched the breaking2 project, (an idea which the last part of this book touches upon and dreams of happening).

Additionally, the book focuses on Geoffrey Mutai - the names of Wilson Kipsang and Eluid Kipchoge are far more famous to me reviewing in 2019 and perhaps it's my ignorance of the sport during Mutais dominance... But it feels very much like the author bet on the wrong horse and focused the narrative not so much on a no-name runner, but rather a budget Eluid Kipchoge.

Eluid Kipchoge is now dominating the scene, breaking world records and being part of Nikes sponsored breaking2, while Mutai's Story in the book has a rather uninspiring conclusion.

So, all in all, the bits about running and the marathons historical origins that this book includes are pretty good. The more contemporary references? Painfully outdated.

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This came out a year prior to the announcement of Nike's Breaking2 project, which I found funny as Adidas is mentioned consistently throughout the book. Some interesting stuff about training but ultimately just jumps around too much and could have been cut down.

[Jonathan Willitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both fascinating and inspiring. I only wish I'd read it 2 months earlier!

[Ron Christiansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for good sports writing, especially if it employs a broader historical and scientific lens. And Caesar does that here.

But the book's title is a bit misleading proposing a fairly narrow focus on the quest for a 2hr marthon. Yet Caesar actually elucidates the history of the marathon (did you know there were indoor 25 mile races in the 1800s with lots of fans and betting?). And adds to the conversation about Kenyan runners coming out of the Rift Valley. Covers and builds on others such as The Sports Gene by David Epstein.

Also, throughout, Caesar engages these themes and the quest to run a fast marathon through the personal story of Geoffrey Mutai. It's good journalism. We get the research alongside the details of Mutai's life who even after winning major marathons would live in a small hut with other runners, cooking his own food, during training season. Yet it's clear most of us only have a vague sense of what it means to be a Kenyan runner; much more to be learned here.

And that fact alone demonstrates the biggest takeaway for me: the unique nature of both the marathon as sport and of the marathon runners in Kenya. It's an odd sport given world-class marathoners can only compete in 2 maybe 3 marathons a year and that these marathons are mostly in big western cities with long histories. Not to mention that some of these runners can move from a life of subsistence to supporting a small village within a few years with no more than their running shoes and lots of training on dirt roads with groups of runners often organized and planned by elder runners not coaches or corporations.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a while to get into the writing. It didnt catch my full interest until about halfway.

I didnt like the set up with a break in Mutai´s story and a deviator into the history of marathon running. I was not able to read the book in a few sittings and therefore the plotline threw me off track.

The story did not flow for me. I forgot about stuff and I thought the writing was a bit chopped during the history part.

But the last 100 pages or so was pretty awesome. That caught my interest immensely. And I bet Nike read this book with eyes wide as rift valley. Def 4 stars.

[Michelle Sauvageau · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all the nerdy runners out there, this book is for you! For all the non-nerdy runners out there, I do not think you’d like this book! 😝

This book mostly follows the running career of Geoffrey Mutai, an elite Kenyan runner who set the fastest world marathon time at the Boston marathon in 2011 (2:03:02), but also dives into the history of the marathon, sports science behind the distance and records, and even addresses doping and steroid use. Very interesting read!

[John Scherer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25. Compelling portraits of elite Kenyan marathoners, as well as interesting threads about the history of marathons, the physiology and psychology of distance running, and potential doping in the field. Excellent read for this former runner, and even of interest to the neophyte.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book about marathon running and especially Kenyan marathon runners. Very well researched and full of little gems of knowledge but at the same time easy to read without getting bogged down too much in the nitty gritty.

[Sarah Spell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much I didn't know about the strategies and culture, though I probably will still never watch or run a marathon.

[Nicoletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breve ma interessantissimo, una ventata di energia e ispirazione. Lo consiglierei anche a chi non fosse appassionato di corsa nello specifico, é un bellissimo libro di sport.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and interesting especially considering the dramatic lowering of the world record in the time since this books publishing

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t talk about the 2 hour marathon and all that was involved as much as I thought it would.

[Brian Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about a marathon great Geoffrey Mutai and the idea of the two hour marathon. I thought this was going to be about Elias Kipchoge, the guy who actually broke two hours, but this was still an interesting read.

[Budd Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once in a great while, a magic number comes along in track and field that seems to capture the public's imagination.

Back in the 1950s, the number was four, as in four minutes. Could someone run a mile in under four minutes? Some thought it impossible, but Roger Bannister showed everyone that it could be done. Then, with the psychological barrier gone, others followed in his footsteps, so to speak. High school athletes were breaking the number by the 1960s.

That brings us to what might be the next magic number, two, as in two hours. Could someone run a marathon - 26 miles, 385 yards - in less than two hours? We're getting closer.

That's the subject for Ed Caesar's very good book, appropriately named "Two Hours." More than that, the story covers the state of men's marathon running in the world at this point in time.

Caesar does it for the most part through the eyes and legs of Geoffrey Mutai, a Kenyan runner. He is best known for running the Boston Marathon of 2011 is 2 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds. It wasn't recognized as a world record because of the downhill nature of the Boston course, but it was still a very quick trip by foot over more than 26 miles. Caesar obviously spent a great deal of time talking with Mutai about what life for a world-class marathoner is like. Mutai did a good job of describing it, even if English is his third language.

Caesar deals with other issues as well. One of the great mysteries of distance running is that most of the world's best runners for long distances come from the same region in Kenya. Even though this sort of fact seems ripe for scientific study, no one has come up with a particularly good reason why it happens. Is there something in the gene pool? Diet? Altitude? Relative poverty? A combination of all of them? We're working on it.

Then there's the matter of drug use, which has been discussed for the most part in whispers. Certainly when there's a mix of athletes coming from poverty, life-changing sums of money to be won, and available performance-enhancing (if illegal) drugs, then there will be a temptation by some to cheat. Some users have been caught, but suspicions remain.

Still, it's the 1:59:59 marathon that draws us in. The current is less than three minutes away from that number, but the arithmetic is more daunting than you might think. After all, a current world-record holder would have to run more than six seconds per mile faster to break two hours. That's quite daunting, even for the world's best.

Caesar, a freelance writer with a number of impressive credits, obviously put in his homework here. He went to Africa to watch training sessions, and attended the biggest races in the world. Caesar also has a nice way with words. A runner doesn't just increase his lead, he stretches the margin "like a torn shirt."

This isn't the type of book that will reel in the casual reader who goes for a jog every once in a while. There are a few sections that are necessary but a little less than compelling. Even so, "Two Hours" offers a fine overview of the sport at its highest level. It's an impressive literary effort.

[Ross Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the marathon that lobs in a few insights about running. Aside from that, I suspect the book was hashed out as PR for a shoe manufacturer; Caesar seems keen to cast doubt on Chris McDougall's barefoot running theory and it neatly precedes Nikes two-hour marathon project.

[Ian Walton · Rating 3 out of 5]

While an interesting read and insight into Geoffrey Mutai, it's title is a little misleading. The sub 2 hour quest and the tale of Mutai almost seem to be vying for primacy. I'd have preferred a book going deeper into Mutai (As there was obviously a special connect) and another book specifically on the sub 2 quest.

Being published just before, or around the time of Nike's sub 2 project it now reads a little odd and a little Adidas sponsored (barely a mention of Kipchoge, the now world record holder, a Noke runner). Obviously, again, with the connect with Mutai, an Adidas athlete, there would be a focus there, but with the title, there should have been more balance with other athletes, perhaps. Or it could simply be the timeline of reading it post the Kipchoge sub2 effort and current world record break.

Good book, slightly misleading title.

[Stephen Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heck of a book. The history of distance races was new to me, as was much of the day-to-day life of people in the high-altitude towns of Kenya from which so many fast distance runners originate. Geoffrey Mutai is a great centerpiece for this book analyzing marathons from several angles. It was such a shame to read the chapter about performance-enhancing drugs and their effects upon distance running. Baseball and weightlifting are not alone w/ this scourge, apparently. I was hoping for a different ending, but life is like that. A thrilling ride--now I want to get outside and go running!

I did receive an ARC in exchange for this review. It was a heck of a book. I recommend it.

[Telmo Fernandes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arriscaria diria que é um livro apenas para aficionados da corrida, mas para estes e estas é uma leitura empolgante, e pelo menos para mim despertou ainda maior curiosidade pelo fenómeno da corrida de longa distância em velocidade e dos seus heróis (aqui apenas no masculino). A escrita combina muito bem o relato em registo dramático de grandes disputas na história (apesar de tudo breve) da maratona com breves episódios biográficos de grandes lendas da modalidade, como os lendários Abebe Bikila, Haile Gebrslassie ou o malogrado Samuel Wanjiru (com estes dois últimos partilhei o percurso de duas meias maratonas há uns anos atrás) ou o fenómeno Geoffrey Mutai. Retratos de vidas humildes e turbulentas, de sacrifício e auto-superação admiráveis, com as quais temos muito a aprender.

[Amiad · Rating 4 out of 5]

סיכום ההיסטוריה של ריצת המרתון והשאיפה לשבור זמן ריצה של שעתיים. הספר עוקב בעיקר אחרי ג׳פרי מוטאי, אחד מאלופי המרתון, ודרכו מספר את ההיסטוריה והעובדות השונות.

ספר מעניין מאוד אבל לפעמים מרגיש פחות מתוכנן ויותר אוסף של סיפורים ועובדות מעניינות. המתרגמת לא תמיד טרחה להמיר את המיילים לקילומטרים ונשארו מידות שלא אומרות יותר מדי לקהל הישראלי. בכל זאת, בתור חובב ריצה נהניתי מאוד ואני חושב שם מי שלא רץ יהנה ואולי אפילו יתחיל לרוץ.

[J. Shimotake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah well, my collection of kickball participation awards are pretty great too but I don't need 256 pages to talk about all that...

[Pranav Hundekari · Rating 4 out of 5]

On May 6, 2017 Nike sponsored ‘Breaking2’, an attempt to break the two-hour marathon barrier by runners Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa. Kipchoge missed the two hour mark by just 25 seconds. While this seems ‘Oh! so near!’, scientists have reasons to believe that there might be a biological hurdles preventing humans from achieving the feat. This conjecture is stronger than what scientists believed about the 4 minute mile, before Roger Banister made it a norm for professionals ever since. The sub 2 hour marathon is indeed a challenge, and as training and knowledge of the body improves, one day this too shall be a norm.

Within the next few years — or decades, depending on whom you listen to — another brick wall will crumble when a marathon is run in less than two hours.

Any form infotainment regarding the marathon often evolves around two topics. The first is most likely to be the physiological advantages humans are evolved with to run long distances, things like the lower body strength, the diet. The second one is most likely to be the socio-economic change sports like marathon bring to poverty ridden places in eastern Africa. Sure, there are many other things to talk about running but they don’t get attention as these two. This book is not all about V-O2 Max and Lactic Acidosis, nor is it only about Geoffery Mutai (and other male marathoners) and the social change their success brought in Kenya’s Kalenjin tribes. However, this book has what thrills the millions of runners around the world, the ability to watch and analyze how the legends of marathon run. Literally, Ed Caesar has posted a link, in the book, to a YouTube video of Geoffrey Mutai running in slow motion and urges you to watch it to fully appreciate the efficiency of his stride. Then, there is presented a proper way to watch a marathon, as you will read, with the splits, the role of rabbits, the calculation of records. This is something that will enhance your nerdy experience when you watch your next marathon. The book predominantly covers, almost candidly, the life of Geoffrey Mutai on and off the course. There is further exploration of how the extra-ordinary transformation in the lifestyle, from a life of a poor farmer in an African village to Million dollar contracts, comes with its evils like bribes, doping and even violence.

Mutai walked on, head down, wheeling his bicycle. When the danger had passed, he remounted and sped home to his grandfather’s farm. His family was shocked to see Geoffrey arrive from that direction. They told him the news: another Kalenjin boy had been killed in Timboroa the same day. Mutai felt a chill that has endured. The sight and smell of those burning houses remains vivid to him. ‘It was like a dream,’ he said. ‘It’s not something I like to remember.’

It is clear that the book, although titled that way, is not just about the ‘Two Hours’. It is a more general view on what it takes to be the best. Since, it is very likely that a man would break the barrier before a woman, Women marathoners are mostly left out of the book. If the doctors believe that the two hour barrier would require some out-of-the-box running (along with training and diet), we should take into consideration the fact that the marathon times for Women have improved by almost an hour in the last 50 years compared to the meager 6 minutes for men. In the end, The book serves its purpose of generating interest among amateur runners, without getting into too much science or speculation. It leaves us in hope and anticipation for the Two Hour Wall to be shattered in our life times.

[Mike Courson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 22 of 2021 (audiobook)
If you have no interest in running this book is definitely not for you. Frankly, I have little interest in marathons so the names were hard to remember or care about. But any time man pushes the limit in sport you're bound to have a compelling story and some even better science. Mr. Caesar does a nice job of including both in this book.

I rank all the high school track meets in Kansas (top 16 boys and girls in every event, all six classifications by population). It's a little soothing to know that, in general, I can compare a result from any of our six classes today against times and marks a decade ago. Can't do this with team sports as there are too many variables and the bigger schools have the advantage over the smaller schools. Not so much in track and field.

So because of my rankings and because I'm familiar with "The Perfect Mile" (fantastic book), I know that a 4:35 mile clip will get you to the state meet in Kansas. I know our best high school two milers run in the neighborhood of 9:10-9:15...right on pace for that 4:35 mile. But to do it for 26.2 miles?? That's insanity. We may be years away from the 2-hour marathon, but these guys are frequently logging 2 hr 4 minute marathons so the pace is not so far off the 4:35 mile pace. When I see what the 2-mile event does to high school kids at that pace, of course I had to read how the pros are keeping that pace for 13 times the distance.

Caesar does a great job of explaining some of the nature vs nurture. A certain group of Kenyans may have an advantage because of how they go without shoes early on at a high altitude. Reading so many books on Everest, it's not dissimilar to the sherpas who can climb that mountain without oxygen when the average man really struggles even with.

Even then, 4:35 for 26 miles!? Caesar talks a little science about lung capacity and certain genes. The conclusion seems to be: no one is going to approach two hours without a ton of work because no perfect genotype exists.

Finally, the psychology is important in this tale: the 4-minute mile was once impossible and a mental block existed. Until it was broken, then re-broken, etc. I'm not sure what the human limit here is but I do believe with each 15-second improvement on the record, a piece of the 2-hour wall falls. And eventually someone will break that barrier.

[Brendan Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two Hours is a comprehensive look at the world of men’s elite marathon running framed around the question of whether any man can run 26 miles and 365 yards in under two hours.

Two Hours is first and foremost a celebration of elite men’s marathon running. While I expected the book to focus more heavily on the quest for lower and lower times, its actually much broader than that, and probably a better book for this broadness. It combines the history of the marathon, a comprehensive look at the marathons raced between 2010 and 2013 and an in-depth focus on the career of 4 time major marathon winner Geoffery Mutai. While it touches on all of the key things being considered in efforts to run a 2 hour marathon – shoe technology, genetics, doping etc – it doesn’t cover these in massive detail.

The years covered by Caesar ended up being really fascinating for marathon running – with the emergence of new superstars, world records and doping scandals – and the book benefits from the amazing access Caesar had to the athletes. It’s pleasing that doping is addressed and Caesar’s insights into how doping appears to operate (at least for some athletes) in Kenya are interesting. The insights gleaned from in-depth interviews with Mutai about his state of mind during races was also enlightening. There are also interesting doubts cast on the ‘barefoot running’ craze popularised by the excellent Born to Run – Caesar observes that elites marathoners have been asking for more cushioning not less.

The one thing that I think was missing from the book was consideration of women’s marathon records – I think the fact that Paula Radcliffe held the women’s world record for so long (and still held it at the time of writing the book) would have been an interesting topic to consider when looking at both the progression of the men’s record during this time and the dominance of East African’s.

The book was finished before the launch of the academic led Sub2hrs project and was published before the launch of Nike’s Breaking2 Project which in 2017 saw Eliud Kipchoge run the distance in 2 hours and 25 seconds. Caesar had speculated about the possibility of just such an attempt – but there is almost no mention of Nike in the book which talks much more about Adidas (as people from Adidas must have been willing to speak to Caesar). It is particularly interesting that the men’s world record, that must be set during an actual marathon meeting certain conditions, has not improved in the last 4 years – suggesting that a plateau has been reached for now?

Overall its a very enjoyable and easy read. Caesar writes very well and is clearly passionate about the subject and fascinated by the athletes he meets. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in distance running.

You can read all of my sports book reviews at http://allsportsbooks.reviews