A man just ran a marathon in under 2 hours for the first time ever. But it won't go in the official record books.

It might not technically be a world record, but it's beyond impressive anyway.

Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge on Saturday became the first human ever to run a marathon — 26.2 miles — in less than two hours, a feat that was long thought in impossible. The 34-year-old Kipchoge, who has won eight major marathons and three Olympic medals, did it in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40.2 seconds.

It unfortunately won't count as the fastest marathon in history, though, since it wasn't technically a race and Kipchoge relied on a rotating cast of pacemakers instead of competitors. Indeed, everything about the event was carefully engineered for him to achieve the mark, including a perfectly flat course in Vienna, Austria, and Kipchoge's Nike sneakers, whose legality have been called into question for official events.

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Either way, Kipchoge viewed the event as an important first step for marathoners. "I'm expecting more athletes to run under two hours after today," he said.

British petrochemicals billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who backed the event, called the feat the "last great barrier in athletics." Even with the careful planning, it's still something to marvel at. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.