3 Americans sub 2:10 today at Zurich Sevilla Marathon in Spain

While a solid run for Colley, he'll be disappointed since he has been hoping for more of a breakthrough - as you can see by the fact that he went out in 63 low. Hope he's able to get that next time out, I'm a fan

Fastest Spaniards were:

Ilias Fifa Temesmani (m)

Fatima Azzahraa Ouhaddou (f)

2:09:55 … is the new 2:11:53

2:07:58 is the new 2:09:55.

That’s only if you believe the 3:26s and 3:27s of 25-30 years ago were unaided and unassisted by Epo. I personally do not. I think all performances of the late 1990s to early 2000s are suspicious. But that’s just me. So, supershoes have gotten us back to that level, along with bicarb.

But, I do not think they are worth 4-5 minutes in the marathon. Yes, they assist in training too, to the extent they don’t make runners more injury prone.

So give this guy some real supershoes, and he’s a sub-2:08 guy then? With his 10,000 and half marathon PBs, I believe it.

Nope, you need to get your facts straight. WR didn't drop below 2:04 until 2008 or 2:03 until 2014. That's when a domestic 2:14 was last significant. We did not get a "ton" running sub-2:10 until sometime in 2020. That's when it officially became NBD. Japan had a collegiate runner lay down a 2:06 two years ago, even 2:08 should be NBD by this point. Which Richtman further demonstrated last year.

Good post.

So what do you get when more people can train more consistently without injury interruption? Especially for the marathon distance? Much fitter and faster performers.

We should not chalk it up entirely to shoes, either. Better nutrition, both on course and off, certainly helps. Improved training information shared more freely. There are other marginal gains of this age to layer onto the equipment technology advances.

Zurich Insurance Co.

They are also the title sponsor of Madrid Marathon RnR in April.

Don't need to get my facts straight, it was still a big deal for people to run around 2:11/2:12 in 2018 and 2019. Brogan Austin won CIM in 2018ish with 2:12 and it was a big deal, then in 2019 Americans at Chicago were running 2:10 and 2:11 and that was a super big deal, they were expected to be in contention to make the olympic team. Kipchoge had already run multiple 2:01's at that point, and Bekele, and lots of other 2:02's/2:03's. So you can get your facts straight.

Indeed very confusing since you’re telling us the Seville marathon is in Barcelona.

Looks like 3 of the 4 went out in 1:03:18ish & then Fischer went out a little more conservatively in 1:04:25. How was the weather? Solid results for sure.

I'm not buying the 4min # thrown around for super shoes. It's been more like 90s-2min for elites & tons of factors go into that. Shoes aren't worth much if you don't pace well, or fuel well, or get a good weather day, etc. Just sounds bitter to put everything on shoes. Americans are closing the gap some. For the most part 2:03-2:05 range still does quite well at majors, with some more rare 2:00-2:02 times. Now we're seeing a lot more Americans sub-2:10 & it doesn't feel like the top is gaining based on major results + Olympics. Gotta remember a lot of Americans still do NYC/Boston almost every year instead of Berlin/London. If these guys can all run 2:08-2:10 with 1:03-1:04 open half marathons, people who run slower @ Boston this year probably could've done that. Just need to be able to recognize that & not complain when Boston has bad weather or is tactical or whatever.

Perfect marathon weather. Around 8C at the start, 10C at the finish for the elites, with very light breeze. The previous day was quite windy (25 km/h and gusty), but 3 weeks of fairly crappy weather finally broke in perfect time for the marathon.

Still celebrating Americans under 2:10. Interesting :)

Nutrition plays a very big role. Back in the 1970's/80's it was fuel in fuel out- you ate whatever was there- as in the story of Bill Rogers eating mayonnaise by the spoonful out of the jar just to get something in his body.

Hot dogs and other junk like that, just to fuel up.

This is overlooked and can't be measured. The faster turnover which leads to faster training times at the same effort and the faster recovery which can lead to more hard workouts.

You may be able, also, to do more reps and still leave the track with more in your legs.

THEN, the immediate effect of the roll technology.

I've wondered if a physicist had enough information, like what you get from a Garmin watch- GCT, power, stride length, etc and could compare people to themselves pre and post super shoes if we could an idea of how much they help.

Yet they didn't. Proving it was NBD.