My favorite Jonathan Gault article of the year: How Shoes Will Affect the US Olympic Marathon Trials

I didn't take a screen shot or anything but Bernard Lagat posted an Instagram story with a "breaking in the race day shoes" caption and he did not appear to be wearing the alphaflys.

Sesamoiditis wrote:

I didn't take a screen shot or anything but Bernard Lagat posted an Instagram story with a "breaking in the race day shoes" caption and he did not appear to be wearing the alphaflys.

You're really telling me Lagat, who instagrams himself training in Alphaflys every day, isn't going to race in them?

I plan to wear a pair of Saucony Guide 13s on Saturday.

Yes, that is right. No Vaporfly or Alphafly for me. Just my trusty Saucony Guides.

I’m going to bet that between the 6 total qualifiers that at most 3 wear Next% or Alphas

Maybe the Alphafly can turn out to be a major disaster. I would pay attention to what these 2 guys said: Bowerman Track Club’s Chris Derrick is sticking with the Vaporfly Next%. why? The Alpha seems to be heavier.

“I like them better,” Derrick says. “They’re a little lighter and they feel a little smoother to me.”

The other guy, Andrew Bumbalough, says he will likely wear the Next% in Atlanta. While he’s run some workouts in the Alphaflys, Bumbalough says they are noticeably heavier.

So two good runners find the Alpha heavier. Perhaps Nike is poisoning it’s own soup ?

Yeah, this discussion might be a little different if Hasay and Craig were coming in with strong results. Obviously Hasay is a question mark and Craig is out so there is less of a Nike bias at the top.

I know most the top runners sponsored by Brooks have been wearing prototype shoes with carbon fiber plating for some time now. All the Hanson Brooks runners have been wearing them. I assume most the other shoe companies also have their own version of these type of shoes. Is there really still that must disadvantage for the non-Nike shoes?

Even though the shoes obviously help, and perhaps a lot, if a peak and barefoot Abebe Bikila was competing for a spot on this U.S. Olympic Team, I would consider him to be a favorite to make the team.

This whole debate is silly. Without athletic apparel money, we likely wouldn't even have "track and field" because that's where the money comes from! At the professional level, it is at these companies convenience that it even exists.

If you want the purest of competition, then everyone must either go barefoot or have the same shoes. Then what happens is no one gets paid therefore there is no competition therefore no one cares.

Just about every athletic event has been changed by technology over the years. That includes running pre-vaporfly. Shoes versus barefoot. Shoes that are lighter than previous iterations. Different spike patterns or lengths. Different stack heights. Pronation control. The list goes on.

Tour de France 1989. A nice example of technology deciding the outcome. And what happened afterwards? Everyone adopted the technology (aero helmets and tri-bars).

Looks what's happening now in response. Nike is pushing every other company to up their game with money and research. How can that be a bad thing?

I sorta agree with you. He wilted in the hills of Boston.

On the women’s side . The winning the shoe ? qualifiers will. Be :

1. NB Sisson

2. ASICS Emma Bates

3. ASICS Hall

4 . Alternate - Hoka Taylor

DNF . Hasay Nike

DNF . Brooks

My picks , I’m cheering for Taylor because of her life story ,so I hope I’m wrong.

masacote wrote:

Maybe the Alphafly can turn out to be a major disaster. I would pay attention to what these 2 guys said: Bowerman Track Club’s Chris Derrick is sticking with the Vaporfly Next%. why? The Alpha seems to be heavier.

“I like them better,” Derrick says. “They’re a little lighter and they feel a little smoother to me.”

The other guy, Andrew Bumbalough, says he will likely wear the Next% in Atlanta. While he’s run some workouts in the Alphaflys, Bumbalough says they are noticeably heavier.

So two good runners find the Alpha heavier. Perhaps Nike is poisoning it’s own soup ?

Yeah, I found this interesting that they'd make it heavier (if they actually did). The Alphafly looks clunky, and also looks like you maybe wouldn't get a feel for the road in them (which is a human concern/preference, not an efficiency thing).

This is definitely Gault at his best: making up a story where there is none. Nice watermarked photo, you yahoos!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:

This is definitely Gault at his best: making up a story where there is none. Nice watermarked photo, you yahoos!

No story huh? Why does every coach and a majority of athletes agree with him? I think I'll take their word over a nike shill and trolls word.

find that hard to believe wrote:

Sesamoiditis wrote:

I didn't take a screen shot or anything but Bernard Lagat posted an Instagram story with a "breaking in the race day shoes" caption and he did not appear to be wearing the alphaflys.

You're really telling me Lagat, who instagrams himself training in Alphaflys every day, isn't going to race in them?

Nope, Next% in same colorway as the AlphaFly release.

This is now officially the message board for the almost rans.... the talentless runners with marginal success who feel they should be the best, but we’re denied success by conspiracy theory type thoughts. Losers. Hard core losers. This article and those who like it are paranoid delusional losers. Pathetic.

Show me where that's objectively shown to be true.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:

This is definitely Gault at his best: making up a story where there is none. Nice watermarked photo, you yahoos!

We pay to use the photo run photos.

profound stupidity wrote:

This is now officially the message board for the almost rans.... the talentless runners with marginal success who feel they should be the best, but we’re denied success by conspiracy theory type thoughts. Losers. Hard core losers. This article and those who like it are paranoid delusional losers. Pathetic.

Ah yes, more Nike shilling. I see they are paying you to shill on letsrun since all the factories are shutting down due to the coronavirus and you can’t make the sweatshop shoes.