Apparently Kiptum wore a yet-to-be released Nike Alphafly today

literally every other sport professional athletes use or try out prototypes or unreleased products

Agree, it wouldn't make sense to not allow prototypes at all because it's part of the development and testing process. Fortunately, they can only be used for one year before being released to the public or discontinued, although I'm sure this is abused by manufacturers issuing v1, v2, etc. with nominal variation.

Prototypes are not allowed in the Olympic Games or World Championships, which also makes some sense.

he wore Alphafly 1's in an unreleased colorway

BUT I WANT TO USE THEM IN THIS YEAR'S TURKEY TROT!!!!!!!!

Ancient Greeks:" Adapt or die" Now, they were referring to warfare, but you get the idea. And, if he does not take advantage of the allowable technology out there, his competition will be.

I have a dumb/weird question

If the authorization for that alphafly prototype use expires on December 3rd 2023

and that date is exactly the same date as CIM and Valencia Marathons

is that a coincidence?

Because those are the two biggest, final marathons of the year?

The whole rule change to allow non-public prototypes for use in public races is just so stupid and suspect.

Are they going to be allowed again at the trials? At the olympics?

These super-shoes -- plus apparently a new generation of PEDs -- are ruining the sport. This has never happened before: within a span of two weeks: the WRs for the men's and women's marathons haven't been just broken, but absolutely crushed.

It's clear that setting these WRs is no longer about talent, hard work, coaching, training and that ineffable thing that separates great champions from the merely excellent --- grit, heart, guts. Instead, the line separating the champions from the also-rans is based on the latest super-shoe technology and the latest cocktail of secret laboratory drugs.

The sport is being destroyed before our eyes just so a few people can get very rich.

There is something deeply suspicious about the marathon WR's set by both Assefa and Kiptum.

Both athletes didn't not just break the previous WRs, but utterly obliterated them. And neither had ever run competed in a full marathon before 2022.

Assefa's WR seems especially sketchy. Before her Berlin race in late September, her best time for a half-marathon was 1:07:28 in 2022 --- a full minute slower than her first-half split during her WR run in Berlin, and nearly two minutes slower than her second-half split (1:05:33).

How does that make sense? Her personal best for a half-marathon is substantially slower than the half-splits for a full marathon?

Yes, it's obvious both Kiptum and Assefa got a big boost from the super-shoes they wore. But I can't help but suspect they were using some very powerful PEDs. I'm getting a real Lance Armstrong-like vibe from the WRs they set.

Please, someone, convince me that I'm wrong.

Obviously I'm against PEDs (although let's bring that up when we have evidence of their use, not every time someone runs a performance that makes headlines), but claiming new technology is ruining the sport is ridiculous. It's ridiculous for the simple question: where do you draw the line?

The move to modern track surfaces from cinders also gave an advantage of 1-2 seconds/400m, should we race on cinders? I agree that athletes prior to the advent of supershoes would have run just as fast, if not faster, than these current athletes. I really think better shoes, track surfaces, pacing technology, etc have led to the improvement in times we've seen, not breakthroughs in training methodology. However, technological improvement is part of the sport.

Absolutely used to be a rule you had to run in commercially available shoes. Prototypes are not allowed by IAAF. Not sure if this has changed but it is not enforced. Most notably the 2016 Olympics when the top 3 men all had supershoes no one else had.

this man asking for Rupp🤣🤣🤣

Call me a Idealist or even a Commie Socialist, but I don't think that any new "prototype" bouncy shoe should be allowed in a sanctioned race unless they're available to anyone that wants to buy them. Why is an unlevel playing field allowed? It's called "fair play".

Nike does not follow rules.

Lol! You think there’s rules with cheat shoes?

Derek Clayton with these shoes and running at CIM would have been under 2 hours in 1967. Don't tell me it's not the shoes.

This is udderly ironic.

You know Kiptum is a 2:10 marathoner without the shoes.

This is such a dumb argument. There's no reason to believe Assefa and Kiptum are cheating, but not Kipchoge and Kosgei. What is "deeply" suspicious, it's blatant cheating?

Seriously, have you never watched this sport before? Just like all professional sports, the best athletes are doping. This is nothing new.

It's so funny to require athletes to break previous records to be able to break new ones. Did you not think this same thing when Kipchoge broke the marathon record for the first time?

You need to be a fanboy or else the athletes are cheating lmao