Dr. Michael Joyner

Well, I think you have to say it was a number of things that happened.

The first thing that happened is the marathon used to be for people who were not quite fast enough to set world records or get Olympic medals in the 5,000 and the 10,000 meters.

But as it became more and more popular and the world marathon majors emerged and the amateur system of the old days went away,

there became big-time prize money in these big marathons.

So the fastest runners began to run the marathon.

So the people with the absolute most ability, and they weren't waiting for the end of their career, Tarsh.

So I think the first thing is you had the absolute best distance runners attempting the races much earlier in their career and really focusing on the marathon.

Then what happened is, you know, we got things like pacemaking.

The courses began to get faster or people started to think, what should a course look like to go fast?

And there became other, again, incentive financial and other incentives.

So I think all of that came into play and the record came down quite a bit prior to the super shoes.

And then the shoes have made a difference.

We did a study on how much of a difference the shoes make.

made at least the earlier version or the earliest versions of the shoes suggested was somewhere on the order of about 1%.

Now, lab data showed it could have been 2% or 3% or 4%, but we think the real-world data said it was more like 1%.

So in this case, that'd be, you know, 1.2 minutes in a two-hour race.

So I think the shoes have made a difference, but I think the –

Biggest thing is that the very best runners have started to run.

It became kind of a thing they pursued.

And the incentive system was set up to encourage it.