"Paula Radcliffe ... Zoom VaporFly shoes ... arrogant, disrespectful, and total bullshit"

Except none of these articles ask other important questions like, "Would the attempt had gone better if they had used Adidas athletes?"

Are we supposed to take an article seriously that is so obviously biased? Of course the attempt was gimmicky. Of course it was the Kipchoge show, he did a fantastic job coming in within 25 seconds. Nike is a business and there is no shame in that.

Nike showed that sub-2 is in the realm of possibility. I have no qualms with them trying to make a profit off of the experiment. Our local store is selling the shoes next month and the comments of people wanting to buy them was outrageous.

The constant Nike hate on twitter and by the same people (Lauren Fleshman and Kara Goucher) is old.

Drante wrote:

Nike showed that sub-2 is in the realm of possibility.

Did they though? Or did they change the parameters of the race just enough to get close to 2hrs, but not enough to make it blatantly aided.

I'm still curious why Kipchoge wore arm compression sleeves

I mean, I like them too, but when it's cold, otherwise they are annoying

it's funny how singlets always look big on him

but I could watch him for hours, mesmerizing

I'm hearing so much about this especially at the club 'hobby jogger' level that it was obviously a huge marketing success. the number of joggers at our club that said 'i clicked in expecting to see what it was all about then stayed glued to the screen for 2 hours' is simply amazing to me.

I have family members who have never run a step in their lives who are talking about it..

it has changed the game significantly

1 2 3 green wrote:

Drante wrote:

Nike showed that sub-2 is in the realm of possibility.

Did they though? Or did they change the parameters of the race just enough to get close to 2hrs, but not enough to make it blatantly aided.

Even with all the 'aid' very few thought anyone would get even close. Kipchoge was painfully close. So, yes. Nike showed sub-2 is in the realm of possibility.

Weird thread subject - Made it sound like Radcliffe said those things. Instead it's poor angry Sarah Barker, one of the strangest and least stable people you'll ever meet.

Interesting that you call them compression sleeves then refer to them implicitly as arm warmers. Perhaps he was wearing them for compression, not warmth?

but why wrote:

I'm still curious why Kipchoge wore arm compression sleeves

I mean, I like them too, but when it's cold, otherwise they are annoying

F.O.H.. wrote:

Instead it's poor angry Sarah Barker, one of the strangest and least stable people you'll ever meet.

So, a typical Deadspin writer?

All the marketing and performance stuff aside, they are some pretty sweet looking shoes

Disrespekt NeyeKey wrote:

http://deadspin.com/nikes-two-hour-long-eliud-kipchoge-documentary-was-beau-1794984200

This is the real story.

"Nike’s gimmickry did little."

"It cannot be reproduced on others."

"Nike produced a two-hour opus by Kipchoge, on Kipchoge."

"It was the Kipchoge show."

In my calculation, Nike won, they won in terms of publicity and in showing athletics potential.

Call this whatever you want to call it, Nike never called it a world record attempt and was upfront about creating perfect circumstances to run sub-2. And, they came close enough that no one can say the attempt was just some crazy stunt. I don't think the shoes or nutrition helped at all, the pacing and pacers is what made the difference. This was about 98% equal to a real race and probably would have been a legit WR with out the pacing setup.

The main thing is, this is one of the few times I have seen people watching a running event at my local sports bar. Even my wife who can't bear watching anything over a mile found it intriguing.

^ I agree with all of this.... Except the shoes and more so the nutrition did help to a certain degree. The pacing was by far the biggest benefit, but having calculated/specific nutrition handed to the athletes definitely helped.

All in all I would consider the event a huge success and very entertaining to watch.

Karl Hungus wrote:

F.O.H.. wrote:

Instead it's poor angry Sarah Barker, one of the strangest and least stable people you'll ever meet.

So, a typical Deadspin writer?

Uh oh. Personal attacks against the writer, not the content. She must be doing something right.

New fan.

Drante wrote:

The constant Nike hate on twitter and by the same people (Lauren Fleshman and Kara Goucher) is old.

Yes, this was a gimmick. Do you honestly think Nike would go and spend tens of millions on this without some sort of product tie-in?

It would be easy to design shoes that would make sub 2 hours easy.

Shoebacca wrote:

Except none of these articles ask other important questions like, "Would the attempt had gone better if they had used Adidas athletes?"

You make an interesting and subtle point, maybe just maybe this type of format morphs into a Nike & Adidas time trial staged event. Same sub 2hour goal but with maybe 6 runners attempting, 3 nike , 3 adidas. Not a race but controlled environment time trial with huge bonus potential for time.

I love how you denigrate club runners, runners who may have been training long than you've been alive, runners who may not be that fast but love running and/or are dedicated to the sport and you call the "hobby joggers".

There is a huge difference between a club runner and a hobby jogger in my book. Mybe you can make a better distinction here.

1 2 3 green wrote:

Drante wrote:

Nike showed that sub-2 is in the realm of possibility.

Did they though? Or did they change the parameters of the race just enough to get close to 2hrs, but not enough to make it blatantly aided.

Yes, they did. They showed that Kipchoge was 25 seconds too slow. That's well within the realm of possible.

I don't know what you mean by "changing the parameters to get close to 2hrs." The distance was still 26.2 miles. It wasn't a 0 degree elevation course. Both of these parameters can be duplicated at other venues. The only real help was the pace car and pacers. But it can be argued that even pacing is not how you set WRs so perhaps it hurt the attempt that they did even pacing. And with watches now one can easily pace themselves. Regarding the pacers... It can be argued they do not provide a statistically significant benefit.

So at the end of the day Nike showed sub 2hrs is possible.

They also made Eliud Kipchoge a household name, whereas if you would have asked even the common runner who won gold in the Rio marathon they would not have been able to tell you his name before this event. As someone said above, I could sit and watch Kipchoge run for hours. That form is so smooth and relaxed.