THERE is one secret to running a marathon: oxygen. And whoever takes the
men’s and women’s gold medals in late September will need a body like a
sponge—one that sucks up oxygen as fast as possible.
Since they’re in the race for the long haul, marathon runners can’t blast
through their reserves the way their speed freak colleagues do. They need oxygen
so that muscles can burn their fuel without tiring. “The muscles of elite
marathoners can take all the oxygen their bodies can throw at them and more,”
says Will Hopkins, a sports scientist at the University of…
