Very interesting watching the video of us running- look at the differences! My head is bobbing, my knees are still not bent enough, my heel is lifting prematurely, my soles seem to be twisting (even though I don’t get blisters), I’m weaving along at a slightly too slow tempo. But micro-analyzing isn’t the way to go. Just look at Barefoot Ken Bob in the video. Nuff sed.

I “learned” to run with shoes. It’s as if I’d learned to handwrite in the dark: with the light on, I’m looking at what I thought was writing, and I see scribble! But it’s a start towards better listening to my soles.

Enjoy the Born to Run Ultra in Los Olivos!

My guess is that Vince didn’t know much of what we do know now… for example; that you don’t need arch support (he wrapped tape around his arches for support). I have often suspected that arch support, which doesn’t allow the foot to flex naturally, is one of the contributing causes of Plantar Facsiitis (which seems to respond well to flexibility exercises). But, none of these things have been proven “scientifically”, nor can they on a single individual. In a scientific study, we look at statistics, percentages of people affected by a certain factor, and compare with a group of people not exposed to that factor. Even then, the results are nearly never 100% of the people will be affected the same way by any given factor that is being studied.

I would respond to the implication that any single barefoot runner was injured due to a life of barefoot running, with the observation that I know of many runners, and many more former runners who suffer or suffered chronic and sometimes “permanent” injuries and only ran in shoes. More importantly, I know of many barefoot runners who had suffered chronic (and some so-called “permanent”) injuries and pains (some after only a few years) from running in shoes, and are now able to run comfortably because they ditched the shoes and began running barefoot.

If you’re looking for a foolproof way to never be injured, there isn’t one. Only a fool would believe there is. Welcome to the reality of life.

Jeff