Title: Everything You Need To Know About Spikes | Runner's World
Headings: Everything You Need To Know About Spikes
Everything You Need To Know About Spikes
Learn how to find the spikes that are right for your needs

Content: A spiked shoe may have a significant heel, no heel at all, permanent pins, or replaceable pins. Some even have holes to allow water-or as the steeplechasers for whom they're made like to joke, the blood-to run out. With so many choices, even world-class athletes admit to being flustered by the array of options. Two-time Olympian Marla Runyan recalls once heading to the track with eight different pairs of shoes, and running her warm-up strides in each pair to test them out. " I am very picky about my racing spikes," she says. The Right Spikes For You
Greg Weich, track and cross-country coach at girls' state champion Smoky Hill High School in the Denver area, says athletes should first decide on the purpose of their spikes: for sprinting, distance running or field events. Sprint spikes are designed to put an athlete on his or her toes and, to save weight, have little or no heel. The spike plate (the forefoot platform into which pins are mounted) of a sprint shoe also has the maximum number of pins to provide as much traction as possible. By comparison, track distance shoes have a relatively substantial heel, in some cases with the same lightweight cushioning material found in training shoes, to accommodate the more flat-footed landing of a distance runner.