Oh the irony. What if it turns out the new $500 adidas shoe is just way better than Nike's?

And Petros set a new German record as well.

This is not the case in golf. There are no golf balls or clubs you can buy that are better than what the pros use.

Earlier this year there was a proposal from the USGA to "rollback" the golf ball for professionals (i.e. make it go a shorter distance) and it has been met by a huge amount of resistance.

Jury is still out on the Adidas shoe. The men's side results showed it was not an advantage. Tekele was wearing regular old Adios Pro 3s, which you can find for $150 if you look around, and the first finisher wearing the $500 shoe, Kipruto, finished 7th almost two minutes off his PR:

runningshoesguru.com

The Shoes of the Winners of the Berlin 2023 Marathon

Nike has been dominating Marathon podiums for the past few years. But gone are the days of 5/6 shoes on the podium having a swoosh on them.

Link:www.runningshoesguru.com/2023/09/the-s...

To me the fact that the shoe was such a bust on the men's side of the race--Kipruto was defeated by a guy wearing a La Ning Shoe and thr Asics Shoe--makes the women's results even more dubious.

One great way to cover up doping is to give the credit to some fancy new shoe. I suspect the Adidas shoe is a marginal gain over the other shoes, if it's a gain at all. And I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't really a gain. You can't decrease weight without decreasing cushioning. And the magic of the super shoe has never really been the weight. It's delivering cushioning without having your foot sink into the shoe, the way it would in a Brooks Glycerin or New Balance 1080. They protects your legs while giving you the same responsiveness of an old style racing flat.

Amanal Petros, in the same shoe, finished ninth in 2:04:58 to shave more than one minute from his previous national record of 2:06:27 and move to fourth on the European all-time list

Great athletes but the shoes are making it impossible to compare the times to past great performances/performers. The new normal takes away from the history of the sport. Is that good or bad? I don't know.

How many ocean waste shirt must adidas produce to compensate for a single one time use shoe?

And Amos Kipruto finished 7th, almost two minutes slower than his PR. He was the top Adidas finisher wearing those shoes (guy in third wore regular Adios Pro 3s). In between Kipchoge and his Alphaflys and the first $500 shoe finisher were an Asics Metaspeed and several Alpha/Vaporflys. Seems like this shoe might be vaporware and the real reason for the performance might not be the shoes...

I am very skeptical of the notion that they are “single use.” If they were only designed to be single use in general, they likely self destruct before the race was even over for someone who puts greater than average forces on the shoe. Besides, early in the Vaporfly days, while people didn’t say “single use,” people assumed based on nothing whatsoever that they’d be less durable than conventional racing shoes for reasons nobody could explain, yet now we know they’re not only as durable as conventional shoes but actually more durable. Unless the Adidas shoe uses some brand new foam (I.e., not pebax) the notion it’s only good for me race is most likely nonsense. Sure, sponsored professional athlete will likely be given a fresh pair for major races, but until proven otherwise I don’t buy the notion that they can’t or shouldn’t be used for at least several races.

this thread is further proof that a degree from Princeton means nothing

truly stupid

The irony clearly is that we don't know if Kipchoge is already wearing something akin to what adidas brought to the market and haven't been told. Just because the shape of the shoe is the same as what we buy, does not mean Kipchoge isn't wearing something a bit different. We all know Nike owns the running world. I would love to see the alphas he wore for the INEOS 1:59 (and potentially world records) meet a band saw. I promise you, at least the sub 2 hour shoes...are a different composition. Maybe not drastic, but enough to get him over the hump of 2 hours.

Do you think rojo used the word “irony”because he knew people would roast him for not using the word properly? Or is he actually incredibly stupid?

There is nothing in the IAAF rules that bans wheels anymore.

The same Berlin marathon course has rollerbladers (inline skates) race the weekend after the running race.

They are amazing to watch and the best athletes can do it in an hour flat or just under, I think the record is 56 minutes!

So an hour marathon is obviously the physical limit of super-shoes under human power but that is decades away.

Or we could just get rid of Seb Coe and ban super-shoes with plates (or rods) which would radically limit their enhancement regardless of foam improvements.

At this rate by the end of the decade someone is going to run Berlin at 4 minute miles the entire way which would be 1:45 lol

I'm honestly not sure. Sometimes I think he must be trolling, because no one could really be that dumb.

I highly doubt the pros are using any shoes for more than one marathon. Maybe they keep them for a few workouts but it's probably not long before they have another retired race shoe to replace those. At least these ones use less material.

He is actually incredibly stupid.

He is really that dumb, and so is his brother.

ofa lon teh

ofa lon teh