The feature article on Mario Garcia Romo makes a big deal about him now being faster than his idols Coe, Cram and Aouita. But it doesn’t mention that Romo has the advantage of super shoes. Can we please stop this nonsense?
Coe ran 3:29.77. Cram ran 3:29.67. Aouita ran 3:29.46. Garcia has run 3:29.18. He’s run just a fraction of a second faster with super shoes than they did with inferior shoes nearly 40 years ago.
It's funny that people honestly think it makes a difference of something like 3 seconds per mile from old spikes to new spikes. Our current athletes in the world are SLOW! No one running sub 3:30 equivalent now for multiple years! World lead this year 3:27.95, last year 3:29.02, 3:28.28 in 2021, and the first full year of the new spikes world lead was 3:28.45. Let's pull things back and say they 'only' make you 2.5 seconds faster in a 1500 and not 3 seconds like a lot of people believe. That means these real world leading times would be 3:30.45, 3:31.52, 3:30.78 and 3:30.95. The last time we had a streak that SLOW was 1981-1984. So if the new spikes make a difference of 2.5 seconds in a 1500 then the past few years we've had the slowest group of athletes in the world since the 1981-1984 time span! That's crazy how slow our athletes are now!
It's funny that people honestly think it makes a difference of something like 3 seconds per mile from old spikes to new spikes. Our current athletes in the world are SLOW! No one running sub 3:30 equivalent now for multiple years! World lead this year 3:27.95, last year 3:29.02, 3:28.28 in 2021, and the first full year of the new spikes world lead was 3:28.45. Let's pull things back and say they 'only' make you 2.5 seconds faster in a 1500 and not 3 seconds like a lot of people believe. That means these real world leading times would be 3:30.45, 3:31.52, 3:30.78 and 3:30.95. The last time we had a streak that SLOW was 1981-1984. So if the new spikes make a difference of 2.5 seconds in a 1500 then the past few years we've had the slowest group of athletes in the world since the 1981-1984 time span! That's crazy how slow our athletes are now!
2.5 seconds at 1500 is nonsense as you’ve just demonstrated. I thought the latest explanation was that the spikes provide more benefit at slower paces, meaning their impact is much greater at 5k and 10k vs 800 or 1500.
As far as Romo running faster than some all-time greats, isn’t it obvious they would have run faster had they been towed along by a 3:27 guy?
It's funny that people honestly think it makes a difference of something like 3 seconds per mile from old spikes to new spikes. Our current athletes in the world are SLOW! No one running sub 3:30 equivalent now for multiple years! World lead this year 3:27.95, last year 3:29.02, 3:28.28 in 2021, and the first full year of the new spikes world lead was 3:28.45. Let's pull things back and say they 'only' make you 2.5 seconds faster in a 1500 and not 3 seconds like a lot of people believe. That means these real world leading times would be 3:30.45, 3:31.52, 3:30.78 and 3:30.95. The last time we had a streak that SLOW was 1981-1984. So if the new spikes make a difference of 2.5 seconds in a 1500 then the past few years we've had the slowest group of athletes in the world since the 1981-1984 time span! That's crazy how slow our athletes are now!
Agreed, some of these conversions people use are ridiculous. 1,500 times have barely moved since they came out in 2019. I do think they make a larger difference at 5,000/10,000.
the new foams are meant to give back energy so the longer the race, the more energy you get back. The only benefit for the 1500m is that the super shoes/spikes have more cushion than older models which keeps athletes healthier and more recovered so they can get more out of themselves come race day. Athletes still get injured all the time still and shoes don't make the runner
Supershoes are leading to divergent human evolution... The new generation who has only known supershoes their whole life and running career are exposed to entirely different forces... same as if a group of humans lived entirely underground or in outer space. They're not like us. Discuss.
The feature article on Mario Garcia Romo makes a big deal about him now being faster than his idols Coe, Cram and Aouita. But it doesn’t mention that Romo has the advantage of super shoes. Can we please stop this nonsense?
Coe ran 3:29.77. Cram ran 3:29.67. Aouita ran 3:29.46. Garcia has run 3:29.18. He’s run just a fraction of a second faster with super shoes than they did with inferior shoes nearly 40 years ago.
can we also stop comparing times using starting blocks and fancy tracks to when real men dug holes at the start of their race and ran on gravel
It's funny that people honestly think it makes a difference of something like 3 seconds per mile from old spikes to new spikes. Our current athletes in the world are SLOW! No one running sub 3:30 equivalent now for multiple years! World lead this year 3:27.95, last year 3:29.02, 3:28.28 in 2021, and the first full year of the new spikes world lead was 3:28.45. Let's pull things back and say they 'only' make you 2.5 seconds faster in a 1500 and not 3 seconds like a lot of people believe. That means these real world leading times would be 3:30.45, 3:31.52, 3:30.78 and 3:30.95. The last time we had a streak that SLOW was 1981-1984. So if the new spikes make a difference of 2.5 seconds in a 1500 then the past few years we've had the slowest group of athletes in the world since the 1981-1984 time span! That's crazy how slow our athletes are now!
Agreed, some of these conversions people use are ridiculous. 1,500 times have barely moved since they came out in 2019. I do think they make a larger difference at 5,000/10,000.
It is a 'negligible' time difference in the 1500, probably similar time difference to when the mondo track surface was invented, I honestly give it a fraction of a second in a 1500 since the times the past few years are on par with the several years previously. Not to mention I would expect times to improve over time anyway as the population continues to increase and more people do top level training. But even in the 5,000m and 10,000m I don't think it suddenly starts making a massive difference. If the 1500 is a fraction of a second different then maybe a 5,000m is a few seconds different total for the entire race at best. Either way, I don't consider that a large enough difference to discredit fast times today and to not compare times to previous years. These guys running 12:40's this year are FAST! One of them, Kejelcha, has the indoor mile world record before the new spikes. He was one of the fastest guys ever before the new spikes and still is, not much changed. Jacob Kiplimo ran 26:30's 10,000m with old spikes, he's insanely fast. And he's still insanely fast. One of the best ever with or without the new spikes.
The feature article on Mario Garcia Romo makes a big deal about him now being faster than his idols Coe, Cram and Aouita. But it doesn’t mention that Romo has the advantage of super shoes. Can we please stop this nonsense?
Coe ran 3:29.77. Cram ran 3:29.67. Aouita ran 3:29.46. Garcia has run 3:29.18. He’s run just a fraction of a second faster with super shoes than they did with inferior shoes nearly 40 years ago.
Do you also think that we should maintain different record books from when cinder tracks were run on vs synthetic? Even the various synthetic tracks of today are better than those synthetic tracks of when Coe, Cram, and Aouita ran. Should we have different records for those as well?
I’m not mired in the past. That’s the point. Stop heaping praise upon someone for taking advantage of huge technology improvements to run just a tad faster than Olympic and world champions from the 1980s.