There were recent tests (in France I think) in schools where 50% or something could not run 1 km (sorry I don't have the details on mobile). These are children who have infinity energy (source: parent).
A typical adult won't make it to 1km (source: going back to sport and dying on a 2.5 km run)
It's easier to draw attention (and therefore sponsorships) if you leave some room to improve on successive attempts. It's riskier to give everything up front and then risk plateauing or regressing in your subsequent attempts.
https://news.adidas.com/sabastian-sawe---london-marathon/a/0...
- https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0413/5/1/2
Based on the quote below, next thing we will see is a "constructors championship" similar to F1 for winning shoe constructor in the 'major' marathons :-(.
" This dominance continued in 2024, with adidas athletes wearing Adizero models winning six out of 12 World Major Marathons – more than any other brand."
and yes, of course i race in super shoes :-).
There are age group leaders as well. That's perhaps a hundred people, of the tens of thousands running next to me.
Marathons are about running my own pace. The fact that there exists a world record is a piece of trivia.
I do find the record fascinating. If I take the 5k, 10k and half-marathon world records and double them then I can run faster than that. But for the marathon I'm a long way off. There's something uniquely difficult about it because it's not just going for a run, but fuelling and training your gut and pacing. I've only done 2 marathons, but I do find them uniquely difficult so for me its extra special to see how fast a human can do it in.
Of course innovation in shoes will have a bigger marginal impact (because physics).
It's also somewhat ironic for a race supposedly modeling a messenger running the distance in an emergency situation.
Like the number one endurance runner in the world will get a minute off their marathon time because a shoe manufacturer spent $1M making custom shoes for that athlete which don't even have a size they're just "For this one specific person, now" but then some guy on Reddit wants better shoes because he's sure his four hour marathon would have been "more like three" if he had those elite shoes instead of the $100 Nikes he wore...
The big improvement then was a carbon plate. Adidas (and others) followed suit. The subsequent improvements since then have been marginal but the margins are thin at that level. In this case the big advancement has been the weight of the shoe.
EDIT: Also it's worth noting these shoes are $500 retail. Adidas will for sure get a boost in sales from this, but there's definitely competition in the $200~$300 marathon running shoe space that won't solely draw everyone to Adidas)
I think the big story here may be the nutrition science to get these guys to absorb a lot of carbs during the run, more than the shoes.
Essentially the argument given was too much advantage came from the shoes and they didn't want racing to be about shoe technology development.
The advancements in shoes have made a measurable impact, but there are lots of optimizations being worked on.
If you're bloody quick and born in Birmingham (either of them) in 1900 you can probably find out about and get yourself a chance to attempt that world record, but if you're born in Kapsabet (in Kenya) in 1900 good luck, even in Nairobi I wouldn't bet on it.
But yeah at this point, “it’s the shoes, stupid” should defo be the main part of the conversation.
I used to love F1 for the tech that would filter down to my car in ten years time, but that is not a thing anymore.
I for one love the advances in technology in something as supposedly simple as a shoe. And maybe I'll get to use it on a hike in a few years.
These shoes are practically disposable. They trade longevity for noticeable gains in performance. Even the tier below don’t last very long. This is not tech that is going to filter down to your hiking boots.
