by At the end of a recent six-week block of altitude training in Kenya, British marathon runner Emile Cairress paused for a brief roadside interview.
Cairress said he was aiming for a “big PB” at this weekend’s London Marathon before his chat with website Sweat Elite was ‘videobombed’ by a training partner referring to a pair of the Adidas Adios Adizero Pro Evo 1 almost mythical now. carbon running shoes.
“I’m going to wear these,” Cairress said with a smile. “Nice upgrade. That will hopefully give me a moment.”
It’s the same 4.9oz shoe, you may remember, that Tigst Assefa wore last September when she broke the women’s marathon world record and, although recommended for single use, she gets up to Still £800 a pair on eBay. . Assefa is gunning for another world record on Sunday – and Cairress could threaten Mo Farah’s British record – but a bigger ‘super shoe’ story will unfold in London among the thousands who follow.
Carbon-reinforced shoes with super-responsive foam were first worn by elite runners in 2017 – so these newest prototypes are only marginal improvements – but the past two years have seen variations of earlier models sweep the mass market. Prices have dropped significantly since then and it’s fairly easy to buy a pair for between £150 and £200.
Par marathon times will be reduced
The effect of improved footwear on amateur running times is already being seen at hundreds of recreational races each week. Research this week by Strava found that the average London Marathon time had improved by 12 minutes between 2022 and 2023 (from 4 hours 18 minutes to 4 hours 6 minutes) and, as more runners and more on, this trend is sure to continue.
It is something that is already being reckoned with by the organizers of the London Marathon who have discovered that there is a risk of oversubscribing their traditional ‘good for the age’ achievements which guarantee sought after places. It all means that the standard required for those 6,000 spots will be improved next year to include the super shoe era.
“Everyone’s talking so much about the speed – and 100 percent it helps the speed – but the foam they’re using is consistent and the recovery is much better; the impact on your muscles is reduced,” says Hugh Brasher, event director.
This observation may be more significant than the improvement on race day alone. Older runners may now be able to stay in the sport longer. Heavier runners have a lower risk of injury. And many other runners can consider moving up from Parkrun to perhaps pushing 5km to a marathon or half marathon. At the elite level, runners are finding that they can absorb more miles, which means the whole equation between optimal volume and intensity levels is being redrawn and tested.
Super shoes add ‘new interest’ to running
Athletics is full of exaggeration about training plans but Kelvin Kiptum, who rewrote the marathon record books aged just 23 before his sudden death earlier this year, was no doubt facing wisdom. traditional. Traditionally elite athletes have not moved up to the marathon after spending years racing over shorter distances. It is thought that the challenge of the marathon was so extreme that there was a risk of destroying young legs. Kiptum had no background and, on the back of the training week when he apparently completed 185 miles, he seemed to treat the marathon almost like a middle distance race and tended to finish faster than as it began. He was wearing Nike Alphafly 3 shoes when he set the world record last year, as was Sifan Hassan when she showed in London that the distance of 26.2 miles may not be such a big step up from a 10,000m track anymore.
For the shoe companies, there is now an arms race on several levels. The next incarnation of Alphafly or Pro Evo 1 continues to be tested to find small progress and those newest models will continue to command a huge premium. Adidas, for example, will put the Pro Evo 1 back on general sale next week at a cost of £450.
But, like the advent of carbon fiber bikes in cycling, the truly game-changing advances are already widely available, leaving only a rapidly diminishing old guard still loyal to older shoes. traditional.
After all, why not make the switch if you can run faster and recover better at an increasingly comparable price?
There is now talk of designing shoes for amateurs that are more responsible than those in official competition, which are still governed by the fairly arbitrary World Athletics rules of a maximum 40mm heel height. That might even give Parkrunners access to faster shoes than the big marathon winners.
Brasher believes that progress should be welcomed, just as it was when his father Chris was innovating back with titanium spikes when he won Olympic javelin gold in 1956. “Technology has always been at the forefront of progress of society,” he says.
Some have argued that the record books should be reordered to distinguish between shoe eras. We will never know, for example, whether Assefa was really better than Paula Radcliffe. “Technology moves on, science moves on and it’s happened in other sports,” says Eilish McColgan, who is quickly rewriting her mother Liz’s old records with the help of carbon-dense shoes. Eilish is sponsored by Asics but speaks for many athletes who feel relieved that there now seems to be a relatively level playing field between brands.
“I’m happy now that every shoe company has their own version of the super shoe,” she told Telegraph Sport. “There’s no doubt that it gives a big advantage over the old school racing flats of yesteryear and may help more people run half marathons and marathons. Training is a huge component. It creates another dimension that’s a bit different and definitely brings in new interest.”
