'Shoe doping' changed marathon times in ways we still don't understand

More proof that &quot;doping&quot; has become a meaningless word.<p>If shoes are considered &quot;doping,&quot; why aren&#x27;t all marathons (and indeed, all athletic events) run barefoot and naked[1]? If those are the &quot;rules,&quot; then surely they should at least be consistently applied...<p>[1] Presumably reduced thermal stress due to clothing improves athletic performance, therefore is &quot;doping&quot; by this metric.

I’m curious how this will find acceptance, regulation or rejection. Acceptance like the clap skate in speed skating (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Clap_skate" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Clap_skate</a>) or if they will be regulated like the swim suits in competitive swimming (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-technology_swimwear" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-technology_swimwear</a>)

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;F1Ia0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;F1Ia0</a>

About halfway through the article, I&#x27;m trying to understand how they measure energy usage.<p>When I herniated a disc, because my hamstring atrophied, because I got a knee scope, I could not find a single doctor or physical therapist to explain it and such straightforward words, I had to do months and years of research myself to figure out what was happening. I probably saw a good 8 to 10 different &quot;professionals&quot; on this.<p>This taught me to not trust doctors. They&#x27;re probably slackers and they probably don&#x27;t care.

weird to call it &#x27;doping&#x27; but that must have tested better for click throughs.<p>Anyway the fly&#x27;s are pretty damn cool. I ran a marathon last year and a half earlier this year in the cheaper ones are broke my PRs both times. I don&#x27;t train in them, they are reserved just for events.

The article doesn’t mention a couple things. The shoes reduce mechanical stress and impact. Runners can train harder and get more aerobic stimulus with less wear and tear on their legs. Also, the last miles of a marathon are faster and easier because muscles aren’t as broken down.

Compare to<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;blade-runners-do-high-tech-prostheses-give-runners-an-unfair-advantage&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;blade-runners-do-...</a><p>This seems to be the same debate in a smaller format. How much energy should a runner&#x27;s equipment be allowed to catch and release and still be in the same category with unassisted runners?

&quot;shoe dopeing&quot; is a valid term because cost and availibility of the most performance enhancing foot ware is not universal and a several percentage point advantage defines the difference olympians,and nobodys so it&#x27;s olympic level &quot;pay to win&quot;.....dopeing or is this another semantics marathon?

How does that compare to wearing no shoes though? If you don&#x27;t have foam in the first place, it cannot absorb energy.

There was a footrace in the 1975 movie &quot;Man Friday&quot; that always made me think. The first man brags that he&#x27;d finished the race first.<p>But the second man says he ran with more joy -- with the maximum euphoria, fully embracing the act of running, celebrating the body&#x27;s ability to speed....

Every high end sport should have athletes with a support team of scientists and engineers pushing the limit of human capacity.<p>Think of it more like F1 racing than running naked at the high end.

Does anyone know how they measure the energy used while running?

EPO doping and paying the doping lab is still more lucrative. You have to pay a lot of people, but everyone keeps silent.

would be funny if runners develop a stride optimised to harvest the energy from the foam

Meta Comment: The NY Times is so user hostile.<p>I’m a subscriber. I pay a stupid amount of money as I need it professionally. But apparently I’ve never read the Athletic outside of Apple News. So not only do I need to hit the stupid paywall and re-login… but they insist on delivering you to some sort of on-boarding experience.<p>If I had followed a link from equally bizarre Instagram, I never would have found the article again after clicking though the onboarding experience.