Vaporflys (presumably) crush it again. Produce amazing times in Valencia. 26:38 10k, A 2:03:51 and 4 2:18s!!!

No you will be happy to have generated clicks and posts. Let us be honest about what you will be happy about. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Why oh why can’t people get the main reason why people run their fastest in the VF/Next%? There’s no magic sauce here, and the plate is required for stability, or the shoe would be a soft blob of mush.

The Next% crushes the marathon easily because there’s never a been a shoe to this point that meets all three key ingredients: lightweight (just enough - many other lighter shoes); efficient to run fast in (again many shoes do this); and super soft stacked cushion. Nike is the first to get all three in one shoe.

So what’s the result? Simple: your legs feel more fresh racing in these than any other racing shoe. And if your legs feel like you’ve run 22 miles instead of 26.2, you’re going to run faster, whether you are 3 hour or 2 hour marathoner.

Is it easy to bash Nike? Sure is - they are really a heinous company and deserve the hate. But within a couple years, all racing shoes from most brands will be designed like the Next%. It’s not cheating - the shoes are just the first to get all three key elements together in one shoe.

People understand perfectly why the shoe produces faster times. The controversy comes from the fact that they produce disruptively faster times.

Cheptegei is great, but how long until people see these clubbed shoes are responsible for all the improvements on the road these pasts 4 years?

Clubbed* = flubber

Here is a link to the end of the race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEvQw81HTxQ I'll try to put the shoes of the runner next to his / her name as best as I can, feel free to add your own info.

The previous 10k record was set in 2010 and was only 6 seconds slower. Is it not reasonable to have a person run 6 seconds faster once after almost a decade?

Rojo, was Paula doped or not? These women are 3 minutes slower and you act like it’s not physically possible. Paula wasn’t in VF and would have won by a kilometer.

Stop making it always about the shoes. You think that maybe athletes are just RUNNING FASTER? Or is that never even a thought.

Daniel88 wrote:

Stop making it always about the shoes. You think that maybe athletes are just RUNNING FASTER? Or is that never even a thought.

The women's race set the record for most sub-2:19s (4), most sub-2:20s (5), most sub-2:21s (7), and most sub-2:23s (9).

There were also 30 men under 2:12. THIRTY! I don't have a good way of checking, but surely that is a record. Does anyone know for sure?

Moen runs near the White Man Limit (2:06-2:07) with his 2:06:16 today.. very consistent performance to his PB -

Sandre Moen (NOR), 2:05:48

Suguru Osako (JPN), 2:05:50

Galen Rupp (USA), 2:06:07

Yuta Shitara (JPN), 2:06:11

Toshinari Takaoka (JPN), 2:06:16

Ryan Hall (USA), 2:06:17

Marilson Gomes dos Santos (BRA), 2:06:34

Antonio Pinto (POR), 2:06:36

Benoit Zwierzchlewski (FRA), 2:06:36

Atsushi Fujita (JPN), 2:06:51

Hiroto Inoue (JPN), 2:06:54

Julio Rey (ESP), 2:06:57

Takayuki Inubushi (JPN), 2:06:57

So does this count as a Turkey Trot or Jingle Bell Jog?

Then you add East African doping then that 2:06 limit drops to 2:00 flat.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

Daniel88 wrote:

Stop making it always about the shoes. You think that maybe athletes are just RUNNING FASTER? Or is that never even a thought.

The women's race set the record for most sub-2:19s (4), most sub-2:20s (5), most sub-2:21s (7), and most sub-2:23s (9).

There were also 30 men under 2:12. THIRTY! I don't have a good way of checking, but surely that is a record. Does anyone know for sure?

Lot of faster Euros who I never heard of. Who are Navarro, Santiago, Nilsson?? All ran 2:10 flat.

Daniel88 wrote:

Stop making it always about the shoes. You think that maybe athletes are just RUNNING FASTER? Or is that never even a thought.

Do i think some dude who has done next to nothing as a pro, whose career highlight was was 4th at world juniors, is a better marathoner than Haile G? Absolutely not. Remember, it was just 11 years ago that Haile Gs 2:03:59 was the first sub-204 ever.

He’s one of the GOATs of all time and now just 11 years later his times look pedestrian.

I think all else being equal that Adola may have been the best runner in this race. I think some sort of ruling needs to be made by January 1st as to what will be allowed at the 2020 Olympics.

And I feel for anyone not sponsored by Nike at the US Olympic Marathon Trials. If I was Molly Huddle or Des, I’d beg my sponsor to let me tape over the Vaporflys.

And I think Rupp’s bronze from 2016 comes with a big asterisk. What was done in 2016 was unfair and against the rules and the marathon results should be invalidated. But no instead the powers in charge will keep banning or not banning people who eat contaminated beef depending on whether they feel like it.

I’m sure the shoes help a lot, but the main ingredient is still the epo.

It is like the Lance era where everyone thought his secret to success was high cadence or bike aerodynamics.

Geez Rojo/Wejo, this has to stop.

I don't like Nike either, but stop it. You guys just come off as jerks delegitimizing these performances.

On Geb:

-He was old. His 203:59 came near the end of his 30s

You also fail to mention the SLEW of sub 205s post Geb/ pre-vaporflys. Dickson Chumba seems to be one of the first of a wave of "no names"to run fast.

Africans are ALL going to the marathon sooner. That has a bigger impact than shoes. Races are also consistently going out at sub 102 pace, creating many more fast times.

Do the Vaporflys make some people run faster? YES! But that's not the entire picture, and you two are creating a very misleading narrative.

Valid points. I think some credit can be given to the shoes but at the end of the day, the athlete still has to run 26.2 miles at that pace. 11 years ago is really quite a long time in the world of elite marathoning. At the time when Geb was competing, there were a lot fewer resources for athletes in the sub-saharan countries and it was quite a bit harder to be given the opportunity to train at a high level and be found by these agents. Haile even said that himself in the documentary "TERAT" on youtube. I think this progression of records is fairly natural and is mostly due to the increased development of a wider net of athletes as well as higher prize money in major road races.

Swedish NR for David Nilsson.

Lot of faster Euros who I never heard of. Who are Navarro, Santiago, Nilsson?? All ran 2:10 flat.

David Nilsson has been running well for a long time but this is the first great result in the marathon. He used to hold the Swedish record for the half (62:09) and now got it for the marathon. He is sponsored by Reebok so no Vaporflys.