The plate is an essential to the civilized world. We eat from them, we shape them for construction, utilize them for safety, and in relatively recent years look to them for road racing running performance. The variation has allowed success for startups and established firms that specialize in laminates, plates, and components for footwear. Carbon is a chemical element that is necessary for life as we know it. Many marathoners are big believers in Carbon plates to enhance marathon performance, in fact most marathoners believe that plates enhance performance. This is because the best runners in the world have validated this belief with performances that have rewritten the record books, and that extends to runners of more modest abilities who have bolstered their own PRs in the same fashion.