 So, at the end of the day, Will World Athletics banned the Nike Alpha Fly. I don't know about all of you out there watching right now, but it feels really good to have some clarity, some information, some overall guidance, finally, around the topic of carbon fiber plates running shoes, alright? Here we go. Oh, I think this is a great, great day. Yes, we did talk about this. I gave my full opinion, so I'm not going to repeat myself on January 18th, a short two weeks ago. I think the Nike Vaporfly 4% flying it, I think it's good to go. I think the Nike Next Percent is good to go, barely. I think the Hoka Carbon X is good to go, barely. So what do I mean by barely? I think the Nike Alpha Fly, the next iteration. I think the stack height is, in fact, too tall. Coupled with, yes, supposedly there's three carbon fiber plates in the Nike Alpha Fly. That's the speculation, and it's pretty much been confirmed at this point. So at the end of the day, Will World Athletics banned the Nike Alpha Fly, and other shoes that will be coming out at some point with high, high stack heights coupled with carbon fiber plates, I actually think they might. And there you have it. That was my prediction for the 4%, for the next percent, for the Carbon X. There it is right there. And just so we're all on the same page, and just so you know, World Athletics is the overarching governing body for elite running and racing around the world, whether it's the Olympics, whether it's world championships, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, so here are the rules. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. This is what they posted today, January 31st, 2020. Further, and I can't read the entire article, we would be here for 30 minutes. Okay, here we go. Further, with immediate effect, there will be an indefinite moratorium on any shoe, whether with or without spikes, that does not meet the following requirements. All right, here we go. The sole of the shoe must be no thicker than 40 millimeters, okay? The shoe must not contain more than one rigid embedded plate or blade of any material that runs either the full length or only part of the length of the shoe, okay? The plate may be in more than one part, but these parts must be located sequentially in one plane, not stacked or in parallel, and must not overlap. Fascinating. For a shoe with spikes, an additional plate to the plate mentioned above or other mechanism is permitted, but only for the purpose of attaching the spikes to the sole of the shoe, and the sole must be no thicker than 30 millimeters. So there you go, clarity. I love it. I just love the clarity. Thank you, World Athletics, for putting out into the open, so we're all on the same page with respect to the future of racing and the future of competition in our sport. Now what are my thoughts on this new decision from World Athletics? Okay, here we go. I have some bullet points. We're just going to go down the list. Elites versus mortals, okay? Us mere mortals. These rules don't apply to us, the general public. These rules apply to the elite runners who are competing, especially for prize money, in World Athletics-sanctioned races, okay? Just want to make that. So if a shoe comes onto the marketplace that is over, let's say it's 45 millimeters stack height with two carbon fiber plates, we could buy it and we could race in it, okay? Now could we win prize money? No, all right? But we could compete, for example, in the New York City Marathon or any of these big global marathons, all right? So just want to put that out there. Also, the Nike Alpha Fly. The prototype, all right? It's not released to the public yet. So we don't know what it's going to look like in final production. But is it really a Nike Alpha Fly if they end up dropping the stack height from 50 millimeters down to 40 so that people, I don't think they're going to drop the stack height. I guess it is what I want to communicate because if they do drop the stack height, are they making a shoe that's that different than the Nike Next%? I don't really think so. So it's going to be really interesting to watch. How many people race in the Nike Alpha Fly even though the elites won't be allowed to race in the Nike Alpha Fly if it stays the same as it is right now? And I wish I would have, I wish I, I don't think I actually said this last December on film. Maybe I did. I couldn't find the clip today. But I think what, in my mind, my decision on the Nike Alpha Fly was that I would test it for all of you to give you my opinions here in the studio, but I would not race in it. I felt a little too over-engineered, okay? The three carbon fiber plates, which again, I don't know if that's official, but I've seen a lot of reports that it is three carbon fiber plates in that shoe. It made me nervous. It made me a little too anxious around this. Yeah, I just, it didn't make me feel good in like my gut. I was like, that's just too much. It's just too much for me. I like to listen to my gut, okay? Like what I said, back on January 18th, I just didn't, I had that feeling that the Alpha Fly was going to be cut out of the equation. And sure enough, it was also another reason I didn't want to race in the Alpha Fly or any other shoe that has, it could be any, it could be Soccany, Adidas, Brooks, okay? Any other shoe that has a tall stack height, because it changed, I think it would change, it would change my gait cycle too much, which I think can lead to injuries. For example, this is 40 millimeter and 32 millimeter stack heights. And I already feel a slight change in my gait cycle that it's just like, it's borderline for me for this shoe. So 50, another 10 millimeters, no way for me, no way, too much injury risk on my radar. Okay, moving on real quick also, in Houston, at the Houston Marathon, just was it last weekend or two, two weekends ago, the Adidas released a prototype. And nobody know, I couldn't find any information on the name of it. But the stack height on that shoe, here's a picture right now. The stack height on this shoe looks ridiculously tall. And so who knows if now Adidas is going to have to change their game plan moving forward. I don't know for their elite runners. So and one last point that I wanted to bring up, would Kipchoge have broken two hours in Vienna for the INEOS 159 challenge. If he would have been boring the next percent versus the Alpha Fly, yes, I think he would have. He beat it by what was it, 20 seconds, 21 seconds approximately, or maybe it was 19 seconds. I think he absolutely still would have broken two hours. He looks so smooth, so in control, so focused, I honest, I think he would have done it in this shoe as well. So yes, here's my in conclusion. Here's my thoughts as to what I'm so excited about moving forward. Thank you World Athletics for the guidance on these new rules to provide some basic boundaries that now, that now all running shoe companies around the world can work with together, meaning they're not going to work together, but they're going to work together. Why? There are some parameters that are, it's going to create, it's going to force all the companies into competition with each other to create running shoes that are better for us, but within the same guidelines, because guess what? I think now, I think, I don't know, I think Nike, personally again, I'm not going to race in the Alpha Fly, but I think Nike might start to reconsider their future approaches with the Alpha Fly, meaning maybe similar technologies, but changing it up a little bit in the, like maybe in 2021 or 2022. But here's what's even better. Now we can focus on the runners and not the shoes, okay? Does that make sense? Rather than talking so much about carbon fiber plates and stack heights, which listen, it's fun to do here in the studio, I enjoy, I obviously enjoy like getting down to what is literally inside these shoes. But now it's like the guidelines allow us to, I think, reorient our focus onto the hard work of the athletes, all right? And that is what this sport is about. Am I wrong? Tell me I'm wrong. In fact, question of the day, what is your opinion, thoughts on this decision on the carbon fiber plates running shoes from World Athletics? What's your opinion on this decision? Let us know down in the comments. I'm excited to read and it's just going to be, anyway, obviously I just gave my opinion. I don't want it to skew your opinion though. Really dig down and think about, hmm, how does this, yeah, what does this do for me as a runner moving forward? Especially, I guess, if you race road marathons, okay? So there you have it, everyone. Thanks for watching. Okay, super psych. I was going to hang up the lights in the studio, but realized I need an extension cord and I don't have time to zip to the store right now and come back and put them up. So we're going to do that tomorrow on the vlog. Come back for that. And one last, I forgot to mention this during the discussion in the studio is that at the end of the day, we just want a good competitive, fair race, okay? So here's a clip from the Dubai Marathon last weekend. Look at these guys coming down the straightaway, all in Nike next percent, okay? So they were all wearing the same shoe, and I don't want everyone to be wearing the same shoe, but as Adidas, as Brooks, as Sockney, as Hoka continues to innovate, these races, they, I know it might take a while, it might take five years, but these races, they are going to become in quotes, a little more even playing field with respect to the running shoes. As you see there, these guys just chugging down the straightaway, all, I just love how it's like, okay, it was an even, even playing field, all in the same shoes. And because of these new parameters from World Athletics, we now have a framework to work within moving forward with carbon fiber plate running shoes. Okay, actually, everyone, the family's almost home from, yeah, they're almost home. And so we are going to call the vlog there. We're going to have a great weekend. Everyone's going to have a great weekend. And I will get you guys some updates in tomorrow's vlog with a lot of other things. So all right, we're going to toss it back on the right to the Ineos 159 Challenge with Ellie Kipchogi, break in two hours, that'll be on the right hand side, that vlog. And then on the left, where I talk about the Kalei versus Kipchogi for the London Marathon 2020. All right, thanks for being here, thanks for watching. Oh, another day, another day, everyone, see beauty, work hard, and love each other. See you tomorrow.