Faster Tracks or Super Shoes?
How an innovation moonshot to break the 2-hour marathon barrier redefined running off and on the track
In athletics terms, 12 October 2019 came 20 years sooner than expected. On this date, defending Olympic Champion, Eliud Kipchoge became the first human in history to cover the marathon distance in a sub-2-hours. Clocking 1:59:40.2 in Vienna, Austria, he accelerated the pace for an event that expert opinion reported in The Economist in 2017, predicted would not be achieved until around 2040.
The formula for the fastest marathon
As well as Kipchoge’s exceptional talent and discipline, the record was the result of multiple, carefully choreographed factors. Learnings from his first attempt at breaking the 2-hour barrier in 2017 in Monza, Italy (where he ran 2:00:25), saw a tag team of 41 pacemakers, including Goliaths of middle distance running like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, drafted in to ensure a perfect pace. The venue, Prater Park, was painstakingly selected for its perfect urban location and weather record. Thousands of fans were brought in to line the circuit and bolster the atmosphere and Kipchoge’s family were waiting on the finish line. Experts were appointed to cover every aspect of preparation and race day from nutrition to psychology. It was a masterclass in marginal gains.
The role of the super shoe
In Vienna, Kipchoge, famously, wore a prototype of Nike’s Alphafly Next% - the next generation Vaporfly 4% super shoe born from the running giant’s ‘Breaking2’ project which had kicked off five years earlier. The focused R&D effort involving top scientists, engineers and designers took lightweight, highly responsive ZoomX foam borrowed from aerospace innovation and partnered it with a carbon-fiber plate in the midsole. The result was a shoe with far greater energy return and propulsion than any other racing shoe on the market. Nike lab tests on the Vaporfly which Kipchoge wore for his 2017 attempt in Monza had shown a 4% gain, which in elite marathon terms was huge. The Alphafly Next% in Vienna was next level. Of all the marginal gains applied on that day, this was standout.
A new era of running records
Although not formally recognized as a world record because standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed, Kipchoge’s 2019 time in Vienna redefined what was humanly possible over 26.2 miles. We are now just seconds off an official sub-2-hour marathon with the late Kenyan athlete, Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:00:35 official record for the 2023 Chicago Marathon. The athletics world suffered a huge loss when he was tragically killed in a car accident with his coach in 2024 and the best young athletes including Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma (2:02.16) and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto (2:02.16) are yet to make a serious impact on his mark. But it is in sight.
The magnitude of the data since the advent of the super shoe in 2017 is emphatic. The innovation caused a seismic shift in records at marathon and half-marathon distances that had a ripple effect onto the track.
“The men’s top 21 times over 13.1 miles have all been achieved since the birth of the super shoe with Yomif Keljelch’s 57.30 World Record in Valencia in October 2024 knocking almost a minute off the closest pre 2017 mark (Zersenay Tedese’s 58.23 in 2010).”
Top 38 all-time women’s half marathon performances come after the Vaporfly
In the women’s event, the impact is even greater with the top 38 all-time half marathon performances landing after 2017. Three out of the four best performances of all time were run in 2024 showing that more runners are running super fast each year. It is no coincidence that as more and more of the shoe titans developed products to compete with Nike’s initial innovation, the top performances increased. Today, runners have a selection of super shoes to choose from.
Radcliffe’s 16+ year marathon record falls in 2019
Over the marathon distance, Paula Radcliffe’s 2003 record of 2:15.25 which stood for over 16 years, fell in 2019 when Brigid Kosgei clocked 2:14.04 at the Chicago Marathon. Ruth Chepngetich’s astonishing 2:09.56 in the 2024 edition is the first time a woman has run sub 2:10, which, according to World Athletics’ scoring tables per event, is equivalent to a 2:00.20 mark in the men’s event and coincidentally or not, marks a 4% improvement over the old mark from Radcliffe.
The super shoe effect hits the track
It isn’t just the marathon and its half-sister that felt the supercharge. The birth of the ‘super spike’ followed its road running cousin taking super foam and carbon fiber plate innovation into middle- and long-distance track events.
World Records broken in 7 of 10 Olympic middle- and long-distance track disciplines in post-super shoes era
The advent of super shoes in the Rio 2016 Olympics and later developments in 2017 has had a significant and growing impact in track and field. Out of the ten Olympic middle- and long-distance events for men and women (800m, 1500m, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10,000m), world records have been broken in seven, leaving only the men’s 1,500m and 800m for both genders.
World Records have also been broken in the traditional Mile distance (Women’s) and the non-Olympic 2000m (both men and women), 3000m (men’s) and 2 Miles (men’s).
“To break records athletes must train for decades, and the tracks must support the ability for athletes to do this.”
Top performances increase in frequency
Data analysis demonstrates that not only records are broken, but top performances have also become more frequent, with many of the events having most of the all-time top 10 and top 20 performances from the last few years. In the men’s 800m for example, there were 14 marks under 1:42 in the entire history of the event, but the year of 2024 alone witnessed 12 – almost the same number of a century in just one year.
| Event | Olympic? | WR Broken Since 2017? | All time top 10 performances Since 2017 |
All time top 20 performances Since 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | W | M | W | M | W | ||
| 800m | Yes | No | No | 5 | 4 | 12 | 7 |
| 1500m | Yes | No | Yes | 2 | 7 | 4 | 14 |
| 1 mile | No | No | Yes | 3 | 7 | 6 | 14 |
| 2,000m | No | Yes | Yes | 3 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 3,000m | No | Yes | No | 5 | 4 | 9 | 8 |
| 3,000m Steeplechase | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 9 | 2 | 19 |
| 2 miles | No | Yes | No | 2 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| 5,000m | Yes | Yes | Yes | 6 | 9 | 14 | 17 |
| 10,000m | Yes | Yes | Yes | 1 | 7 | 7 | 16 |
Short track events (formerly known as indoor events) show a similar trend.
| Event | WR Broken Since 2017? | All time top 10 performances Since 2017 |
All time top 20 performances Since 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | W | M | W | M | W | |
| 800m | No | No | 4 | 1 | 7 | 3 |
| 1500m | Yes | Yes | 6 | 8 | 12 | 15 |
| 1 mile | Yes | No | 9 | 7 | 17 | 15 |
| 2,000m | No | Yes | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 3,000m | Yes | No | 7 | 7 | 11 | 13 |
| 2 miles | Yes | No | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| 5,000m | No | No | 5 | 3 | 13 | 8 |
An explosion of sub-4-minute milers
The first 4-min mile was run by Roger Bannister in 1954 and has always been a standard of track and field greatness. Track and Field News has annually published a historical list of sub 4-min-miles run in the US since 1957 which exploded in recent years. An average of 16 sub-4-minute performances from 2000 to 2020 (including 19 in 2020, which was impacted by Covid) grew to 36 in 2021, 64 in 2022 and 69 in 2023 (numbers for 2024 were still unpublished at the time of writing).
Super sprints?
As other brands have caught up with Nike, the market is very consolidated for road running, but it is still developing and improving for track and field within the foam depth parameters that World Athletics have applied by discipline to regulate the space. Even with regulation, it is fair to surmise that the full impact of the super shoes has not yet been realized.
The evidence is not as robust in the sprint events, but the proven energy return advantage has been embraced by sprinters who have adopted the super spike technology on the basis that just the tiniest fraction of help in the 100m can be the difference between a podium finish or not.
In the 400m hurdles, Yulia Pechonkina’s 16-year world record from 2003 was broken in 2019 and her performance from 2003 has now been improved 29 times since 2019 by five different athletes. The current women’s world record for the event is almost two seconds faster.
Karsten Warholm, the men’s world record holder for 400m hurdles completely u-turned on the power of the super spike and took down a 29-year record in 2021 (twice!) wearing Puma’s answer to the super spike revolution. That long-standing performance has been surpassed 18 times since 2021 by three different athletes.
Fast Tracks or super shoes?
With this vast amount of evidence in both road and track events, the super shoe marks a “before and after” milestone in the world of athletics, representing an unparalleled impact in the improvement of records across various events.
So where does the track fit into this recording breaking era? It is clear that the recent records correlate with the super shoe revolution, therefore any ‘fast track’ claim is too simple. To break records athletes must train for decades, and the tracks must support the ability for athletes to do this.
The sweetest tracks aren’t just fast
The best tracks are measured on more than speed alone. They deliver a sweet spot for athletes with perfect force reduction and energy return. This sweet spot helps athletes run fast while protecting them from injury and minimizing fatigue. A hard track is not a fast track, quite the opposite, because injured athletes cannot run their fastest.
The sweet spot also delivers a surface with performance characteristics that are wide enough to support the needs of sprinters, middle- and long- distance athletes as well as the jumpers and throwers.
A quality track delivers this sweet spot for many years because track and field facilities are too precious for them to become hard and therefore be avoided by athletes because training on them is too risky.
Beyond athlete performance, environmental performance is paramount. Both the sweet spot lifespan of the track and the materials it is made from are key measures of track success. Those made with recycled and renewable content, that are built to last an extended life span will sustain the sport.
Super shoes and sweet tracks are the future.
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