Photo courtesy of Denis Barthel - His Personal Work
The world of marathoning has been flipped upside down in the past few weeks. Eliud Kipchoge proved that the 2-hour marathon barrier could be broken (Under almost perfectly ideal conditions) and Brigid Kosgei shattered Paula Radcliffe's marathon record. Additionally, Kenensia Bekele just missed the world record by 2 seconds 2 weeks ago.
In theory, this sounds like an amazing time for marathoning, and I admit I believe it is. However, this doesn’t come without a bit concern and the most obvious has been all of the issues with drug use. However, I’m not here to discuss that again. I’m here to talk about technology and how it may be making a huge difference.
Nike claims that the original Nike Vaporfly 4% provided runners with a 4% energy savings. In theory, this would allow runners to instead there running speed somewhere between 3% and 4%. Currently, the 5 fastest marathons have all been run in Vaporflys. Is this a coincidence? Honestly, I don’t think so. This isn’t to take away anything from the times that have been run. They are all amazing!
The rumblings first caught my attention when I noticed an Instagram post from Ryan Hall who is the American half-marathon record holder in 59:43 and ran 2:04:58 (not an American record due to the course)
With all due respect to kipchogeeliud as he is clearly the greatest marathoner of all-time regardless of the shoes he is in, when a shoe company puts multiple carbon fiber plates in a shoe with cushion between the plates it is no longer a shoe, it’s a spring, and a clear mechanical advantage to anyone not in those shoes. I’m just hoping iaaf_athletics makes sure the upcoming Olympics and wmmajors are fair playing fields for athletes of all brands.
Hall did go on to clarify in a later post that he believes that shoes need to be regulated to ensure it is an even playing field across all brands of shoes and that he doesn't believe that runners should be losing races because the brand of shoe they run does not have a spring like mechanism.
Additionally..
It may be soon that we see all elite marathoners wearing the same shoe
Among those who wore these shoes are the first two Americans to finish at the Chicago marathon, Jake Riley and Jarrel Mock. These athletes are unsponsored and both decided one running in Nike Vaporflys.
Jonathan Gault a writer for letsrun.com posted this on his twitter feed.
Jake Riley and Jerrell Mock, the top two American finishers in Chicago today, are both unsponsored, and hence could choose to race in any shoe. Both chose the Nike Vaporflys.
"It feels like running on trampolines," Riley said.
Honestly, at this point, I'm not sure what to think. For me, it doesn't seem like just a coincidence that the 2-hour barrier was broken and the women's world record was broken in the same type of shoe. I do believe that is offering an advantage, but I don't know how much. I also believe that there is a placebo effect for a lot of the runners at the Chicago marathon after seeing Kipchoge break 2 hours in the marathon.
I do hope that strict guidelines are implemented though. I don't want to see Nike athletes rise to the top just because of the shoe. Yes... They are amazing runners, but if the shoe does provide the advertised benefit they are absolutely not on a level playing field until either the shoes are not for use or until other brands catch up.
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