Can't help but think that the wins and records done barefoot and without refreshments in the 1960s are still a bit more about the runner than running with essentially spring loaded shoes, lab-optimized nutrition gels, computer optimized pacing strategies and multisensor real-time measurement devices.

It's also somewhat ironic for a race supposedly modeling a messenger running the distance in an emergency situation.

For sure but most of that innovation pre-super shoes was optimizing the runner, not the shoes

Of course it's also about the runner, that's why the Kenyan models dominate with their biological innovation.