At last week's Lisbon Half Marathon, Ethiopian athlete Tsigie Gebreselama ran into a small pre-race problem! She was wearing the second-generation On Cloudboom Strike LS (the shoe has not yet been officially released but has already been authorized by World Athletics), and like the previous model it has no laces — one of the shoe's defining features. The problem was that without laces there was nowhere to secure the timing chip to the shoe. Her team and the Lisbon Half Marathon organizers had to race against time, working until midnight. Although there are many ways to attach a chip, they needed to find the most comfortable solution to ensure the athlete's race would not be affected. In the end the answer was very simple: a needle and thread — they sewed the timing chip onto her sock. German athlete Samuel Fitwi, who faced a similar issue, also used needle and thread, but he placed the timing chip inside his sock. Fortunately the small commotion didn't affect either athlete's performance: Tsigie Gebreselama won the Lisbon Half Marathon in 1:04:48, the second-fastest time in the event's history; Samuel Fitwi improved his half marathon PB to 1:01:13. If Tie Dan ever can't find somewhere to put a timing chip next time, be sure to forward this article to him~ #RunningShoeInnovation#BehindTheScenesOfRaces#RunningShoes#TrailRunningBoom