Other popular brands amongst the fastest runners in the pro field were ASICS, HOKA, and Adidas. All four brands featured have been towards the forefront of carbon plated run shoe development. Of them, ASICS and HOKA have the more robust stable of athletes sponsored in the field; Nike has extremely limited triathlon sponsorship, whereas anything Adidas does is focused in their home of Germany.

Here’s what we saw on the feet of the fastest professional men on the run in Kona. Interestingly, almost a third of these came from athletes who did not earn prize money; the bike pace was just that hard.

1.) Patrick Lange – 2:37:34 – IRONMAN World Champion
Shoe: Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1
This shoe was run to the marathon world record in its debut race in Berlin last year. It’s astonishingly light for a carbon racer, coming in at a mere 4.8 ounces for a men’s US size 9. It’s perhaps the best of both worlds shoe some have been looking for — the weight of pre-carbon racing flats, with all of the benefits that high cushioning and carbon plating can give you. It comes with a price, though: $499 USD.

2.) Matt Hanson – 2:45:23 – 10th Place
Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike
It is no surprise to see Matt Hanson carve through a field on the run. He’s been wearing the Cloudboom Strike for a couple of seasons now. Considered to be On’s marathon racing shoe, it has all of your typical features you would expect: highly cushioned yet rebounding foam, full length carbon fiber plate, slight rocker in the forefoot. It’s 3 ounces heavier than the Adidas Lange wore — that’s not a knock on this shoe. This is more in line with what you would expect a carbon racer to weigh. And as evidenced by Hanson’s run time, it didn’t make much a difference.

3.) Jonas Hoffman – 2:45:46 – 16th Place
Shoe: Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1
Another German wearing Adidas, Hoffman takes the unfortunate mantle of “first guy not to earn prize money.” Hoffman’s background is in running, so seeing him make this list should be an expectation.

4.) Magnus Ditlev – 2:46:10 – 2nd Place
Shoe: Nike AlphaFly Next%
Ditlev is the first Nike wearing athlete on the list. Curiously, he chose to wear a nearly three-year old model of the AlphaFly for this race. One of the advantages that the current generation shoes have is that the move to Pebax cushioning over EVA means shoes have a longer shelf life. If you find a shoe you love, you can squirrel them away for a couple of years and burn through them. My suspicion is that Ditlev’s foot fits this upper quite well, and wet comfort is critical in Kona conditions.

5.) David McNamee – 2:47:09 – 13th Place
Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3
Meanwhile, McNamee used the current generation AlphaFly for the fifth fastest run of the day. This generation of AlphaFly features more ground contact under the midfoot, enhancing platform stability. It’s also the lightest version of the AlphaFly, coming in at 7.7 ounces for a men’s size 9.

6.) Rudy Von Berg – 2:48:11 – 3rd Place
Shoe: TYR Valkyrie Elite Carbon Runner
TYR isn’t a brand you think of when it comes to running shoes. The Valkyrie Elite Carbon Runner (yes, that’s the full name) features — you guessed it — Pebax foam sandwiching a full-length carbon fiber plate. The knit upper helps reduce potential friction points.

7.) Dylan Magnien – 2:49:49 – 27th Place
Shoe: Nike Vaporfly Next%
Magnien appears to be shoe agnostic; a cursory look through his Instagram sees him in a wide variety of shoes at races. A classic VaporFly appears to be his current preference, having worn it both here and for his third place finish at IRONMAN Barcelona just three weeks before Kona.

8.) Leon Chevalier – 2:49:56 – 4th Place
Shoe: HOKA Cielo X1
Chevalier had been wearing the Rocket X2 since its debut in Kona in 2022. However, for this race, he opted into the more recent Cielo X1. Launched in late 2023, the Cielo X1 is the heaviest shoe here, outweighing its prior platform mate by 40 grams. That said, the Cielo trades that off with a more robust plate and foam combination that, for those it fits, seems to provide a racier ride.

9.) Menno Koolhaas – 2:50:02 – 5th Place
Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3
The first man out of the water, Koolhaas was also quite fleet on land. He, too, opted for this year’s AlphaFly on his way to fifth place.

10.) Cameron Wurf – 2:50:11 – 7th Place
Shoe: Nike AlphaFly 3
Wurf had a strong performance in Kona. The long-time Nike affiliated athlete had one of his best runs in Kona as he took seventh place, narrowly missing out on catching the next athlete on our list. Wurf, as you would expect, wore this year’s AlphaFly.

11.) Gregory Barnaby – 2:50:33 – 6th Place
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky Paris
It’s perhaps only surprising that it took to 11th place to find an ASICS wearing athlete. The MetaSpeed line has steadily gained share amongst professionals and age groupers. The Sky, meant for athletes who gain speed via longer stride length versus turnover, is more popular with professional men; the Edge (for athletes who gain speed via turnover) appears to have better in-roads with women. Yawn if you’ve heard it before: PEBAX foam, sandwiched by a carbon fiber plate, then try to add lightness. The MetaSpeed Sky Paris only trails the Adidas for lightness here at 6.5 ounces in a men’s size 9.

12.) Kieran Lindars – 2:51:49 – 8th Place
Shoe: Nike Vaporfly 3
Lindars opted for the original carbon racer Vaporfly over the AlphaFly. By comparison, the Vaporfly is half an ounce lighter than its stablemate. The Vaporfly is also a bit lower to the ground in stack height which, combined with a revised midsole geometry for this year’s shoe, makes it a bit friendlier to those with fatiguing run form.

13.) Mathias Petersen – 2:52:37 – 12th Place
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X2

14.) Braden Currie – 2:54:25 – 28th Place
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky Paris

15.) Mike Phillips – 2:54:35 – 17th Place
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky Paris

The post Nike Reigns Supreme Among Fastest MPRO Runs in Kona first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Ruth Chepng’etich won today’s Chicago Marathon, becoming the first woman in history to run a sub-2:10 marathon, finishing in 2:09:56.

The Kenyan’s time shed nearly a full two minutes off of the prior world record, which was 2:11:53. That time had been set by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia last year at the Berlin Marathon.

Chepng’etich, wearing Nike’s AlphaFly 3, stormed to the front of the field at the start, with a 15:00 opening 5 kilometers that gave her a two second lead over Ethiopian Sutume Kebede she would never relinquish.

Kebede was the only runner in the same zip code as Chepng’etich through the 10 kilometer mark with another 15 minute split. But over the next stretch of miles the elastic between the two stretched ever further, and by the halfway mark Chepng’etich had built a 14 second lead.

Chepng’etich’s 40 kilometer split saw her come through in 2:03:11, needing to cover the final 2.2ish kilometers in 6:49 to squeak under the nearly unfathomable 2:10 mark. She barely made it — needing 6:47 to get it done.

Her final margin of victory was seven minutes and 36 seconds.

Chepng’etich dedicated her victory to the memory of men’s marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, who died earlier this year in a car accident.

Image: Getty Images

The post Women’s Marathon World Record Shattered in Chicago first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

It has been nearly eight years since Nike blew apart the run shoe market with the original Vaporfly. Originally including the 4% tagline, it was claimed that the combination of foam cushioning and carbon plating would enhance performance by, you guessed it, 4%.

And a funny thing it happened: it worked. Records across the running and triathlon worlds were first broken, then shattered, thanks in part to shoes like the Vaporfly. Other brands went in hot pursuit, searching for the right mix of soft foam, carbon-plate location, and more. Then Nike raised the bar again with the AlphaFly. And as shown in our recent reporting on the top 10 run splits from Nice, Nike retains that leadership position at the top-end of the field.

Naturally, as age-group athletes seek out so-called “free speed” (I mean, you pay for that speed, but you get the idea), carbon-plated shoes are everywhere. But, well, some of us aren’t exactly efficient when it comes to our running strides. And as a shoe increases in foam stack height, it naturally becomes less stable, unless there is either a.) a broader base under the foot, or b.) the foot sits bucketed by the foam, making the effective height lower.

None of these shoes in this list are what we’d call traditional stability shoes — there isn’t any medial posting to be found on these. Instead, we’re looking for that platform stability that should help you take advantage of the benefits of carbon plates and newer foams. Also, all of these shoes meet World Athletics’ requirements for stack height in a race — meaning HOKA’s Skyward X, for instance, is on the cutting room floor.

HOKA Rocket X 2

The longest tenured shoe on this list, the current generation Rocket has been a staple of triathlon events since it first hit pavement at the two day IM World Championships in Kona in 2022. (Yes, it was technically a prototype then, but all of them said “Rocket X 2” on them.)

The Rocket X 2 was the launch of HOKA’s new PEBA foam, which brought the light, well-cushioned ride to the proceeding, while marrying it to existing work on carbon plates. Couple that with an ultralight upper and you have the recipe for a quick shoe. But what makes the Rocket X2 such a unique shoe is that it, like most classic HOKA shoes, sees your fit sit in the midsole, versus over it. Paired with a broad midfoot base and overall wide footprint, and it’s a very stable shoe — certainly much moreso than the newer Cielo X1. It’s also, unlike most carbon racers, comfortable at nearly every speed.

Saucony Endorphin Pro 4

Saucony, as a company, tends to be the first follower of trends. They were the first to follow the so-called natural running shoe market with the Kinvara. They were the first major manufacturer to abandon 12mm drop. And they were the first to bring out a shoe to compete against the Vaporfly with the Endorphin line.

The Pro, now in its fourth generation, sees a couple of concessions to the mainstream. First, Saucony’s making shoes with a variety of stack heights and drops again, with the Endorphin Pro now at 8 millimeters. What hasn’t changed? A very broad platform underfoot, lower stack heights than most other carbon plated shoes, and plenty of cushioning from the blend of PWRRUN foams underfoot. Although I still prefer the original generation to the newer models, this is a positive step in the right direction, and another shoe to consider.

Asics MetaSpeed Edge

The shoe of choice of IRONMAN World Championship runner-up Kat Matthews, the MetaSpeed Edge is the so-called strider’s shoe — it’s meant for runners who prefer turnover to longer length steps. With that comes a differently shaped carbon-fiber plate and unique midsole geometry. It’s lower to the ground versus the MetaSpeed Sky. By nature, it makes the Edge slightly more stable compared to the sister shoe Sky. And, beating the drum a bit here, but there’s a relatively forgiving profile under the midfoot.

Unlike some other shoes here, though, with both of these you sit on top of the midsole, versus in it. It leans harder into a neutral profile than others. But if you are a person who is faster turnover (e.g., you have no problem with beating 180 strides per minute), it’s another great option.

New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4

New Balance as a brand typically lags a bit further behind the bell curve. When they have a winning formula, it generally sticks with it. Case in point: the 990 line.

New Balance was a bit later to the carbon shoe game, but they brought out two excellent products in the SuperComp Elite and SuperComp Pacer — the latter of which was used to great effect by Laura Philipp to claim the IRONMAN World Championship. The Pacer is technically meant for shorter races, whereas the Elite is their entrant in the long distance racing category. Surprisingly, it is the higher stack Elite that also has a bit more stable profile underfoot. It comes down to, again, midsole width and increasing the total area in contact with the ground at once.

FuelCell, NB’s foam, is one of the softest in race shoes today. Of this list it’s the most likely to be mistaken for a HOKA in terms of pure cushioning. The general trade-off with NB shoes? They tend towards slightly heavier, with a men’s size 9 coming in at 8.4 ounces. For comparison, it’s a full ounce heavier than the AlphaFly, Endorphin Pro, and Rocket X2. Personally, I don’t think shoe weight matters that much, so long as it’s the best match for you, your foot, and your stride. But it’s something worth noting.

Which One Should You Buy?

I’m going to cheat: the one that fits you the best.

Without trying them on, ideally at your local specialty run store, there’s no good way to make a determination of what shoe is best. What works well for me may cause you significant issues, or vice versa. Example: one of the shoes not on this list (the MetaSpeed Sky) is one of my favorite shoes to run in, although the extremely narrow midfoot contact point gives me pause as to how it would hold up for anything longer than a half marathon.

Lead Image: RWBMultimedia / IRONMAN
Shoe Photos Courtesy of Manufacturers

The post Carbon Racers for the Rest of Us first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

We’ve looked at the swim and bike splits. But now, as the old adage goes, it’s the “run for dough” moment. These run splits often reflect the final finishing order — although there were, indeed, a couple of surprises.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the continued prevalence of Nike’s AlphaFly. Despite Nike having very few triathlon sponsorships, it led the way in the top 10 run splits, worn by 5 athletes — none of whom feature the swoosh on their kits. ASICS was the only other brand worn by multiple athletes in the top 10, while HOKA, New Balance, and On each had one.

#1 Laura Philipp

Philipp, the 2024 IRONMAN World Champion, had a well-balanced performance. But it was her fastest run of the day that allowed her to power away from Kat Matthews to take her first world title.

• Run Split: 2:44:59
• Running Shoes: New Balance SuperComp Pacer v2
• Sponsored: Yes

#2 Kat Matthews

Matthews ran the first lap alongside Philipp, but could not match the pace as they began lap two. Despite cramping heavily towards the end, Matthews still delivered the second fastest run of the day as she took second place on the day.

• Run Split: 2:53:06
• Running Shoes: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge+
• Sponsored: Yes

#3 Chelsea Sodaro

Sodaro was considered by many to be a threat for the win if she came off the bike within ten minutes of the win. She was barely within that window starting the run. And although she matched pace with the leading duo to start the run, she soon settled into a pace that put her third for both run time and for the race.

• Run Split: 2:54:25
• Running Shoes: On Cloudboom Strike
• Sponsored: Yes

#4 Kylie Simpson

Simpson was well down the order coming out of the water, 34th in the field, and didn’t make much inroads on the bike, moving to 32nd place. But the fourth fastest run of the day moved her up to 24th — and the only top 10 run split outside of the paying positions.

• Run Split: 2:56:26
• Running Shoes: Nike AlphaFly 3
• Sponsored: No

#5 Nikki Bartlett

Fifth on the day, and a fifth fastest run for Bartlett. Her run pushed her past Marta Sanchez to claim that fifth place spot.

• Run Split: 2:57:24
• Running Shoes: HOKA Rocket X2
• Sponsored: Yes

#6 Jackie Hering

The IRONMAN Pro Series leader found herself in 13th place coming off the bike, with work to do to make in-roads into the top 10. That she did, using the sixth fastest run of the day to make it up to 9th place.

• Run Split: 2:57:40
• Running Shoes: Nike AlphaFly 3
• Sponsored: No

#7 Danielle Lewis

Lewis is known for her run prowess, so it is unsurprising to find her on this list. What may surprise some is that her 3:00:24 run split is her slowest marathon split since her 9th place finish at IRONMAN Texas earlier this year.

• Run Split: 3:00:24
• Running Shoes: Nike AlphaFly 3
• Sponsored: No

#8 Penny Slater

Slater started the run in eight place. The eighth fastest run of the day allowed her to move up a place, taking seventh and her first top 10 finish at the IRONMAN World Championships.

• Run Split: 3:01:22
• Running Shoes: Nike AlphaFly 3
• Sponsored: No

#9 Marjolaine Pierré

Pierré started the run in the podium places, but soon was passed by the hard-charging Sodaro. Pierré found herself somewhat solitary for the remainder of the race; not in touch with the leading trio, but well in front of fifth place Nikki Bartlett.

• Run Split: 3:02:30
• Running Shoes: ASICS MetaSpeed Sky Paris
• Sponsored: Yes

#10 Gurutze Frades Larralde

The final woman to earn a paycheck, Larralde had eight women she needed to pass on the run in order to make money. She moved up three places on lap one, two places on lap two, and two more on lap three. She made her final pass with four miles left to run to make the paying places.

• Run Split: 3:02:53
• Running Shoes: Nike AlphaFly 3
• Sponsored: No

The post 2024 IRONMAN World Championships Top 10 Run Splits first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

This year marks my tenth year as co-directing the Hogsback Half Marathon, a road race held in the rural, quiet northwestern corner of Connecticut. Of the four productions that Kelly and I have put on together over the last decade, it is the one that we’ve poured most of our energy into. That’s in part due to the sheer logistics of a half marathon versus the distances of the other races, but it’s also because it was the one we did together first. (She’s been doing it well before me.)

Hogsback is the race we first produced a few weeks after my son, Owen, died. It was a race we produced when our daughter, Ivy, was four weeks old. When we moved to New Hampshire six years ago, it was always the race we were going to keep. And we’ve seen a lot over that time period: shrinking from 550 registrants to a low of 270 or so in our rebound from COVID, inflation impacting our ability to make charitable donations post-event, and different demands from athletes.

Still, despite all that, there are glimmers of hope beneath the surface that could show the racing community is truly rebounding post-COVID.

The Economic Realities and Runner Acceptance of Them

Everything, and I mean everything, is more expensive when it comes to race production.

Let’s start with the bare bones basics. You need race directors. Kelly and I do not take a penny from the race; we get reimbursed for any expenses we personally pay related to the race but otherwise, as race directors we get paid the handsome sum of $0. We also do not have to pay any fees for permitting from either our race host location, or from the state of Connecticut for using state roads on our race route. We do, however, pay $500 for traffic control.

But you also need bibs and timing. And that’s not free. Based upon our total number of registered athletes, this cost $11.51 per runner. Depending on when you registered for the race, that represents anywhere from 12.5% to 28% of your total entry fee paid. But we have also never had issues with results from the company we use. It’s a fee we gladly pay.

Then there’s port-o-johns. You need those. (We probably could have used Dan to help command the lines at the end, but that’s another story.) We ordered five rentals this year, along with one existing one at our race location. It shakes out to roughly one port-o-john per 40 runners, based on those who actually showed up on race day. The cost of those rentals is up roughly 20% over pre-COVID times. We also procured some additional toilet paper at BJ’s pre-race, just in case.

Lastly, under the necessary column, are aid station items. We provide water and electrolyte drink mix (Gatorade this year) across six aid stations, and then gels (Gu) at two of those aid stations. You also have trash bags and paper cups for these. Lastly, each runner is given a bottle of water at the finish line, which they can refill as needed with either water or electrolyte mix provided at the end. Water alone is up about 30% for both refills at aid stations (six gallon jugs) and for the individual bottles at the finish line. Gatorade powder is 20% more than last year, whereas gels stayed mostly the same.

When you combine all of those figures together, it works out to almost $25 per runner for your absolute basics. Then there’s the nice-to-haves that help make a race feel more like an event: t-shirts that are included in the registration fee; shirts and items for our volunteers; medals; post-race food; awards for both overall and age group champions; a rental van to help transport everything to and from the race site; gas to power that van; and more.

So it’s clear: costs have gone up. Which means prices to runners go up, too. And I suppose the good news out of this is that runners are understanding of this economic reality, particularly for races that serve to donate all monies collected above expenses to a charitable partner. Despite higher pricing, runner registration and turnout on race day were highest since COVID. The donation to our charity partner was also the largest since 2021 at more than $5,000. It certainly feels less dire than it did even twelve months ago.

Challenges That Still Exist

It’s still not a perfectly rosy picture out there. For example, if Kelly and I actually charged the race even minimum wage for the number of hours we put into the event, the entirety of that profit would have been wiped out. We’d need to roughly double the number of runners registered if we took money in order to then provide a similar donation level, assuming economies of scale.

Race calendars also remain oversaturated, spreading a running population thin across dozens of events that might be taking place on the same weekend. Just within the state of Connecticut, there were more than 40 running events taking place on the week before, the same weekend, or the week after our half marathon. It’s too many events for too few total runners, which simply results in event cannibalization. I would expect to see some of those events evaporate due to low participation volume — which ultimately is brutal for the communities those events take place in, but is ultimately what will need to happen for a sustainable race calendar to exist.

And ultimately cost remains the ultimate question. We raised our prices for the third year in a row, with a maximum price after registration platform fees of almost $90 for a half marathon. Will runners still support a smaller event if that dollar amount sneaks out north of $100? That feels like a price point third rail. Then again, so did $200 for a pair of running shoes, and nearly every pair of carbon-plated racers is above that price point (and seem to be selling well).

There are ways as runners to reduce that cost, of course. Earlier registration grants access to lower price points. More runners registering earlier also generally brings costs down due to lead times for key items. Despite that, though, runner behavior tends towards registering later and later. This year, almost a quarter of the race-day field registered in the final 25 days before the race, with 70% of that paying the highest price to register for the race. It’s likely a response to race cancellations during COVID. Thankfully, we’re pretty well versed in this, and can plan for it — but it does add some additional stress as a race director.

Ultimately, though, we’re glad to have another successful event behind us. And now the planning for 2025 begins.

Photos: Kelly Burns Gallagher / Hogsback Half Marathon

The post Could Small Running Races be Making a Comeback? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

SuperTri kicked off its 1st of 5 races last week in Boston. Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair and Great Britain’s Alex Yee claimed victories. Lehair got redemption after a disappointing Olympic Games. Yee defeated his friendly rival, Hayden Wilde, in dramatic fashion, crossing his arms as he crossed the finish line replicating the same move Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe is famous for. It looked like Wilde took exception to the celebration, although the two congratulated each other shortly after. Some in the triathlon community seem to have not liked the move either but I would welcome some more personality into our sport. You see players in major sports leagues celebrate for a lot less (sometimes for a routine play that takes a handful of seconds). Our athletes are incredible. It is okay to show some emotion!

Stop two on the SuperTri tour stayed in the United States, as athletes took to Chicago’s lakefront to do battle. The race paired with the Chicago Triathlon, which welcomed more than 8,000 age group athletes over the weekend. The women’s race came down to five athletes on the final run. Olivia Mathias and Taylor Spivey used short chutes to edge ahead and try to chase down the victory. It was Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown, however, who eventually caught the leading duo and would go on to take the win. Olympic Champion Cassandra Beaugrand moved up for 2nd. America’s Taylor Spivey held on for 3rd. Taylor-Brown said, “It’s really nice to be back on top. I forgot what it’s like to lift the tape. It’s a nice feeling but it’s so hot out here. All the girls did incredible.” Spivey added, “It feels so good. I always seem to get 4th place so just being in the top-3 is really satisfying.”

Short chutes and penalties were the story in the men’s race. Wilde and Vasco Vilaca separated themselves at the start of the final run, utilizing their short chutes, while two of Tim Don’s Podium Racing athletes had to serve penalties. Wilde encouraged Vilaca to take a turn at the front towards the end of the first of two laps. Vilaca, appearing to be at his upper limit, could not go to the front and Wilde carried on ahead of him. That move proved to be decisive, as Wilde built a small lead from there and crossed the line first. France’s Leo Bergere passed Vilaca late to finish in the runner-up spot. Vilaca rounded out the podium, after missing the time cut in last week’s race. Wilde was excited to get the win saying, “(I’m) Super stoked to be finally back on top. It’s been a long time.” He said he changed his tactics from last week & committed to a more conservative race strategy, with less time spent off of the front of the race.

Women’s Race

Temperatures approached nearly ninety degrees fahrenheit for today’s race. The water temperature was in the mid-seventies and some wind created choppy swim conditions in Lake Michigan. Competing on home soil, Kirsten Kasper led out the swim and secured a short chute for Stars & Stripes Racing. Beaugrand and Taylor-Brown, teammates, pushed the pace on a very technical bike course, traversing the lakefront path. Leonie Periault fell behind the pace early. Brownlee Racing picked up the second short chute. Mathias and Jessica Fullagar got onto the run first. Several of the pre-race favorites worked their way back into the main group. Beaugrand picked up the final short chute for Crown Racing and created a small gap heading into the second swim leg. Nine athletes were separated by ten seconds heading onto the second bike leg. Mathias, Beaugrand, and Spivey were given the short chutes by their team captains. Brownlee Racing had to decide between Beth Potter and Mathias.

A group of four athletes were all in contention on the final bike leg. It looked like the winner would come out of a group consisting of Mathias, Taylor-Brown, Spivey, and Fullagar. Mathias and Spivey took their short chutes to gap Fullagar and Taylor-Brown by a few seconds at the start of the final run leg. Beaugrand moved up into 5th place, leading the chase pack. Taylor-Brown quickly closed down the gap and moved into the lead. Mathias and Spivey tucked in and let her dictate the pace. The pace proved to be too much for the pair and Taylor-Brown moved clear of them. A hard closing Beaugrand came through for second but she ran out of the needed real estate to catch Taylor-Brown, who won the race. Spivey rounded out the podium in 3rd.

Men’s Race

Similar to last week’s opening swim leg, this week started with what we might call a full contact swim leg. Matt Hauser and Chase McQueen led out of the water and went back and forth several times, pushing and shoving each other, trying to get the first short chute. McQueen struggled to locate his bike in transition and Hauser took the first short chute for Podium Racing. One of the announcer’s remarked that “bumping is racing.” Vilaca picked up the next short chute after the first bike leg. Eleven men were within eight seconds of the lead. Notably, Alex Yee was not in that group. Wilde, wanting to keep things that way, pushed the pace on the first run and grabbed the final short chute for Crown Racing.

The second iteration of swim-bike-run saw Yee continue to fall off of the pace. He now trailed by more than twenty seconds. Tim Hellwig went down on the bike, into a hay bale, but was able to get right back onto the group. A large group of eight were all within contention heading into the final swim. Kenji Nener reached the bike first but the group quickly reeled him in. It was going to come down to a run battle. Tim Don expressed frustration with Crown Racing Manager Chris McCormack, who he accused of fixing Wilde’s bike chain in transition and tending to a bike shoe issue for a different athlete. Wilde, who had time to put on a Red Bull hat in transition, and Vilaca took their short chutes and gapped the field at the start of the final run. Wilde and Vilaca ran together for the first of two laps. It did not look so much that Wilde increased the pace but that Vilaca had reached his limit and dropped back. Wilde took the win. Bergere moved up to finish second. Vilaca rounded out the podium with a hard fought third place finish.

(Not so) Quick Take: Today’s race, just like last week’s, was entertaining. We are getting to see some of the best short course triathletes trade blows in a fast paced environment. The first two races have taken place in large US cities but, in general, away from where people live. The Chicago lakefront is actually somewhat difficult to get to. You have to cross a major highway (Lakeshore Drive) to get to where the race was. It can be difficult to find parking on the lakefront. The race course did not pass any residences. There seemed to be people around the start and finish but a lot of the course looked empty. I do not know what the fix is because there would not be a clean body of water to swim in other than Lake Michigan in Chicago proper. It looked like many age group racers passed on staying for the race. When you have professionals compete at the same time as age groupers you benefit from all of their family and friends attending the event. Watching today’s race I, again, thought to myself that this format is made for television and that a casual sports fan could watch on a summer in August, without a lot of other options to choose from. I watched it on TriathlonLive. There is still a sign-up requirement to watch through SuperTri directly. SuperTri can help grow the sport. It just feels like a little something is missing. More people should be seeing these incredible athletes racing like this right after the Olympics.

Photos: SuperTri

The post Taylor-Brown, Wilde Win SuperTri Chicago first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The beautiful capital city of Tallinn, Estonia, played host to the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championships today. Stacked fields, consisting of athletes contending for the Pro Series and athletes transitioning from short course to long course, looked to make their mark on the race. Athletes were greeted by unseasonably warm temperatures that reached eighty degrees fahrenheit and winds that reached twenty miles per hour. This led to a healthy number of athletes not being able to finish the race. It was Greece’s Panagiotis Bitados on the men’s side and Germany’s Caroline Pohle on the women’s side who would prevail.

Bitados was a surprise winner but does have a pair of wins in 2024. After the race he said, “That’s the point for me to enjoy, to finish safe, and to push everything of my body, and for me I am happy for myself, and that’s the goal for me. So I am happy today.” He tried to do each discipline at a high level and was happy that his run came through today. Asked what comes next he added, “Training, and then training.”

Pohle was much less of a surprise on the women’s side but did well to hold off her challengers. Known as a strong swimmer, it was her bike and run that solidified her result today. She tells us, “I’m absolutely speechless. At the moment I think it’s just a dream. I worked so hard the last month and today it pays off the hard work the last month so, yeah, I’m absolutely speechless and happy and proud of myself.” Pohle continued, “I played my cards at the swim and at the bike. I tried to push hard from the beginning. I hoped for a good run and worked really hard on my run performance the last month.”

Men's Race Recap

Germany’s Hannes Butters led out the swim in 21:07. That was enough to put a small gap on the rest of the field. Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson, who you might know as Alex Yee’s sherpa for the Paris Olympics, came out of the water in second in 21:36. Dickinson was second at 70.3 Bahrain in 2022 in his only other start at the distance. Marc Dubrick, Jelle Geens, Panagiotis Bitados, Kevin McDowell, Kacper Stepniak, and Justus Nieschlag, all joined Dickinson up front. The main chase pack included names like Joao Pereira, Antony Costes, Peter Heemeryck, Leonard Arnold, and Robert Kallin. The Tallinn bike course is fast and flat. Butters maintained an early lead over the field. Kallin bridged up to the chase pack by halfway and then to the front of the race with 15km left to go. Kallin would only be able to gap Butters by thirty seconds heading into T2. The rest of the field, however, was much further back. Kallin had distanced them by four minutes.

Germany’s Leonard Arnold was the only person within three minutes of the leading duo. Arnold moved into the lead of the run early, with Kallin falling back. By the 10k mark, however, Bitados had moved all the way through the field and into the lead. Arnold was in second. Geens, one of the strongest runners in the field, was one minute back in third. From there, Bitados’ lead would only grow. He pumped up the crowd down the finishing chute, as he broke the tape in 3:36:09, splitting 1:09:18 on the run. Arnold and Geens would hang on for second and third respectively.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Bitados, Panagiotis 3:36:09 21:46 2:02:49 1:09:18
2 Arnold, Leonard 3:36:45 23:06 1:59:58 1:11:04
3 Geens, Jelle 3:39:13 21:45 2:03:00 1:12:20
4 Stepniak, Kacper 3:39:52 21:50 2:02:53 1:13:04
5 Nieschlag, Justus 3:41:57 21:52 2:02:58 1:14:46

Women’s Race Recap

Germany’s Caroline Pohle took control of the race from the start and would lead wire to wire. She put approximately forty seconds on the main swim pack, which included Marta Sanchez, Kate Curran, Pamalla Oliveira, Sif Madsen, Lauren Brandon, Luisa Prat, and Grace Thek. You know that you swam well if you can put that much time into some of the strongest swimmers in the sport. Lisa Norden, Kaidi Kivioja, Kat Matthews, Maja Stage Nielsen, and Tamara Jewett were a little further back but still in contention. Pohle did not wait for anyone to catch her on the bike. She led by ninety seconds at halfway. Madsen and Matthews had broken away to form a small chase pack. Norway’s Solveig Lovseth rode in between them and a larger chase pack. Pohle’s lead would grow to more than two minutes, with only the three aforementioned women within striking distance.

The only question that remained was if Matthews could run Pohle down? Pohle maintained her lead early in the run and then her lead began to grow over the second half. Matthews was seen taking water and ice at pretty much every aid station. The conditions were clearly playing a role in deterring her comeback attempt. Pohle would not come under any pressure on the run, clocking a superb 1:20:17 run split in warm conditions to take the win. Matthews would have to settle for second. Lovseth rounded out the podium in third. Thek and Curran used strong runs to move up to take fourth and fifth place respectively.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Pohle, Caroline 3:59:40 25:10 2:11:50 1:20:17
2 Matthews, Kat 4:02:39 26:20 2:12:46 1:20:55
3 Lovseth, Solveig 4:05:56 27:12 2:12:44 1:23:23
4 Thek, Grace 4:08:23 25:54 2:18:55 1:20:42
5 Curran, Kate 4:09:35 25:49 2:18:44 1:22:28

Quick Takes

Quick Take #1 – Caroline Pohle was excellent today. It is not easy to go wire to wire and beat someone as good as Kat Matthews by three minutes. Matthews will not be happy not being able to take full points in the Pro Series. This looks to be Pohle’s best run result of her career. It also came on a warm day, not meant for personal bests. Pohle will only be harder to beat moving forward if she is able to replicate this kind of a run performance. It is not easy to run well, after being off the front of the race all day.

Quick Take #2 – Panagiotis Bitados is ranked 101 by World Triathlon. He was 8th at the Hong Kong World Cup earlier in the year, one spot ahead of Matthew McElroy. He is now three for three this season at the half distance, winning Challenge Walchsee and 70.3 Kraichgau earlier in the year. He took down some strong competition in those races utilizing a similar blueprint. He is a front pack swimmer and excellent runner. If his bike keeps him close enough to the leaders then he is going to be a threat in any race he enters. We do not know what is next for him except for, of course, more training.

Quick Take #3 – Let’s not be quick to anoint short course Olympians at long course. Geens and Lovseth both took 3rd today. McDowell was 19th. Dickinson was 20th. Bitados is more of a hybrid athlete, crossing over into both formats. This is not meant to put short course athletes down but to simply acknowledge how good long course racing has gotten. The bike is so difficult now that it does require specific training to figure out how to put a good run together. It will be interesting to see how more athletes perform who make the move after this Olympic cycle.

Photos: Brit Maria Tael for IRONMAN

The post Bitados and Pohle Take 70.3 European Crowns in Tallinn first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The Olympics are over and SuperTri is back. The four teams have been rebranded as Brownlee, Crown, Podium, and Stars and Stripes Racing. Today’s race took place in Boston, Massachusetts, paired with a longstanding event that saw age groupers race earlier in the day.

Sixteen athletes took to the start line in the women’s race, which consisted of three “mini” triathlons back to back to back. It was Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair who emerged victorious. The race came down to four women, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Kate Waugh, Taylor Spivey, and Lehair, on the final run leg. Lehair blazed ahead of the others just past the 50:00 mark. Lehair was a DNF at the Olympics and said after the race that “It was a bit of frustration from Paris in my run today.”

The men’s race, similarly, came down to a run battle. Just like a couple weeks ago in Paris, Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde ran neck and neck in the closing minutes of the race. Wilde had a small lead on Yee early in the final run leg but Yee worked his way back to the New Zealand athlete to move into the lead. The race leader would change again just 30 seconds later. Wilde stayed on Yee’s shoulder and passed him back. Would Yee be able to respond? The answer was a resounding yes, as 20 seconds later Yee would hit the lead again and sprint to victory. He crossed the finish line with his arms crossed, which left Wilde visibly upset. After the race Yee said that, “We want SuperTri to be exciting.” Today’s races definitely checked that box. Wilde, when asked about being so close to victory, immediately cut in and said, “Close isn’t good enough.”

Women’s Race:

Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes led out the women’s race and picked up the first short chute for Podium Racing. For those new to SuperTri, short chutes are awarded at different points in the race to the leaders’ team. The team captain (manager) can then pick any athlete on their team who can cut a small part of the run course later in the race. Most of the 16 person field stayed together through the first bike leg, with American Katie Zaferes being the only one to fall off of the pace. Brownlee Racing picked up the second short chute. A small group of 5 edged ahead on the run, leaving Olympic Champion, Cassandra Beaugrand, with the chasers. Georgia Taylor-Brown was the main aggressor, pushing the pace at the front of the race. Taylor-Brown and compatriot Kate Waugh led out the second swim, with Lehair closeby. American Taylor Spivey also bridged up to the front pack. The lead group whittled down to 5 on the second bike leg and then down to 4 after the second run leg.

The winner was going to come out of the lead group consisting of Taylor-Brown, Waugh, Spivey, and Lehair. That group would come out of the water together on the final swim. Lehair was last to get on the bike, opting to run with her bike a little longer before hopping onto it to avoid the tight first corner coming out of transition. The two Crown Racing athletes, Taylor-Brown and Waugh, attacked on the bike right as Spivey went for a sip from her bottle and opened up a small gap on her and Lehair. Lehair looked to be falling off of the back. Spivey managed to hang onto their wheels and emerged in first after the final transition. Taylor-Brown and Waugh were right behind her. Lehair was 6 seconds back but had a short chute to use. Taylor-Brown moved into the lead. It looked like it could be her day but then Lehair, utilizing her short chute, pulled even with her. Lehair made a hard move at the 50:00 mark and the race was effectively over. Taylor-Brown looked behind to see where Waugh and Spivey were. Lehair, possibly running on some anger after her disappointing Olympics, pulled away and even had time for some high fives at the finish line. Taylor-Brown finished in 2nd. Waugh was 3rd and Spivey was 4th. France’s Leonie Periault, who had been running great all day, moved up to take 5th. Beaugrand finished well off the pace in 8th.

Men’s Race:

The first 100m of the swim made triathlon look more like a combat sport instead of an endurance event, with athletes jostling for position. Matt Hauser beat Max Stapley out of the water to pick up the first short chute. The first bike leg went to plan for most athletes, with 14 of the 16 starters within 6 seconds of the lead. The first run started to break the field up a little, as Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee hit the front of the race. A group of 7, including Yee, Wilde, Hauser, Vincent Luis, Tim Hellwig, Dorian Coninx, and Sergio Baxter, emerged from the next swim leg in the front pack. Wilde made the next bike leg difficult on the others and, at first, dropped two riders. He could not find any solidarity among the other leaders, as nobody else wanted to take a pull at the front of the race. That allowed the two dropped riders, Hellwig and Hauser, to latch back onto the group. Hauser would lose contact with the group on the next run leg and then the race was down to six athletes.

Coninx picked up a 5 second penalty for not putting his goggles into his box at the end of the final swim leg. Wilde was definitely trying to inject some pace into the final bike leg but he, again, had no takers to share the work and the pack was content to let the final run leg decide things. Yee had a bad transition, struggling to rack his bike, and came out of the final transition in 6th. Coninx used his short chute to move into first but still had to serve his penalty, which he did take halfway through the run. That dropped him from 1st to 5th. Wilde took over the lead. Yee had moved all the way up from 6th to 2nd. At the 48:00 mark, Yee pulled even with Wilde. The two would trade blows from there to the finish line. Yee went ahead of Wilde first but that move was only good for 30 seconds. Wilde passed back and injected more pace into the run. It was not enough to shake Yee, as he would be passed 20 seconds later. Yee charged to the finish and seemed to let up a couple steps before the finish to cross his arms in celebration. The two shook hands shortly after but Wilde seemed unhappy with the celebration choice. Wilde said after the race that it was a shame that some of the other boys did not want to share the work and that he has been seeing too many silvers in the last couple of weeks. It would be nice to get gold in Chicago. We will see if he can do one place better next weekend.

Not so Quick Take: I have been covering a lot of different races for SlowTwitch this summer and SuperTri, perhaps, seems like one of the most compelling formats to take to mainstream viewers. I do not know why today’s race was buried on Triathlonlive or a sign-up link on the SuperTri website. SuperTri racing is exciting from start to finish. Its fast and furious racing style, with real time statistics and tracking, should appeal to casual fans. You can shut down a small area of a major city and really put out a great product. Obviously Formula 1 is not a fair comparison for triathlon but my mother-in-law, who is not the biggest sports fan, watches it and is fascinated by all the little things they detail for their audience, like tire pressure and type of tire. There is no reason a stream like this cannot dive into equipment selection that casual fans would understand. Are athletes using clear or tinted goggles? Are they wearing a wetsuit? What tire pressure are they using? What kind of tires do they have on their bikes? What super shoes are they wearing?

My mother-in-law is also a huge fan of the Olympics. This window that we are currently in only exists once every four years. A lot of people just watched Yee and Beaugrand win gold. There is no reason a series like this cannot have a Sunday afternoon time slot on a real network at a time of year when some of the major sports are in their offseasons. I would love for everyone to sit down and watch an 8 hour IRONMAN with me but it is much more realistic to pull folks in with a race like this. Both races were full of excitement today. Both gold medalists were on the start line, racing right after the Olympics. There has to be some sort of pathway to get more eyes on the sport. I think there is an opportunity in front of us, right now, with SuperTri.

Photos: SuperTri

The post Lehair Gets Paris Redemption, Yee Over Wilde at SuperTri Boston first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

For someone coming off of the Olympics simply hoping to validate for the IRONMAN World Championship, Kristian Blummenfelt had himself a day in Frankfurt. The Norwegian superstar was coy in his pre-race remarks about his chances of winning today’s race. Blummenfelt said: “Last week we had a mixed relay in Paris. So, it's like almost 10 days ago, and that's like a 20-minute race versus seven hours, 40 minutes or eight hours – it's a completely different energy system.” It was not unrealistic to think that Blummenfelt would have his hands full with such a strong field assembled. As the race progressed, however, Blummenfelt was always near the front. The strongest swimmers in the field were not able to get any separation, as he came out of the water in the lead group. Uber-biker Kristian Hogenhaug built a small lead in the back half of the ride. Blummenfelt was in a perfect position in the chase pack and would run into the lead before the 10k mark. From there, the only question was if he would set the fastest marathon split ever recorded in an IRONMAN. In the end, he would clock a 2:32, good for the 3rd fastest split all-time, only behind two marks held by Patrick Lange. Blummenfelt crossed the finish line in 7:27:21, setting an IRONMAN Frankfurt course record.

After his stellar performance, Blummenfelt said, “I’m quite surprised. I felt I came in with really not much preparation, really lack of riding the TT bike, barely done any long runs. I was realistically thinking go out as normal and expect the wall to hit me quite early on the bike.” Blummenfelt would go on to say that at the 160k point of the ride he realized he was towards the front of the race and could run for the podium if he was feeling good. It was clear that that was the case, as he reached the lead quickly and went on to win by nearly 5 minutes over a class field. Kieran Lindars, donning bib number forty-eight, was a surprise 2nd. Gregory Barnaby came 3rd. Blummenfelt reasoned that he might have trained a bit too heavy on the aerobic capacity side of things heading into Paris versus training his speed. He can now put his Olympic campaign behind him and look forward to trying to win for the first time in Kona – maybe the only thing missing from his very impressive resume.

Race Recap

The European Championships attracted a strong field, looking to secure Pro Series points at the final full distance race on the calendar aside from Kona. An $87,500 prize purse and 6 Kona slots were on the line today. Germany’s Wilhelm Hirsch led out the swim in 45:51 on home soil. Pristine conditions at Langer Waldsee did not allow the stronger swimmers to build any sort of lead heading into T1. Hirsch towed another 15 competitors with him to the front of the swim. Plenty of big names were in the main group including Menno Koolhaas, Braden Currie, Kristian Blummenfelt, Gregory Barnaby, and Kieran Lindars. The chase pack, led by Robert “The Wolf” Wilkowiecki was 2:00 in arrears. That group included Paul Schuster, Kristian Hogenhaug, and Clement Mignon. Patrick Lange, Pro Series Leader Matt Hanson, and Jackson Laundry were 4:00 back. Sam Long and Trevor Foley were 7:00 back.

By the halfway point of the bike, Kristian Hogenhaug had reached the lead and had begun to put time into everyone else. Hogenhaug was in control of a Kona Qualification deep into IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz just a month ago, before seeing the slot slip away in the closing kilometers of the run. Would he be able to better hold things together this time around? He played the card he had and made the bike difficult on the chasers. He would increase his lead to 2:00 by 112k and to nearly 3:00 at the bike finish. He split a 3:57:09 for the 180k ride. Ruben Zepuntke came off the bike next, 2:44 behind Hogenhaug. Blummenfelt led the main chase group off next, close to 5:00 behind Hogenhaug. Blummenfelt’s group included Barnaby and Lindars. Koolhaas was nearly 10 minutes down. Lange and Hanson were 12 minutes back. Long rode a surprising 4:09:05, 25th fastest in the field, to come in 17 minutes behind the leader. Foley was more than 24 minutes back and eventually DNF.

The 4 lap run course was perfectly flat. Temperatures reached 70 degrees, with some humidity. Conditions were far from perfect but Blummenfelt looked like he might break 2:30 halfway through the run. He caught Hogenhaug before 10k and did not look back from there. He would go on to run 2:32 and set a new Frankfurt course record. Lindars ran into 2nd place. You could see the raw emotion on his face in the closing kilometer and how much this performance meant to him. Barnaby rounded out the podium in 3rd. Hogenhaug would hang on for 4th and earn that coveted Kona slot. Koolhaas ran 2:35 to move up to 5th. Lange wound up 8th but importantly finished ahead of Hanson in 14th. The two were running together at the 25k mark, before Hanson fell off of the pace. This result could have major implications in the Pro Series standings.

Top 5 Results

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Blummenfelt, Kristian 7:27:21 46:06 4:03:14 2:32:29
2 Lindars, Kieran 7:32:14 46:29 4:03:26 2:37:05
3 Barnaby, Gregory 7:33:44 46:15 4:03:33 2:38:53
4 Hogenhaug, Kristian 7:35:32 47:57 3:57:09 2:45:13
5 Koolhaas, Menno 7:35:51 45:55 4:08:36 2:35:54

Quick Takes

QT #1: Kristian Blummenfelt is my favorite for Kona. He might have sand bagged a bit before this race but he still took down a class field by 5 minutes and should only get better with a couple months of specific training. We might get to witness something truly special in October when we add in a few other big names into the mix. Rumors have been swirling about a move to professional cycling for Blummenfelt. Kona is the one thing he has not won in triathlon. He is going to want to win there before moving on (if that’s what he chooses to do).

QT #2: Be honest, where would you have slotted in Lindars pre-race? Maybe top-20 or top-30? Very few would have put him in the top-10, let alone 2nd to arguably the best long course triathlete of the last few years. Lindars had some strong results last year, including a 2nd place finish at the prestigious full distance race Challenge Almere, where he more or less crawled to the finish line after pushing it to his upper limits. He had not found the same success this season but showed up to this race with a great attitude. He spoke post race about not having the same resources as some of the top guys. He couldn’t escape the rainy season to go train somewhere warm and took the morning rain as a sign that he was ready to perform in these conditions. He talked about how he has assembled a team of volunteers who guide and support him. He started with bib number 48 and is now heading to Kona. What a ride!

QT #3: Gregory Barnaby has been quietly putting together a strong 2024. He was 3rd at 70.3 Mallorca, 8th at IRONMAN Cairns, and 10th at T100 London. Add in today’s 3rd and he has been a model of consistency this season.

QT #4: It was great to see Kristian Hogenhuag bounce back today after losing a Kona slot late at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz just a month ago. The Kona bike record is officially on watch.

QT #5: Max Neumann was unfortunately a DNS so he has not qualified for Kona. Will IRONMAN exercise its Wild Card Policy on Neumann or anybody else this cycle?

QT #6: We will do a story on the IRONMAN Pro Series next week. Today was the last race to score points at the full distance, outside of Kona. Lange finishing ahead of Hanson is significant. Foley’s DNF is significant. Long finishing 22nd basically takes him out of contention. Look for a deep dive into the Pro Series standings and how we see things shaking out as we approach championship season.

Photos: Getty Images for IRONMAN

The post Blummenfelt Validates with Big Win in Frankfurt first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The Nike LunaRacer was the first shoe I ever really loved. I wore a pair during my first Ironman win in Penticton in 2009, and then a modified version – the Lunar Mariah – at Arizona that same year that in hindsight was a step down; I was looking for a roomier toebox, which the Mariah offered, but it wasn’t overall as good a shoe. The upper was heavier and more prone to water retention and was fundamentally a worse Ironman shoe. But the sole – the Lunar foam – was amazing. Lunar foam was probably ahead of its time; without a carbon fiber plate, the bounciness wasn’t as propulsive as the current generation of super shoes, and I think this is likely why it never really took off the way I believe Nike thought it would.

Along with the original Hoka Bondis, these shoes were a complete departure from the fairly minimal shoes I typically enjoyed running in. Though I think that a part of that enjoyment was learned behavior. This was during the height of the minimalist phase of shoes, and while I never fully bought into the idea that running in minimal shoes could make your feet stronger, I thought if if you paid attention to lower-leg and foot strength as I did, that minimal shoes were beneficial from a performance standpoint. That is, minimalist shoes were useful tools to get faster. There’s continued research supporting this – INSERT LINK, and I suspect much of my “enjoyment” of these shoes came from a sense that they were accretive to my performance on race day. And, over time, they just became familiar. And certainly I loved the light weight. That feeling of the shoes being barely there, especially since I ran mostly on trails and dirt roads.

From mid-2018 until early 2020, I stopped running entirely to focus on track cycling. Running wasn’t going to make me a faster cyclist, and I had not yet really come to appreciate training outside of the concept of competition. I loved training, but in a “type 2 fun sense of the word. I appreciated the process of training and the sense of becoming fitter and faster. Training was fun because of its utility. This didn’t diminish its fun from my perspective. I loved – and still love – that sense of purpose. I derive a tremendous sense of satisfaction from repetition and process. And so when running wasn’t really servicing any sort of larger goal, I just stopped doing it. At times, I missed it. But I was more consumed then by the larger goal and purpose of pursuit training, and so whatever emotional attachment I had to running was a distant second to the primary attachment I had to the process of becoming faster on the velodrome.

It wasn’t really until perspective was forced upon me by the Covid lockdown that I realized I just loved training for its own sake and for the simple joy of being active. And it was at this point, I started to run again. In the same minimalist shoes I’d always run in. But these minimal shoes were always facilitators of “type 2” fun. Starting during the lockdown, the idea of the “fun scale” has taken on a preeminent role in how I think about training and – more generally – being active in my post-professional life. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the fun scale classifies fun into three distinct categories:
– Type 1: this is fun while you are doing
– Type 2: this is hard – and possibly unpleasant – while you are doing it, but fun in retrospect. Type 2 fun is what is most typically associated with endurance sport.
– Type 3: this is fun that is not actually fun. Like, an idea that seemed good but wasn’t, either during or after.

I’ve written recently about how certain decisions have made training “more fun.” For clarity, what I really mean is that I’ve found ways to turn training from almost exclusively “type 2” fun into “type 1” fun. I’d admittedly not thought about this all that much as an idea – training was *always* type 2 fun; that’s just how things worked – until I read a profile in the NY Times of 2021 pursuit world champion, former pursuit world record holder, and current America’s Cup cyclor Ashton Lambie that presented the shocking (to me) idea that Ashton was satisfied to just … ride. The real nugget comes at the end, though, where a former boss of Lambie’s says that his super power is that he experienced endurance training and feats that should have been type 3 (aka “not fun”) as type 2 fun. I wondered if you couldn’t take this a step further. If you could enjoy something that you shouldn’t, could you change *how* you enjoyed something that you should? If Ashton could experience type 3 fun as type 2 fun, I wondered if I could experience type 2 fun as type 1 fun. Could I just enjoy the simple act of doing, outside of any larger sense of purpose? Like Ashton, I think I managed often to experience type 3 fun as type 2. I think my best races were always on hard courses – often in particularly brutal conditions – because I think I just liked those courses. Winning the inaugural Leadman 250 in Las Vegas, when high temperatures in the aptly named Valley of Fire national park hit well into the triple digits and the winds were so strong my lead motorcycle ran out of gas 20 miles from T2, was probably the most fun I can remember ever having on a race course. It was a race that in some ways seemed impossible. And it was perfect.

I’d always had fun training. I loved my time as a professional, but it was pretty much always type 2 fun. I loved the feeling of accomplishment. The satisfaction of setting a goal and achieving it. And it wasn’t that I disliked like it in the moment; it was more that I’d developed over many years an understanding of the value of that delayed gratification. Something was fun because it *would be* rewarding. But the idea that it could be rewarding in the moment? That was an interesting idea.

In 2022, I got pulled into running a Ragnar Road Ultra with some friends from work. And I thought, if only for the performance and energy savings/return over 36 miles, I ought to get a pair of super shoes to run it in. I tried a few different pairs but didn’t find any that really clicked. And then I tried the Asics MetaSpeed Sky, and I thought, “oh wow. These are fast. And … fun.” Running in the shoes felt a bit like a joke. The old adage is that there’s no such thing as “free” speed. And yet suddenly there was. I liked running in those shoes. They had all the bounce and enjoyment of the Lunars and Hokas, but with that added propulsive magic of the carbon plate. There was none of the sponginess of those other shoes. That sense that yes they felt good, but that the good feeling was coming at a cost. For the first time, the shoes that felt the best were also the fastest.

For reasons mostly of price and durability – and lingering questions about the possible detriments of running in fully-plated shoes for all runs, I knew that the MetaSpeeds would not be my everyday shoe. But was there something “close enough”? I’d always had a special fondness for Asics shoes both because of their incredible history and because the Asics Piranha was the shoe that allowed me to race an Ironman after my near fatal hit-and-run accident in 2010; yes, I ran Ironman Arizona 2010 in a pair of what Asics marketed as 5k flats, because the minimalist, low-profile offered a stability that kept excruciating IT band syndrome from accident at bay. The sponginess of the Lunar foam shoes set my IT band on fire, because I didn’t yet fully understand what I really liked in shoes – a wide toebox, a broad midfoot at the sole but not in the arch (I have high arches), and a snug upper. I want the sole to be wide at the midfoot, but the upper to be relatively narrow so as to offer a sense of support under my arch. Our own Ryan Heisler helped me distill this when I sent him a list of shoes that I had run in that I had liked and those that I had not liked. He wrote back and said, “this is what you want from a shoe.” And he was 100% right, and this razor has never really failed me since.

Having found joy in the Asics MetaSpeed Sky, I decided to try the first version of the Asics MagicSpeed. The MagicSpeed was Daniela Ryf’s shoe of choice for Ironman racing, and it’s certainly a race-competent shoe. But it’s not a “super” shoe. It’s really more of a “tempo trainer,” with good – but not super – foam. And a partial caron plate, at least in the first and second versions; the third version makes it more of a race-oriented shoe with a full-length plate and more race-y foam; most reviewers praise these changes, but with a couple hundred miles in the third revision, I can say that they are good, but – for me – less universally outstanding. While this article is ostensibly about the MagicSpeed as a shoe, it’s really about finding shoes that bring you joy. The MagicSpeed and MagicSpeed 2 brought me joy. The MagicSpeed 3 is a very good. But it’s more purposeful. It’s definitely less good for easy running, which for me means 5:00/km+ (8:00/mi). It’s a tempo shoe. Or a race shoe. It’s fine for an easy jog, but the shoe feels a bit underwhelming. Part of this is the more race-oriented upper; the best upper – so far – was the 2nd revision, which was sort of a knit-style upper (without being a truly knitted upper). I like the shoe a lot, and with more of my easy miles on trails in the Speedland GS, I don’t mind so much that it’s not as good overall. It’s marginally better for fast running – and is certainly a more affordable race-day shoe, but it just seems like Asics went away from a shoe that was good at literally everything to make some small gains in the fastest runs. Would I have fallen in love with the MagicSpeed 3 if it was the only shoe I ran in – as was the case when I bought my first pair of MagicSpeeds? Hard to say. I think having a better idea of what I really enjoy in shoes, I’m more critical now. Having become open to the idea of a plated, high-rebound shoe, I was a bit of a blank slate when I got that first pair. I’d basically stopped running for almost two years. So I think inevitably there was some sheen to just rediscovering how great running was that the shoes benefitted from. Now, being back in the routine of regular running – and having found another shoe that I truly love in the Speedland GS, I think I’m more critical and my expectations are higher. It’s also possible that I was an odd consumer of the MagicSpeed, wanting it as an everyday shoe rather than as a slightly cheaper race shoe. But to me, that partial carbon plate was perfect. And the slightly heavier – but more forgiving – upper, especially on the MagicSpeed 2 was superb. When I finally killed my first pair of MagicSpeed 2s, I immediately bought another pair. When this pair of MagicSpeed 3s dies, I might – might – try something else. But probably not. The shoe is still really good.

But that first pair of MagicSpeeds was, simply, magic. This was a shoe I just liked to run in. It made running on the road substantially more enjoyable. I love running on the road because I find it a bit easier to fall into the zone than on the trails, where you need some level of constant vigilance to ensure you don’t twist an ankle. And because the road is fast. But it’s also unforgiving. Or, at least, it was until I ran in more responsive shoes. That made the road more forgiving, but without taking away any of what I enjoyed. Running on the road became a lot more fun. More type 1 fun. I just liked lacing up the MagicSpeeds and running. It felt good *while* I was running. I felt fast. I didn’t feel beat up. I ran more often with a smile. I wanted to run just to run.

I put a few hundred miles on that first pair of MagicSpeeds and then replaced them with MagicSpeed 2s, which notably improved the upper – really the only area of weakness on the first version, tweaked the outsole a bit to make it more durable, and was – in general – a solid update across the board. It kept everything I loved and fixed the few things I did not. The MagicSpeed 2 was – unquestionably – my favorite shoe ever, at least until I ran in the Speedland GS, though I think the MagicSpeed helped me to really appreciate the Speedlands in a way that I might not have before. I had run on and off since retiring, including an almost 18 month stretch without any running when I was focused on pursuing, and it was the MagicSpeeds that made me fall in love with running again. I don’t see myself ever taking another break from running, and I credit the MagicSpeeds for helping me rediscover the joy of running. The shoes were fast and fun. And they changed my expectations of what a great shoe could – and ultimately should – deliver.

Falling back in love with running made me appreciate the possibility that training more broadly could be type 1 fun. In finding a pair of shoes that was both fast and fun, I set out to find more ways that I could enjoy training while I was doing it. This led me to the Speedlands. To moving my bike computer to my wrist. To riding my gravel bike only with fat 650B tires. To get back on my rowing machine. The Asics MagicSpeed changed my perceptions of what a shoe could be. And what it could offer. And in doing so it helped reshape my sense of purpose and my belief in the value of training. I’ve always loved training. But now, I find, I especially love it in the moment. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.

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