Vaporfly's do it again!! 59 yr old Tommy Hughes runs 2:27:52 marathon as he and son set father/son world record in Frankfurt

Troll observer wrote:

Oh come on! We all know Nike has been paying trolls for mounths to flood the forums with vaporflies-are-so-much-superior-they-should-be-banned threads.

There also are a lot of topics Nike would not want to be discussed as much as vaporflies recently.

I will ask only once (then i'll get banned): Rojo, did you or letsrun get paid to make sure vaporflies stay on top of the board or are you doing this benevolently?

I wasn't paid by Nike. I just think it's absurd that people like Jarrion Lawson are being banned for 4 years for reating contaminated beef but then Kipchoge is celebrated as Neil Armstrong when he's wearing shoes that minutes faster than normal flats.

As for this story, yes my headline was a little disrepectful. I LOVE this story. A 59 year old running sub-2:30 blows my mind. A bunch of my ex cornell runners who are still in their 30s ran a marathon this weekend and none of them broke 3. Yes, they barely run but still. It made me wonder if I could break 5 hours (as a former 148 800 guy 'ran' 4:58). So I was amazed by this story but then I thought, "Wait, I wonder what shoe they are wearing?" So I clicked on the facebook photos and started laughing.

It looked like they were on pogo sticks. It's hilarious. There is a 59-year old old school badass properly wearing a pink high heeled racer. Don't misunderstand me, I'd be doing the same thing.

At the 1992 Olympics he ran a 2.32 but now at 59 he betters that time. Some running.

Is it just me, or does he look a bit like the cyclist Marco Pantani (RIP)? The shaved head / ears combo is similar.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Marco_Pantani.jpg/220px-Marco_Pantani.jpg

Credit where credit is due: Rojo, your reaction to my trolling was full of composure and commends only respect.

That being said i think maybe the 4% has shown on a controled run on treadmill 4% less oxygen at the same speed other the previous nike flat. Some people argue that the adios boost was 2% more efficient than the reference Nike used. So the 4% would be what? 2% more efficient than the adios?

I've read 4% more efficient equates to 2.6% faster (i don't care to redo the maths, but that seems about logical). Now if we are speaking about 2% more efficient than the adios, then what? Certainly not "minutes" faster. Well, maybe one or two.

And it seems to push other brands to rethink the marathon flat as well. Some seem to get encourraging results from their newest prototypes. Actually it could lead to "better running shoes". Isn't that something letsrun wants?

Like I said already, Vaporflies are going to have their biggest effect on master's running. I've run in Vaporfly Next% exactly 3 times: two workouts, and a race that literally took 5 years off my usual age-graded PR times.

I thought the shoes were a gimmick, whose carbon fibres had been shown to snap, anyway?

Tommy turns 60 in about 10 weeks according to the IAAF website (born January 8, 1960).

Looking at an old thread about Tommy on this forum, if he runs another sub 2:30 next year, he will be the first person to do it in five decades. It will also obliterate the current over-60 record which is currently 2:36:30 by Yoshihisa Hosaka of Japan.

Does anyone kow if the Marathon de Neuf-Brisach, which was held from 1971-2000, was record eligible? I can't find a course map since the race stopped it's existence so long ago.

Was it a loop course?

Hope this story is not another Frank Meza marathon!

Also this weekend, 9 runners go sub 29 minutes at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k in the UK. In a typical year (and a good one at that) perhaps one person would duck under 29 at most. Similar at other depths with 28 sub 30 and 65 sub 31.

For comparison, 2018 saw: 0 sub 29, 7 sub 30 and 32 sub 31.

2017 saw: 0 sub 29, 14 sub 30 and 31 sub 31.

At first I naturally thought positively and think how good this is for British distance running.....then reality sets in when I saw a photo taken just after the gun and saw what was on the runners' feet! I guess comparison of times are meaningless now and we have to reset what we think of as a good time. But for me that is sad as the beauty of athletics is we should be able to compare times throughout the ages.

do shoes run themselves? wrote:

This headline is so disrespectful. The vaporflys are not running themselves.

Rojo needs to get over his Nike hatred or find another job.

This.

kolbeck Gérard wrote:

Me and my Father we are make better on 1987 and 1993 on the Marathon on Neuf-Brisach ( FRANCE )...my father was 2x Olympians on the Marathon in Munich 72 and Montréal 76...and we run the marathon together...in 1987 his age was 43 and me 23...he won the Marathon in 2h22'54" and I finish second in 2h23'10"....and in 1993 ( age 49 for him and 29 for me ) I Won the same Marathon in2h23'22" and he finish second in 2h24'39"...perhaps gives other father and son over the world but for the moment we are make better. ( sorry ).

This is awesome. I hope to share such memories with my son some day.

Grenster wrote:

Also this weekend, 9 runners go sub 29 minutes at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k in the UK. In a typical year (and a good one at that) perhaps one person would duck under 29 at most. Similar at other depths with 28 sub 30 and 65 sub 31.

For comparison, 2018 saw: 0 sub 29, 7 sub 30 and 32 sub 31.

2017 saw: 0 sub 29, 14 sub 30 and 31 sub 31.

At first I naturally thought positively and think how good this is for British distance running.....then reality sets in when I saw a photo taken just after the gun and saw what was on the runners' feet! I guess comparison of times are meaningless now and we have to reset what we think of as a good time. But for me that is sad as the beauty of athletics is we should be able to compare times throughout the ages.

Yes - just like it is meaningful to compare times run in shoes that runners put nails in themselves and modern day spikes.

The thing is everyone is speculating about 4% less oxygen consumption in some controlled tests but the fact is that if it was the case it should've translated to about 2.7% improvement in results. In the real world however no one has come even close to this kind of improvement except Brigit Kosgei who improved her PR by about 2.9% (and we all know who is her manager and coach). The next closest improvement was by Kamworor at about 1.4% and that was including perfectly flat course, great pacemakers, Maurten nutrition and tailwind on the last part of the race. Kipchoge actually improved on Kimetto record by 1.1%. And again it was done on perfectly flat and fast Berlin course, on ideal conditions, with Maurten nutrition and by the greatest marathoner ever.

Grenster wrote:

Also this weekend, 9 runners go sub 29 minutes at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k in the UK. In a typical year (and a good one at that) perhaps one person would duck under 29 at most. Similar at other depths with 28 sub 30 and 65 sub 31.

For comparison, 2018 saw: 0 sub 29, 7 sub 30 and 32 sub 31.

2017 saw: 0 sub 29, 14 sub 30 and 31 sub 31.

At first I naturally thought positively and think how good this is for British distance running.....then reality sets in when I saw a photo taken just after the gun and saw what was on the runners' feet! I guess comparison of times are meaningless now and we have to reset what we think of as a good time. But for me that is sad as the beauty of athletics is we should be able to compare times throughout the ages.

And yet vaproflys were available since 2017! holy duck! imagine that.

Not many people had them in 2017.

Troll observer wrote:

do shoes run themselves? wrote:

Rojo needs to get over his Nike hatred or find another job.

Oh come on! We all know Nike has been paying trolls for mounths to flood the forums with vaporflies-are-so-much-superior-they-should-be-banned threads.

There also are a lot of topics Nike would not want to be discussed as much as vaporflies recently.

I will ask only once (then i'll get banned): Rojo, did you or letsrun get paid to make sure vaporflies stay on top of the board or are you doing this benevolently?

I wish Nike would pay us for all the free publicity they get on our site, but they can chalk that up to creating a shoe that is faster than shoes previously before it.

kolbeck Gérard wrote:

Me and my Father we are make better on 1987 and 1993 on the Marathon on Neuf-Brisach ( FRANCE )...my father was 2x Olympians on the Marathon in Munich 72 and Montréal 76...and we run the marathon together...in 1987 his age was 43 and me 23...he won the Marathon in 2h22'54" and I finish second in 2h23'10"....and in 1993 ( age 49 for him and 29 for me ) I Won the same Marathon in2h23'22" and he finish second in 2h24'39"...perhaps gives other father and son over the world but for the moment we are make better. ( sorry ).

Congrats if that is real because you guys smoked this alleged record of 4:59. I knew 4:59 didn't sound nearly fast enough when i first read that so I wouldn't be surprised if that time has been beat dozens of times in the past.

another perspective wrote:

kolbeck Gérard wrote:

Me and my Father we are make better on 1987 and 1993 on the Marathon on Neuf-Brisach ( FRANCE )...my father was 2x Olympians on the Marathon in Munich 72 and Montréal 76...and we run the marathon together...in 1987 his age was 43 and me 23...he won the Marathon in 2h22'54" and I finish second in 2h23'10"....and in 1993 ( age 49 for him and 29 for me ) I Won the same Marathon in2h23'22" and he finish second in 2h24'39"...perhaps gives other father and son over the world but for the moment we are make better. ( sorry ).

Congrats if that is real because you guys smoked this alleged record of 4:59. I knew 4:59 didn't sound nearly fast enough when i first read that so I wouldn't be surprised if that time has been beat dozens of times in the past.

Yet another perspective — the performances of the Kolbecks and Priors are very impressive, but the combined age of the Hughes is 94 (59 plus 35).