I was trained as a materials scientist at the postgraduate level while I practice dentistry for a living now.

It has been a while since I ran a meaningful 800m race. It was my pet event until I left Hong Kong in 1990 after my first degree. I estimated my ranking in the event was among the top 15 during those years. Running 800m under 2 minutes was an elusive dream for most of my 800m peers in Hong Kong at the time.

Recently, at a book launch in Singapore, I met an interschool 800m record-breaking runner from my high school days. Prof Joe Wong is the dad of the author of the book, Parent First, ADHD Later, which my boss (aka wife), Moon co-authored.

Fast forward (pun intended), Sebastian Sawe ran 1’59’30 in the 2026 London full marathon. His average speed over 42.195km was just ONE heartbeat slower than our all-out 800m pace (but he did it over 50 times in a row).

There must be numerous ingredients for such a feat (some can be disclosed, some not). One of such was body fueling during that 2-hour run! Instead of having the body get close to use up its energy storage (by ~30km), the current formula is to supply the gastrointestinal (GI) tract with fast-absorbing carbohydrates fuel to avoid depletion altogether. Drinking and eating a lot of carbohydrates can be damaging to our dentition, so ‘hydrogel’ technology has been developed to:

1. rapidly deliver the fuel in a readily absorbable format to the GI tract, so that it ‘feels disappeared’ in no time, which is important when most elite male runners are featherweight (50kg +/-)
2. without the harmful effects of carbohydrates in direct contact with teeth.

What other limits? Who knows.