Running in the middle of the night on an auto racing test track in Italy, South African runner Sibusiso Kubheka relentlessly ran at 5:47 mile pace and wound up running 100 kilometers faster than anyone in history.
In an event organized by Adidas and dubbed “Chasing 100,” the 27-year-old Kubheka outran four other world-class ultrarunners in an eight-lap time trial exhibition around the Nardò Ring high-performance test track in Lecce, Italy.
Adidas organized the event to highlight its 4.7-ounce Adizero Evo Prime X prototype shoes, which were worn by each of the runners, as well as a range of ClimaCool apparel that included pre-race jackets aimed to keep each runner’s core temperature as low as possible and hyper-ventilated racing singlets and shorts.
The use of intermittent pacers, the uncertified course, and the high stack height of the unratified prototype shoes will exclude Kubheka’s time from being eligible for world record consideration. The shoes are not World Athletics approved because they have a heel stack height of about 50mm (10mm higher than the legal limit).
Kubheka and Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin, Japan’s Jo Fukuda, Ethiopia’s Ketema Negasa, and U.S. runner Charlie Lawrence started together and ran as a group for seven 12.5K (7.8-mile) laps. Then on the eighth and final lap, Kubheka surged and pulled away from the others to finish in 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 20 seconds—nearly 6 minutes faster than the existing world record for the 100K distance.
“I’m so proud of my performance out there today,” Kubheka said in a press release. “Breaking this record and becoming the first person to run 100K in under 6 hours was not easy—but thanks to Adidas’ partnership, belief and bespoke technologies, we made it happen. When we combine the best athletes, the right preparation and sports innovation, anything is possible.”
Lawrence, a Boulder, Colorado-based runner who owns the 50-mile world record, finished second in 6:03:47, while Sorokin, who holds the 100K world record, held on for third in 6:04:10.
The Adizero Evo Prime X shoes feature the brand’s pinnacle thermoplastic elastomer (TPEE) midsole foam, Lightstrike Pro Evo, and features Ultracharge technology, in which air bubbles are pumped into the empty gaps of the shoes’ midsole foam. Adidas has said more pressure means more energy return.
While most of the shoes worn in the exhibition included carbon-fiber plates tuned to each athlete’s particular stiffness preference, the shoes worn by Lawrence had carbon-fiber energy rods embedded in the midsole similar to those found in Adidas’ Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 and Adizero Adios Pro 4 marathon racing super shoes.
If the Adizero Evo Prime X shoes are eventually released to the public, they will be prohibited for professional athletes to wear in sanctioned races because of the excessive stack height.
“Chasing 100 is the story of our deep-rooted drive to go faster,” said Alasdhair Willis, the Chief Creative Officer of Adidas. “An opportunity to see what’s possible when we work at speed, break new boundaries in design, and test new possibilities in footwear and apparel. Kubheka’s history-defining performance—achieving something no one has ever come close to—is an immense achievement that we are incredibly proud of. This is true testament to the power of combining Adidas Innovation with the very best of athletic prowess to push the limits of human capability forwards.”
Entering the event, Kubheka, 27, owned the fourth-fastest time (2:42:56) at the 50K distance and a 1:01:36 half marathon personal best.
Sorokin, 43, holds the World Athletics-ratified 100K world record of 6:05:35, while Lawrence, 30, has the world record for 50 miles (4:48:21). Negasa, 38, is the former 50K world record holder (2:42:07), and Fukuda, 34, is a 2:09:52 marathoner.
The group began running at 12:11 a.m. local time on Tuesday and were guided around a track by a black Mercedes G-class electric vehicle and lighting from a drone that hovered over the runners as they ran.
The group came through the 50K halfway split together in 2:58:57 (5:45 mile pace). Kubheka opened up a sizable lead before the start of the final lap and was still ahead of pace to break the 6-hour mark. He ran 20 seconds faster over the final 12.5K loop than the previous lap and widened his margin over the field with a strong sprint to the finish.
Kubheka’s splits for each 12.5K were consistent throughout the exhibition: 44:43, 44:45, 44:40, 44:49, 44:54, 44:47, 45:31 and 45:11. The fastest miles were in the 5:45 range, while the slowest was about 5:52.
Lawrence came within 10 minutes of his previous 50K personal best of 2:49:01 halfway through the time trial (2:58:57)—then closed in 3:04:50 to finish 23 seconds ahead of Sorokin.
“I didn’t have the legs when I needed them over the last 30K, and had a bathroom stop that made me work pretty hard to get back to the group,” Lawrence told Runner’s World. “But this represents, to me, an opportunity to solidify that I am one of the best road ultramarathoners ever. There are only so many barriers in sports, and this is one that nobody’s cracked yet, so to be the first to ever achieve that would be special, mean a lot, and validate the ‘all-in’ approach I take to this sport.”
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Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, The Chicago Tribune, and Red Bulletin. He’s a former walk-on college middle-distance runner who has transitioned to trail running and pack burro racing in Colorado.
