By Brian Metzler
There have been several extraordinary race results in February, including new world records in the men’s mile (3:45.14, Jakob Ingebrigtsen), 3,000 meters (7:22.91, Grant Fisher), 5,000 meters (12:44.09, Fisher), and the half marathon (56:42, Jacob Kiplimo). One of the greatest results, however, has been getting headlines for the wrong reasons. Last Friday in Henderson, Nevada, Rajpaul Pannu ran the Jackpot Ultras 100-miler in Las Vegas in a speedy 11 hours, 52 minutes, 46 seconds. Running a 100-mile race is an extraordinary feat for any runner, but running one at 7:08 mile pace is pretty amazing. Pannu broke his own course record at the event en route to running the second fastest time ever by an American runner. Lithuanian Aleksandr Sorokin’s unfathomable 10:51:39 effort from 2022 (or 6:31 mile pace) remains the world record, but Pannu’s result was second only to Zach Bitter’s 11:19:13 on the all-time American list.
The only problem is that Pannu was disqualified shortly after his victory and was stripped of the U.S. national title he won. (The Jackpot Ultras race once again doubled as the USATF 100-mile national championship.) Why was he disqualified? Because he was wearing a pair of Hoka Skyward X shoes, which have a higher stack height than the 40mm maximum allowed height under World Athletics regulations, which also govern U.S. championships. The Skyward X shoe, which includes a carbon-fiber propulsion plate embedded in two layers of midsole foam, has stack heights of 48mm in the heel and 43mm in the forefoot. In high-level international races, shoes are vetted out by officials before the race to ensure they conform with the results, but that wasn’t the case at the Jackpot Ultras. Pannu, a 33-year-old Denver school teacher, wasn’t trying to cheat, and he humbly took the blame, admitting that he didn’t know the regulation – which governs all forms of road races, including marathons – pertained to the race he was running. It’s an unfortunate outcome for a runner who ran exceptionally well, but the recent trend of shoe brands building oversized shoes is at least partly to blame.
The Skyward X is a very good shoe, but one that’s more geared toward long-haul comfort in training than all-out speed in a race. Its oversized geometry is part of the trend of maximally cushioned shoes being built in excess of the World Athletics regulations. Brands have done it because they can – modern foams are lighter and more responsive than ever – and to some extent the axiom that “more is better” applies to the extra thick midsoles. And if consumers are into that and buying those shoes (and apparently they are), that’s what is driving the trend. While most of those shoes are more geared toward training than racing, those brands haven’t suggested how you should use those shoes. With so many good shoes towering over the 40mm regulation, it begs the question of whether or not those World Athletics regulations apply to everyone or just elite runners. That’s kind of a gray area, believe it or not.
Technically, they don’t apply to everyone, according to a response from the Boston Marathon and also running journalist and age-group marathoner Ashley Mateo, who has suggested that any runner not aiming for the podium or prize money can wear whatever they want. That might or might not be true – even World Athletics says they’re for everyone and they only address elites at various points in their documentation – but it still brings up a moral issue of whether a runner can use shoes that might benefit their efforts even if they’ll never get disqualified. Can you be openly proud of a new PR set in shoes that are deemed not to adhere to regulations for faster runners? Elite runner Sage Canaday has disagreed with Mateo and says the rules are the rules, and they apply to everyone. “To say that you’re (“non-elite” or “non-competitive”) or whatever doesn’t mean you’re an exception to the rule.” he says. Meanwhile, writer Adam Chase covered it eloquently in an article he wrote last fall, in which he asked for the advice of five-time U.S. ultrarunning champion Sabrina Little, Ph.D. – who happens to be a philosophy professor at Christopher Newport University. “Everyone who signs up for a race is engaged in a competition with others and is bound by the rules of that competition – a collective agreement about what is fair,” Little reasons. “This is a social contract.” According to Little, “if you place first or last, or anywhere in between, you are racing those around you, even if it does not feel that way. Rules are not contingent upon one’s ability level; everyone who signs up for a race is bound by them.”
My take? Do what you think is best for you, but know that your PRs and performance are only important to you. Keep in mind, however, that the satisfaction of running performance is all about doing the work and there isn’t meant to be a silver bullet or cheat code.
