The Alphafly 3 is Nike’s top marathon racing shoe and has been around for nearly two years now. A “development” version that might be its successor—but looks much like the AF3—was also on the roads (Eliud Kipchoge finished 17th wearing a pair).

Longin, Puma’s vice president of running and training, is speaking to The Athletic from their offices in Massachusetts. That “something special” was the third iteration of the company’s Fast-R shoe, which launched publicly in April for the Boston and London marathons.

In the men’s elite category, Kenya’s Hillary Kipsambu is the fastest of the lot with his 2:04:44 set in Paris in 2021, although he’s now 40, and finished fifth in Dublin last year. Sweden’s Samuel Tsegaye also has a best of 2:06:53.

Twelve Pakistani runners successfully completed the 42.195-kilometre Istanbul Marathon, earning praise for their strong performances.

Eliud Kipchoge has revealed that he intends to step away from elite-level marathon running after the New York City Marathon in November to pursue other projects — including a challenge in Antarctica.

So, despite fighting off some viscous period cramps and a woefully low WHOOP recovery score thanks to a largely sleepless night, I managed, in just over a year, to take eight minutes of my HM time – a PB that I’m confident is down to those aforementioned lessons learnt about pacing, fuelling and kit.