Paula Radcliffe has decided to stop wearing carbon-plate running shoes after suffering an ankle injury during the Tokyo Marathon.
She was wearing Nike's Alphafly 4s, the latest technology, when the growing pain in her ankle meant she couldn’t put her foot down by the finish line.

What happened?

Paula Radcliffe said on her podcast that she thinks the super shoes were just too aggressive for her foot.
She had loved running in super shoes, wearing them at every marathon since the Valencia Marathon in 2019, where she achieved a personal best of 3:27.
But her calves, tendons, or ankles would often seize up after wearing them.

Why it matters for Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe set her sights on one last marathon personal best and trained harder than ever before, wearing carbon shoes more and more for speed sessions, parkruns, and races.
She felt springy and fast, but didn’t stop to think about what they were doing to her feet.
Then her ankle started feeling sore, got worse, and finally went, resulting in a rare bone stress fracture.

What comes next?

Dr Lindsay Hill, a podiatrist and runner from Salford, isn’t surprised by Paula Radcliffe's injury, saying she sees a lot of patients who have changed to carbon-plated shoes and are just doing all their training in them.
The problem is the mechanics of the foot are changed a lot with that type of shoe, making the load in the foot and ankle very repetitive.
Super shoes should be for race day only, even the manufacturers say that, according to Dr Hill.
Paula Radcliffe wondered out loud on Instagram whether her fracture was linked to super shoes, and dozens of people offered up similar stories of injuries.
She will never know for sure if the shoes caused her injury, but since she stepped back into normal running shoes, her ankle has felt pretty much fine again.
Tony Bignell at Nike tells Radcliffe on her podcast that strong feet are essential, and super shoes stop feet from moving around, making them weaker.
He advises walking around barefoot and doing other things to strengthen feet when not running in racing shoes.
Paula Radcliffe is hanging up her carbon shoes, at least until her feet and ankles are a lot stronger.