Back in 2019, I wrote about Eliud Kipchoge’s remarkable sub-2 hour marathon. In addition to Kipchoge’s remarkable skill, that feat was assisted by a strategy of pace runners off of whom he could draft. Now, researchers with access to a wind tunnel (and “manikins”) have found an even better drafting strategy, which could be used to speed things up even more.

Rather than a V, the winning design sets the five pacers in front in a formation shaped like a lowercase t: one pacer behind another, followed by two side-by-side, and then one more behind that pair.

I continue to look forward to the possibility of a sub-two-hour time in an official marathon.