Haile Gebrselassie broke the marathon world record in Berlin on Sunday, posting an official time of two hours, four minutes and 26 seconds.
The 34-year-old Ethiopian beat the mark of 2:04:55 set by Kenya's Paul Tergat in Berlin in September 2003.
Gebrselassie was already 32 seconds inside Tergat's pace at the 10km mark and went through halfway at 62.29.
"This is wonderful, really special," said Gebrselassie, who missed the record by 61 seconds in the 2006 race.
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The mild weather conditions were almost ideal, with overcast skies for most of the race.
"Today it was perfect," he added. "It was a little bit windy, but perfect. The spectators were great and gave me great support."
The fast, flat course wound through nine districts of the German capital with a total inclination of just 30m.
Last year, Gebrselassie had faded in the final six kilometres in the face of a stiff headwind but this year the race organisers made sure there were enough pacesetters to take him through the 30km point.
Gebrselassie won four successive world titles and over 10,000m and set numerous world records on the track before turning to road racing late in his career.
Gete Wami of Ethiopia won the women's race in a time of 2:23.17.
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