By now, it is obvious that advanced footwear technology has changed marathon performance. The interesting question is no longer whether super shoes help. It is how they change the way athletes race. Do they allow runners to maintain pace deeper into the marathon? Or do they make early pace feel deceptively easy, tempting athletes into more aggressive starts and bigger late-race fades?
This study examined pacing and performance in the World Marathon Majors,1Maruo, Y., & Takezawa, K. (2026). The impact of advanced footwear technology on running performance and pacing in world marathon majors. Frontiers in Physiology, 17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2026.1800107 comparing the non-super-shoe era from 2013–2015 with the standardized super-shoe era from 2022–2025. The researchers analyzed top-10 performances from Berlin, Chicago, London, New York City, and Tokyo, excluding Boston because its course does not meet standard eligibility criteria. The dataset included 699 performances from 221 male athletes and 211 female athletes. They examined finish times and 5K split velocities.
The headline finding was that marathon times were faster in the super shoe era. Men improved by about 1.7%, with average top-10 finish times moving from 2:09:08 to 2:06:57. Women improved by about 4.0%, from 2:27:38 to 2:22:00. That larger improvement in women is consistent with other research suggesting female athletes may benefit especially from advanced footwear technology, possibly due to lower body mass, stride characteristics, or greater cumulative benefit across many ground contacts.
The pacing findings were more nuanced. In men, super shoes were associated with higher running velocities across the race, but pacing patterns did not fundamentally change. Men were faster, but they still slowed as the race progressed, similar to the non-super shoe era.
In women, the pattern was different. The super shoe era showed faster initial velocity followed by a steeper late-race decline. Even after normalizing the data to examine pacing rather than raw performance level, the interaction remained. That suggests women in the super shoe era were not just faster; they were pacing differently. The authors interpret this as a more aggressive pacing strategy, possibly influenced by the mechanical advantages of super shoes, reducing perceived effort early in the race.
This does not mean the aggressive strategy failed. Finish times were still faster in the super shoe era despite the greater late-race slowdown. But it does raise an important point: super shoes may make ambitious early pace feel more sustainable than it really is. The shoes improve economy, but they do not magically expand glycogen stores, eliminate heat stress, or remove the consequences of starting too fast.
What this means for runners
Super shoes can help you run faster, but they do not remove the need for disciplined pacing. In fact, they may make pacing discipline even more important because faster speeds can feel surprisingly controlled early. For everyday marathoners, the lesson is simple: do not let the shoe talk you into a first half that your physiology cannot cash in the second half. Practice marathon pace in your race shoes, fuel aggressively enough to support the faster pace, and build long-run workouts that teach you what sustainable speed actually feels like after miles of racing.
