Can you imagine running 100 kilometers and doing it in under six hours? It sounds impossible, but it happened in Italy, in the Adidas Chasing 100 project. The stage was the Nardò Ring, a circular track in southern Italy usually used for Formula 1 car testing. To escape the heat, the start took place at midnight, at 12:11 a.m., and the runners advanced almost in the dark, with drones and support cars providing light and a steady pace. The goal was clear: to break the six-hour barrier for 100 km.
And it worked. South African runner Sibusiso Kubheka made history by finishing in 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 20 seconds. He became the first human ever to run 100 km under six hours, averaging 3 minutes and 36 seconds per kilometer. For South Africa, it was a national sporting milestone, and for ultrarunning, a new benchmark for how far the body and technology can go.
Part of this achievement comes from a shoe designed exclusively for the mission: the Adizero Evo Prime X, a super-shoe with a Lightstrike Pro Evo foam midsole up to 35% lighter, a stack height of almost 50 mm — above the limit allowed in official competitions — and custom internal structures for each athlete instead of a single carbon plate. A curious detail is that the shoes went through a process called Ultracharge, vacuum-pressurized for days before the race to further increase energy return. The weight? Just 137 grams — an almost futuristic shoe.
But it wasn’t just the footwear. Adidas also developed specific apparel for the event, including the Clima3D Singlet, with ventilation mapped to body zones, the TechFit Shorts, with compression bands to stabilize hips under fatigue, and even ice jackets and vests used between laps to control body temperature in extreme heat. Behind the scenes, athletes could be seen changing gear and cooling down every lap, making it look like a real-time sports laboratory.
The race was eight laps of 12.5 km, with precise pacing and average splits of 44 to 45 minutes each. On the final lap, Kubheka managed to accelerate and secure the barrier-breaking finish. Everything was designed to minimize variables: controlled temperature, flat course, lighting support, and technological pacing.
The official record still belongs to Sorokin, with 6:05, but Chasing 100 showed what is possible when human talent meets cutting-edge sports science and engineering. Just as Nike’s Breaking2 changed the way we think about the marathon, Chasing 100 now raises the bar for ultrarunning. Whether this time is officially ratified or not, the milestone has already been set: 100 km in 5:59:20. A historic achievement that blends human determination, flawless strategy, and state-of-the-art technology — and proves that limits keep being pushed further.
