The Real Secret Behind Every Marathon World Record Since 2018
When the conversation turns to marathon performance, most people immediately think about shoes. The rise of carbon fiber plate technology — led by Nike's Vaporfly and Alphafly — has dominated headlines for years, and rightfully so. Independent research has consistently shown that these shoes improve running economy by several percentage points. But here's the thing: while brands battle it out for supremacy on the roads, one quiet, understated product has appeared at the feet — or rather, in the hands — of every single marathon world record holder since 2018. It isn't a shoe. It's a fuel. Specifically, it's Maurten, the Swedish sports nutrition brand that has fundamentally changed how elite runners power through 26.2 miles.
What Is Maurten?
Maurten was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2015 with a singular obsession: solving the gastrointestinal problems that plague long-distance runners during competition. Anyone who has suffered mid-race stomach cramps or nausea knows that nutrition isn't just a performance lever — it's a potential race-ending catastrophe. Traditional sports drinks and gels often contain concentrations of carbohydrates that the gut struggles to process at intensity, leading to bloating, cramping, and the dreaded "GI issues" that can turn a personal best attempt into a survival shuffle.
Maurten's solution was to encapsulate carbohydrates inside a hydrogel matrix — a food-grade polymer structure that forms naturally in the acidic environment of the stomach. This hydrogel effectively acts as a transport vehicle, allowing the carbohydrates to pass through the stomach and into the small intestine more efficiently and with far less irritation than conventional fueling products. The result is a product that allows athletes to consume significantly higher amounts of carbohydrates per hour without the digestive backlash that typically accompanies such aggressive fueling strategies.
The Record-Breaking Connection
Since Eliud Kipchoge broke the marathon world record at the 2018 Berlin Marathon — running 2:01:39 — Maurten has been present at every subsequent world record performance. Kipchoge, widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner in history, has been a highly visible Maurten user, famously relying on their Drink Mix 320 and Gel 100 formulations throughout his record-setting campaigns. His subsequent world record of 2:01:09, set again in Berlin in 2022, followed the same nutritional blueprint.
The pattern holds beyond Kipchoge. Tigst Assefa's breathtaking women's world record of 2:11:53 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon was fueled in part by Maurten products. Kelvin Kiptum's jaw-dropping 2:00:35 in Chicago in 2023 — the current men's world record — was another Maurten-powered performance. When you trace the thread connecting the most extraordinary marathon achievements of the modern era, Maurten is woven through every one of them.
Why Carbohydrate Delivery Is the True Performance Frontier
The scientific community has spent years refining its understanding of what limits marathon performance, and carbohydrate availability consistently emerges as a primary factor. Elite marathoners running at world-record pace burn through glycogen at extraordinary rates. The body's onboard stores are finite — typically enough to sustain roughly 90 minutes to two hours of high-intensity effort. Without adequate fueling during a race, athletes face the dreaded "wall," a sudden and dramatic drop in pace as glycogen stores are depleted.
Research has shown that consuming multiple transportable carbohydrates — typically a combination of glucose and fructose — can push the ceiling of carbohydrate oxidation from around 60 grams per hour to as much as 90 grams per hour or beyond. Maurten's formulations are built around this dual-carbohydrate approach, optimized for rapid absorption. Their Drink Mix 320, for example, delivers 80 grams of carbohydrates per 500ml serving, a concentration that would cause severe GI distress in most athletes if delivered through a traditional sports drink. The hydrogel technology changes that equation entirely.
Not Just for Elites
While Maurten's name recognition is built on its association with the world's fastest runners, its products are available to everyday athletes and have been embraced broadly across the endurance sports community. Recreational marathon runners, ultra-distance athletes, and triathletes have reported meaningful improvements in their ability to fuel consistently throughout long efforts without stomach problems.
Maurten offers several products tailored to different needs and race strategies:
- Drink Mix 160 and Drink Mix 320 — hydrogel-based carbohydrate drinks in two concentrations, designed for use in standard race bottles or hydration vests.
- Gel 100 — a thick, tasteless hydrogel gel providing 25 grams of carbohydrates per sachet, designed for easy consumption on the run.
- Gel 100 CAF 100 — the same gel formulation with the addition of 100mg of caffeine, typically reserved for the latter stages of a race when a cognitive and physical boost is most valuable.
- Solid 160 — a chewable, oat-based bar format for athletes who prefer solid food during longer events such as ultramarathons or long-distance triathlons.
The Bigger Picture: Nutrition as Performance Technology
The dominance of carbon plate shoe coverage in running media has created a somewhat distorted picture of where performance gains actually come from. Shoes are important — the data is clear on that — but they represent only one piece of a complex performance puzzle. Training methodology, sleep, strength work, altitude exposure, pacing strategy, and crucially, race-day nutrition all play enormous roles in determining outcomes at the highest level.
What Maurten has demonstrated is that nutrition technology deserves a seat at the same table as footwear innovation. When every marginal gain matters — when the difference between a world record and a near-miss can be measured in seconds — the ability to sustain high carbohydrate intake without GI compromise is not a minor advantage. It is a decisive one.
Elite coaches and sports scientists have increasingly shifted their attention toward carbohydrate periodization, fueling strategies, and gut training as areas where significant performance improvements remain available. In this context, Maurten isn't just a product that elite runners happen to use. It is a foundational piece of modern marathon performance science.
Should You Try Maurten for Your Next Race?
If you're training for a marathon or any long-distance endurance event, Maurten is worth serious consideration — but with one important caveat. No fueling product should be introduced for the first time on race day. The standard advice from coaches and sports dietitians applies: practice your race nutrition strategy repeatedly in training, ideally under conditions that replicate race intensity and duration. Maurten's products generally require less gut adaptation than traditional high-carbohydrate formulations, but individual responses still vary.
The fact that every marathon world record since 2018 has been powered by this Swedish hydrogel technology is not a coincidence. It is the product of rigorous science, elite athlete feedback, and a relentless focus on solving one of endurance sport's most persistent challenges. Carbon plate shoes will continue to evolve, and new footwear technologies will continue to attract attention. But if you want to know what is truly sitting at the intersection of nutrition science and world-class marathon performance, the answer has been Maurten for nearly a decade — and it doesn't look like that's changing anytime soon.