Shoes of the Marine Corps Marathon
I filmed every runner who passed me at mile 21, the Virginia end of the 14th Street Bridge, then ran the footage through a shoe-ID program I built. Here's what the field wore.
Every shoe, by brand.
Nike led with 25.6% of the shoes I could identify, then ASICS (19.0%) and Adidas (13.7%). Brooks (10.8%), Hoka (9.3%), New Balance (8.4%), Saucony (6.6%) and On (3.3%) filled out the field; every other brand together made up 3.4%.
Share of shoes whose brand was identified with confidence. The helicopter is an AI-generated illustration.
Nike's share fell as the field slowed.
Among the fastest runners I filmed, averaging about 6:43 a mile through mile 21, 42% of identified shoes were Nike. By the back of the field, around 10:20 a mile, it was 18%, and ASICS had taken the lead at 21%. Brooks and Hoka each grew from about 4% to 13%.
Each point is 15 minutes of runners, labelled by their average pace through mile 21.
Super shoes fade.
Carbon-plated racing shoes were almost every model I could name at the front of the field, about 98%, and about half by the back. A stricter count, racing shoes as a share of every brand-identified shoe, falls from 36% to 9%. The truth sits between the two.
Racing shoes are easier to name from video than plain trainers, which is why this is shown as a range.
Average pace by shoe
Every dot is a runner, placed by when they passed me: the fastest at the top. Tap a brand to see where its runners were. The red line is the brand's average pace through mile 21.
Pace = time from the 7:20 a.m. start to mile 21, divided by 21; runners who crossed the start line late were a little faster than shown. Brands identified with confidence only.
The most-worn models.
Of the shoes I could name down to the model, 36.6% were Nike Alphaflys, 13.4% Nike Vaporflys and 10.1% ASICS Metaspeeds, followed by the Adidas Adios Pro (5.2%), Hoka Clifton (4.9%) and Nike Invincible (2.9%). The Metaspeed crowd was the quickest, averaging 8:05 a mile.
Racing shoes are easier to name from video, so they're over-represented among named models.
The Nike Alphafly ruled.
The Alphafly's most common colourways: white with black (13.7% of Alphaflys), yellow with purple (10.1%), white with volt (9.7%) and white with pink (9.7%).
Every tile is a real crop from the race footage.
Every upper, by colour.
54% of uppers were white. Grey came next at 12%, then black at 9%; blue, volt, pink, purple and navy were 3–4% each.
Not everyone wore a super shoe.
Vibram FiveFingers, a Merrell Trail Glove, Xero Shoes, sport sandals, Lacoste, La Sportiva, Diadora, Vans and Skechers all made it to mile 21.
One spot. Every runner.
- I filmed from the roadside at mile 21, the Virginia end of the 14th Street Bridge, from 9:37 to 11:03 a.m. on race day.
- A computer-vision pipeline tracked every runner who crossed the frame and cut close-ups of their feet; a vision model then named each shoe's brand and model, each with its own confidence.
- Only confident identifications count: a brand at 60% or higher, a model at 50% or higher. Runners seen twice were removed. The pipeline looks only at shoes; it stores no faces or bib numbers.
- Shares are of shoes identified with confidence, at one spot on the course, so they describe this stretch of the field rather than every finisher.
- Not affiliated with the Marine Corps Marathon or any shoe brand.
Race results breakdown
• Coming soon
Follow @dcanalyst for more