Marathoners size up the need for speed
Battle between shoe innovation and respect for record book leaves many runners torn
When Haile Gebrselassie set a world record at the 2008 Berlin Marathon, winning in two hours, three minutes and 59 seconds, it was thought to be an achievement that would last for the ages. The Ethiopian was the dominant distance runner of the 1990s and early 2000s, setting 27 world records. His time in Berlin was 27 seconds lower than the previous mark — his mark.
But in 12-plus years, that performance has been eclipsed by 18 men, all but six of them wearing what have been dubbed super shoes that incorporate both carbon plates to propel the runner forward and foam midsoles for cushioning. Gebrselassie’s time is now just 10th on Ethiopia’s list of fastest marathoners.
“I will be the slowest in two years, number 50 or something,” Gebrselassie says, laughing. “I am lucky that I am No. 10 (in Ethiopia). Sometimes I wish I could have had these shoes when I ran marathons. But my question is, ‘What will be the future?’
“I wish athletes just (relied) on their performances instead of technology. What can you say? Everybody in the shoe companies is doing better and better. Nike produced this shoe and we saw many records and now Adidas is producing a better one. What will be next? It’s going to be something.”
The impact was most dramatic in 2020 despite a reduction in events due to COVID restrictions. World records from five kilometres to the half-marathon
(21.1 kilometres) were smashed, largely because of the shoes.
Technicians at Nike first began playing with a carbon plate insert on top of a foam midsole around 2015. According to a Nike spokesperson the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% created an entirely new marathon midsole system.” Word spread quickly.
All three medallists in the 2016 Rio Olympic men’s marathon wore the Vaporfly, including gold medallist Eliud Kipchoge. Two years later, the Kenyan star wore an improved version to set the world marathon record of 2:01:39 in Berlin. Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele came within two seconds of that time in 2019 with Vaporfly shoes, while Brigid Kosgei broke the women’s world record in October 2019 with a clocking of 2:14:04. The Kenyan reduced Paula Radcliffe’s revered standard by almost a minute and a half.
Nike didn’t stop there, however, and Kipchoge used the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% in October 2019 to dip under two hours for the marathon in a brilliant but unsanctioned achievement. Suddenly everyone from recreational runners to elites wanted these $330 super shoes and for good reason. Course records and personal bests have been set across the globe.
A 2020 Cornell University study, using data collected on hundreds of marathon runners, found that the Nike Vaporfly can give elite male runners an advantage of between two and four minutes, while women’s results were improved between 48 seconds and three minutes.
Here in Canada we might wonder how fast Jerome Drayton could have run in these products. The national record (2:10:09) he set in winning the 1975 Fukuoka Marathon in Japan lasted 43 years. Drayton says he wore a custom pair of Asics Tiger shoes for that race but normally bought shoes from a Toronto running store. They were primitive compared to today’s standards.
Many Canadian Olympians took aim at Drayton’s record, with Reid Coolsaet coming closest at 2:10:28 at the 2015 Berlin Marathon. But Cam Levins, wearing Hoka One One carbon-plated shoes, was the one to finally best the time in a stunning debut performance at the 2018 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, finishing in 2:09:25.
Coolsaet suddenly finds himself fifth on the all-time Canadian marathon list as Levins, Trevor Hofbauer (2:09:51) and Ben Preisner (2:10:17 in his debut) have passed him, all wearing super shoes.
“Conflicted,” Coolsaet says when asked how he feels about chasing the record for so long, only to see it fall to an athlete wearing the controversial technology. “On one side I wouldn’t feel right breaking Drayton’s record in the new shoes but, at the same time, knowing that’s where the future is headed, if you don’t break the record in those shoes somebody else is going to do it.”
In his most recent marathon in October 2019, the 41-year-old Coolsaet set a Canadian masters record of 2:15:23 wearing standard New Balance racers. Rather than wait for his sponsor to catch up, he decided not to renew his contract so he could wear the Vaporfly going forward.
Coolsaet has nothing but respect for Drayton. “To me it’s still the best Canadian marathon performance for men,” he said.
Following complaints from athletes who were contracted to rival shoe companies, World Athletics, the international governing body, decreed last year that road racing shoes may have a maximum thickness of 40 millimetres while track spikes may be 25 millimetres thick. All legal shoes are named on their website. The Nike Zoom Alphafly NEXT% is on that list.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic 1,500-metre champion and a former world record holder at four distances, says that as far back as he can remember shoe technology has been a source of debate. Coe was coached by his father, Peter, who worked in a cutlery factory in their native Sheffield, England.
“My father was an engineer,” Coe recalls, “and he took shoes from all the brands I had offers from. He took them to the engineering department of his business and — he probably didn’t produce too many knives and forks that week. He just said to me, ‘I am an engineer and this is the brand I think you should go with.’ ”
Coe ultimately went with Nike, establishing a 38-year relationship as an athlete and an adviser to the global giant that ended when he became president of the world governing body in 2015.
“Look, my instinct is there is a balance between not wanting to stifle innovation but at the same time being very respectful of the nature of records and the importance and prominence they should play in our sport,” Coe says. “Is it a perfect world? No, it’s not. It’s not really about closing the stable door. The horse is out and we are sort of chasing it around the paddock.
“We have a working group made up of scientists … Over the first quarter of 2021 they will be looking at this in significant detail.”
Coe expects the World Athletics Council to discuss the committee’s findings at their next meeting in March.
As performances improve, there will be a necessary revision to Olympic qualifying standards in the future. The 2020 standards in the marathon were 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women in order to arrive at a field of 80 runners in each of the marathons. It’s likely those standards will be toughened by at least two minutes for 2024.
The super shoe is here to stay, and Gebrselassie believes World Athletics should not seek ways to restrict technology. But he warns that athletes from different eras might suffer.
“You cannot just compare an athlete from 10 years ago to an athlete now. You cannot compare ... that is impossible,” he says.