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Kelvin Kiptum in world record run in ChicagoTigist Assefa glories in her new world record in Berlin

Newrecords ennoble us all, for they represent the best of who we are. And when they come in our own time, some of that greatness attaches itself to us, which is why we yearn to see records fall and barriers broken. Not for what they are of themselves, but for what they mean with us having watched, as witnessing validates the action itself.

Yet the response to the new marathon records of recent weeks in Berlin andChicago from cheers to jeers has shown the same wide variance as the response to the new shoe technology by the athletes.

AsRoss Tucker,PhD in Exercise Physiology,co-host of The Real Science of Sport podcast,wrote toLetsRun.coms Robert Johnson in response to Tigst Assefasworld record in Berlin:

I truly wish the authorities had acted to prevent this entirely foreseeable situation, for a few reasons. The main one is that the range of responses to them (super shoes) is so large (from plus 11% in running efficiency to minus 11%) that we cannot sit with any confidence and evaluate performances between different athletes independent of this nagging doubt over what the shoes do. That isthe differences between athletes is smaller than the differences made by the shoe, to the same athlete, and between different athletes.

Isnt the entire purpose of the enterprise to compare athletes on a level playing field? And then to compare them with those who came before? It is that through-line of apple-to-apple comparison that actually creates a lasting sport.

Now the playing field has been tipped, and continues to tip, perhaps irreparably, to where what came before no longer relates. And even that would be fine, if todays athletes were playing on equal footing. But theyre not either.

Today, person X in super shoe A wins in a record breaking time. But that same person in super shoe B maybe doesnt respond as well and doesnt make the podium at all. Is that how its supposed to work?

Coming late to its oversight Nike secretly introduced the first super shoes in 2016 World Athletics amended its rules regarding shoe midsole height on January 30, 2020, grandfathering the maximum stack to 40mm. But the shoe designers didnt stop innovating the midsole material as WA formed a Working Group to determine future policy.

A December 2021 World Athletics release further stated, The major and central issue the Working Group on Athletic Shoes had been exploring is a long-term sustainable and implementable solution for athletic shoes which balances innovation and fairness.

That is a perfectly sound oversight goal, right in line with what we ask such a governance to do.

The Working Group considered options within a framework of measuring performance advantages of the current technology in athletic shoes, including energy return. While this work has merit,a maximum energy return has not been included in the rules and regulations, given the variables involved and the potential impact on shoe manufacturers in its implementation.

You have to read the underlined portion twice to convince yourself you read it correctly.

A maximum energy return has NOT been included in the rules and regulations, given the variables involved and the potential impact on shoe manufacturers in its implementation.

Thats an almost a stunning admission. The variables are what skew the outcomes! The variables are what make regulation necessary. Midsole height is only one of the critical factors to determine. Energy return, along with running economy, is the holy grail of the new technology, and officials leave it out of their regulations given the variables involved and the potential impact on shoe manufacturers? What about the impact on the sport?

I suspect a great number of people have long believed the sport has been beholden to (in the pocket of) the major shoe companies for far too long. But that December 2021 release stated the quiet part out loud.

In short order, the Nike prototypes worn byKelvin Kiptum in Chicago seemed to have trumped the Adidas Adizero Adis Evo 1 shoe worn by Tigst Assefa in Berlin with its new lightweight midsole foam and rocker technology. Three weeks ago Adidas held the newest tech, putting it ahead of the curve of the older Nike Vaporflys. Now Nike has answered. Thats how fast the innovations are coming.

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Why are performance-enhancing drugs not allowed in competition? Because their use alters the basic athlete versus athlete equation and skews the outcome. Well, thats what the new super shoes are doing, too.Such innovation may be fine for exhibitions likeEliud Kiochoges Sub2 and INEOS 1:59 attempts in Monza 17 and Vienna 19. But they should not automatically be fine for the competitive arena where a foundational level of equal footing must prevail.

Running isnt alone. Weve seen a variation of the same theme in Formula One racing in recent years.

Between 2008 and 2020, Lewis Hamilton won a record-tying seven F1 series championships before the F1 bosses changed the cars ground-effects formulation for the 2022 season. Next thing you know, Hamilton and his Mercedes were nowhere to be found, and Max Verstappen in his Red Bull ride became the new F1 king. He just won his third straight series championship in Qatar last week with his record 14th win of the season.

But before Verstappen and Hamilton, Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel won four championships in a row (2010-2013), and Renaults Fernando Alonzo won in 2005-2006 to end the reign of the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari combination that had dominated for so long.

We went from Schumacher dominating to Vettel dominating to Hamilton dominating to Verstappen. When the turnover in driver ascendance is so cut and dried, it suggests the difference in outcome is being determined by the cars set up rather than the drivers skills. Did Hamilton suddenly become a poor driver? What if they put Yuki Sonoda in the Max Verstappen Red Bull car and Verstappen in Sonodas Alphatauri?

Thats the problem. Were trying to determine the difference in drivers capabilities, not those of their engineers.

Tristan Harris, cofounder, Center for Humane Technology, appeared onBill Mahers Real Time show Friday night on HBO MAX discussing advances in artificial intelligence (AI). It rung a bell in my mind.

People always say we freak out about the newest technology, but this is different. This is ongoing, and competitive, and market driven. Human intelligence is one way to think about it.

It used to take years of study and intelligence and cognitive labor to write a movie script or a book or to know how to synthesize a biological weapon, said Harris. These are all forms of cognition that took human beings years to develop. Now AI has dropped that cost and effort, and just like fossil fuels, the people who jump on that train first get benefits and efficiencies compared to those who dont.

In running, besides talent, it used to take years of development to run a world-class marathon. Olympic champion Frank Shorter said it, You dont run 26 miles at five minutes a mile on good looks and a secret recipe.

But now, top performers put on a pair of the new super shoes and their training exponentially improves, because they can train harder, with less rest, because the pounding is not as great, and the recovery is that much faster. So their fitness improves along with their times in races. But not because of who they are, but because of what theyre wearing on their feet. Shoe intelligence has shortened everything, from rest periods to practical race distance. Making this a different era altogether.

In response to an email thread between past champions Bill Rodgers, Amby Burfoot, Jack Fultz, and Bob Hodge, I wrote:

Re: records. Perhaps, understandably, they took the concept of world records, meant for the measured confines of a track, and transposed it to the undulations and variables of the roads. It makes no sense to have world records on the roads where the conditions will never be apples versus apples, though, even on the track, with different weather conditions and track surfaces, its more like Macintosh versus Granny Smith, but at least theyre still apples.

There should be course records for road races with everyone simply understanding that the 2011 Patriots Day in Boston was as unique as was the 2018 day on the other end of the spectrum. That we can live with. But this whole focus on time has ruined the competitive sport and created an ongoing push to use performance-enhancing drugs and now performance-enhancing shoes to reach those records. Toward what end, I do not know. In any case, it was good to see Yuki (Kawauchi) pushing the comp in todays Japanese Olympic Trials, rather than the time.

As Tristan Harris said, With AI, we keep scaling and releasing advancements faster than society can consciously absorb them.

Thats whats happening with the super shoes. In both cases, our basic understanding of underlying assumptions has become clouded. We dont know what to believe. Is that an actual picture? Or did AI generate it? Is that an actual record? Or did super shoes enable it?

AI has the promise, but it also has the peril, concluded Mr. Harris. It will give us drugs that save people from cancers and help us in many other ways. Problem is, you also have CEOs saying it could wreck everything, too.

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