At last year’s Chicago Marathon, the late Kelvin Kiptum stormed out to a furious lead, somehow didn’t slow down, and finished in a world record time of 2:00:35—in a pair of then-unreleased Nike Alphafly 3s.
At this year’s race in Chicago, it was almost déjà vu. But this time, on the women’s side.
Ruth Chepngetich, led by two pacemakers, went out at a blistering pace on Sunday. Despite slightly slowing down in the second half of the race, she found another gear and broke Tigst Assefa’s world record by nearly 2 minutes, running 2:09:56.
Her shoe of choice? The Nike Alphafly 3.
The marathoning super shoe, which was released in January of this year, retails for $285.
Asics and Brooks athletes also had good days in Chicago.
John Korir ran a personal best of 2:02:44 to win the men’s race. He was seen sporting a new Asics prototype shoe that we speculate is the Metaspeed Sky 4.
Other high-performing Asics athletes at Chicago included Americans Lindsay Flanagan, Emma Bates, and Sara Hall. Flanagan was the second American to cross the line, posting a 2:23:31 for ninth place. She and Bates (11th in 2:24:00) were both wearing the Metaspeed Edge 4 prototype known as “ME4 TYPE-P” on the World Athletics shoe database. It was approved for competition by World Athletics on September 18. And Hall, who was 18th, wore the Metaspeed Edge Paris, which is available to the public.
Brooks also had a solid presence in the top 10. Susanna Sullivan led the American women with a 6th place finish in 2:21:56. She was sporting a development version of the Hyperion Elite 4. Also lacing up the shoe were CJ Albertson (seventh in 2:08:17) and Zach Panning (10th in 2:09:16).
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
