The news desk
On October 1, 2026, LetsRun published an article discussing whether the women's marathon can be run "cleanly" under 2:09. Through calculations, the article points out that if the women's marathon "clean" world record breaks 2:10, its gap with the men's world record would shrink from the consistent 10%–11% across standard distance events to 8.8%. The article uses Ruth Chepngetich's performance as a starting point, mentions that Amby Burfoot once said it must involve doping, and explores whether male pacemakers and super shoes can explain this gap. Currently, the matter remains at the level of discussion and calculation, with no further conclusions.
LetsRun crunches the numbers: if the clean women's marathon world record goes under 2:10, the gap to the men's world record shrinks from the consistent 10%–11% across standard distance events to 8.8%. The piece opens with Ruth Chepngetich's mark, which Amby Burfoot said had to be doping, and asks whether male pacers and supershoes can explain the discrepancy.