Fresh from the Tokyo Marathon, Paula Radcliffe said on her podcast that the growing pain in her ankle during the race meant she couldn’t put her foot down by the finish line and afterwards ended up in a wheelchair. She was wearing Nike’s Alphafly 4s, the latest technology. ‘I think the super shoes were just too aggressive for my foot,’ she said.
I have loved running in super shoes. The first time I wore them was at the Valencia Marathon in 2019 and I flew to the finish in 3:27, a PB. I have worn them at every marathon since and while they helped me to good times, my calves, tendons or ankles would just seize up.
I set my sights on one last marathon PB and trained harder than ever before. I wore carbon shoes more and more for speed sessions, Runners World UK races. I felt springy and fast. I didn’t stop to think about what they were doing to my feet. Then my ankle started feeling sore, got worse, then finally went. I thought it was a tendon. It turned out to be a rare bone stress fracture. Too much training, bad luck, is what I was told. I will never know for sure. But since I stepped back into normal running shoes, my ankle has felt pretty much fine again.
I wondered out loud on Instagram, whether my fracture was linked to super shoes. Dozens of people offered up similar stories of injuries to their achilles, ankle stress fractures (mostly the navicular bone), plantar fasciitis RW+ Membership Benefits.
Dr. Lindsay Hill is a podiatrist and runner from Salford who specializes in biomechanics and sports injuries. She isn’t surprised. “I am seeing a lot of patients who are coming in with injuries and they’ve never been injured before, but they have changed to carbon-plated shoes and are just doing all their training in them,” she said.
“The problem is the mechanics of the foot are changed a lot with that type of shoe. The shoe is doing a lot of the work for you. They are very firm. As you hit the ground that energy comes back up and speeds you up. But the load in your foot and ankle becomes very repetitive. Super shoes should be for race day only – even the manufacturers say that.”
Strong feet are essential. That’s what Tony Bignell at Nike, tells Radcliffe on her podcast. “Super shoes stop your feet moving around, your metatarsals, your toes. You’re kind of put in this artificial position. So that’s great because it makes you faster, but that’s bad because eventually it makes you weaker. So when you’re not running in the shoes, walk around barefoot, do other things to strengthen your feet – then you could train all the time in your racing shoes. If you aren’t going to do that, I would train in a shoe that you move around in a little bit more and then race in something that’s a little more artificial.’
There’s a lot of research into how fast these shoes can make you and almost none into whether super shoes cause more injuries. Believe me, I’ve looked. In the meantime, I’m hanging up my carbon shoes – at least until my feet and ankles are a lot stronger.
Sophie Raworth is a journalist, newsreader, broadcaster and long distance runner. She is also a columnist for Runner's World UK.
