Vaporfly = 1 minute faster parkrun PB

[ForbiddenPlanet]

[Disclaimer - bit of a fraud me posting this as I don't do Park Run]

theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

Elle Hunt writes in the Guardian that running in Vaporfly trainers improved her park run PB to 26:18

Makes me wonder, is it fair? Does it matter?

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

Think we would need to try them out for ourselves 😊

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to Buddy34]

Oh yes - although at £239.95 probably not an impulse purchase. (erm, my last trainers were reduced to £8 at Aldi!). 🤣

[Buddy34 Graduate10 in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

🤣🤣

[Annieapple Administrator]

Different trainers suit different gaits so trainers that make you run faster may not suit me & visa versa. Also it’s ones overall fitness, mental agility on the day , the weather, the surface, our competitiveness etc that influence our progress on any one day. So if Elle thinks those Vaporflys help her good for her 😂

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to Annieapple]

All true I guess. Still a novice myself, and still learning!

[Annieapple Administrator in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

🤣me too!! You can run 5k in 30 mins.. Still a dream for me!!

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to Annieapple]

I'm sure you'll get there. And, anyway, like age it is just a number. Just happy to be running. Didn't think I could do it, and I would have given up already had it not been for this community!

[Annieapple Administrator in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

Yes it’s so helpful & encouraging isn’t it! I learned so much here. I was so discouraged at school I thought I couldn’t do it till 6months ago when I discovered C25K

[UnfitNoMore Graduate10]

I think there’s also some placebo effect in the results... how much is the shoe alone is hard to prove.

Nobody got near to Paula Radcliffe’s marathon record for many years... and recently it was smashed by someone who was running a lot slower very recently... in vapourfly. Similar in the men’s marathon, all the top times in recent years have been set by Nike runners in 4%, next% and “alpha” versions of the shoe.

Is it fair? Well... it is for us, we can choose our brands freely. For elites, well, I’d be unhappy if I was anywhere near Kipchoge and contracted to another brand for the next 5 years. I believe the powers that be have just declared that Kipchoge’s alpha shoe was just legal... so the advantage is maxed out and other brands will catch up.

None of this is new... Carl Lewis won Olympic golds in £250k shoes that only lasted 3/4 races... and he stopped after 200m... back in the 80s!

Maybe at elite level they all need to run in the same shoe? As far as parkrun is concerned, I could have shoes that made me 50% faster and still be way off the lead 🤣