Has Rupp ever run a marathon WITHOUT cheater shoes?

cry about it some more buddy

The olympic trials race was Rupp's first marathon.

The top 3 finishers all wore the same shoes at the Olympics.

No.

I claim they WERE developed specifically for Kipchoge. He was the guy on the treadmill with the machines hooked up. Ward was the one with all of that for the Endorphin Pro. I don't know about the other competitors since I haven't seen articles about the creation of the RCE2, HE2, etc. Perhaps Sara was the tester for the latest asics.

Since they were designed exactly to make Eliud more efficient, they may not work very well for Rupp. Those who believe (this includes nearly all the readers of this post) that Rupp is so much more talented, genetically and otherwise, then Hall that's it's embarrassing to mention them in the same sentence and not even remotely worth debating, must admit the shoes have a negative effect on Rupp. Or, they perform exactly as a random old shoe would, but then they are very similarly-skilled athletes. Your only choice left is that Hall was quite a bit better, on another level altogether since Rupp is literally picking up minutes from the shoes.

You have to believe one of those three; no other options exist short of "Rupp has never tried to run fast" which is clearly not the case. Dodging races in which he'd be lucky to get into the top-10 is not the same thing as "never trying to run fast". He wants the half and full ARs and has already tried to get them, more than once each.

But, the answer to the question is that, no, he hasn't run one without.

Has anyone ever beaten Rupp in a marathon without them?

Alternate Reality wrote:

The olympic trials race was Rupp's first marathon.

The top 3 finishers all wore the same shoes at the Olympics.

When did Nike first start developing cheater shoes (likely before 2016) and who did they have in mind when first developing? I can't believe Salazar didn't have a say in this.

I can't believe Salazar didn't say to R&D "design a shoe that can get Galen through a marathon". Obviously Salazar knew Rupp wasn't an economical marathoner = too bouncy.

Obviously Salazar knew Galen couldn't race (and survive) in the shoes Alberto raced in in 1982 = completely different runners.

Who was Nike more likely to develop a shoe for - Rupp or Kipchoge?

Finally, what time could Galen run a marathon in in Alberto's 1982 racers?

The first known use of "modern" super-shoes was indeed by Rupp to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials in a small half-marathon that he entered at the last minute and was suddenly/mysteriously certified/sanctioned only a week earlier, pretty obviously devised by Salazar to do it without as little audience as possible (this is years before Nike was setting up its own 4-5 person certified "meets").

The vaporfly upper and the kipchoge 2-hour stunts came a year later after 2016 Olympics for marketing purposes. Nike had no need/desire to sell the shoes before then because prototypes were perfectly fine and I guess Nike realized they got away with spring-plates at the Trials/Olympics so why not drive a freight-train of cash to the bank with them.

December 2015 Portland Holiday-Half, 61:20 zero competition, just a tempo long run (streak upper, but proto-vaporfly sole, Eliud wore the same prototypes in white at London 2016 and all Nike at the trials) Rupp did do NYC half in 2011 in regular shoes in 60:30 so he's got a real vdot 81 (but who knows what the hell Salazar was screwing around with in 2011)

https://i.imgur.com/XhovwL4.jpg

https://imgur.com/a/ugxY599