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Supershoes are reshaping distance running | MIT Technology Review

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Kenyan runners, like many others, are grappling with the impact of expensive, high-performance shoes. The track at Moi University’s Eldoret Town Campus doesn’t look like a facility designed for champions. Its surface is a modest mix of clay and gravel, and it’s 10 meters longer than the standard 400. Runners use a classroom chair to mark the start and finish. Yet it’s as good a place as any to spot the athletes who make Kenya the world’s greatest distance-running powerhouse. If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms. On a morning in January, nearly a hundred athletes, including Olympic medalists and winners of major marathons, have gathered here for “speedwork”: high-­intensity intervals that the best runners make look effortless. The track is packed with so much talent that it is easy to miss the man of the moment, a gangly runner in a turquoise shirt and thick-soled Nike shoes. In just over a year, Kelvin Kiptum had gone from virtual unknown to

Supershoes are reshaping distance running | MIT Technology Review Skip to Content The track at Moi University’s Eldoret Town Campus doesn’t look like a facility designed for champions. Its surface is a modest mix of clay and gravel, and it’s 10 meters longer than the standard 400. Runners use a classroom chair to mark the start and finish. Yet it’s as good a place as any to spot the athletes who make Kenya the world’s greatest distance-running powerhouse. Related Story How to fix the internet Read next On a morning in January, nearly a hundred athletes, including Olympic medalists and winners

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