. . .Luna trail running sandals . . . i whch I wear around the house and go shopping in. 

Murray - while I was trail running in Japanese waraji straw sandals, another local barefooter who was wearing Tarahumara huaraches he got on an adventure down there with Scott Jurek, Born-to-Run author Chris McDougall, et al liked my Vibram sole Merrell Bahria trail thongs for really nasty trail runs and ended up with the added heel strap the Luna have. All are zero drop just like running barefoot except you can do it in comfort on rocky trails. etc.

However, all the Luna's I've ever seen/heard of have even stiffer soles than most Vibrams so wouldn't seem so great for walking around the house, etc. except anything other than putting on when trails get too rocky. Unless I know the trail's real barefoot friendly, I usually have my Merrells or something stuck in my pockets or fanny pack.

ps Mike - you'll do great in your upcoming marathon. I just hope that you don't have any mile six issues again, though. When was your last, most recent marathon?

6.2 Galloway fartlek miles; 5:30 pace here, walking there, etc. A bit over 50:00. It's near 80 degrees here, so it was nice to soak up the sun a bit.

Given that we humans scampered around barefoot for a looooooong time before someone 'engineered' a running shoe, I tend to trust biology over technology. Slowly worked up to 5K barefoot about a decade ago, but didn't keep it up.

 

 

That's been my argument for/against shoes; did millions of years of evolution/one finger-snap of God create feet so wrong that we NEED customized footwear just to run?  The advantages of having shoes is protection from cuts and abrasion, and the ability to deflect the influence of rocks and sticks (and thorns) so you can just run without looking at every single foot placement. Next comes cushion to reduce impact velocity (not total impact, which oddly is cumulatively higher in max cushion shoes) to save muscle strength, and then guidance of foot impact (if needed) to help prevent overuse injuries.  All common sense says "barefoot" running in minimalist shoes would be "best", yet for performance, barefoot runners rarely reach top levels (nods to Budd, Herb Eliot, Abebe Bikila). Midpackers and people who just like to run and don't care about times, barefoot ambling may indeed result in fewer injuries, but would running 20-50% slower in regular running shoes also result in fewer injuries? Altra's concept is to mimic the bare foot, but provide protection and cushioning. That makes sense in a lot of ways, and works great for many people. Others have reported increased injuries, but I suspect some of that may be instant switching to those shoes and not working them into the rotation over the course of a month or two until they are the main mileage shoe.

There is no one best way to run or one best shoe type to eliminate injuries, sometimes exact opposite strategies result in "cures". I read a lot about PF, too, and there are anecdotes from people who found "the cure" to be barefoot running, others with max cushioning. For achilles issues, the same story of opposites, and also of high drop fixing it, or zero drop. Same thing for heel strike or midfoot strike. People are wildly different in what works for THEM, and it takes a lot of trial and error after "research" and talking about it on forums like this. If the vast majority of people suffering from something all had the same foot strike/shoe/drop change eliminate their ailment, it would be easy and we wouldn't be talking about it, it would be an unquestionable solution. But because so many different things are attributed to helping, it's impossible to find a one-size-fits-all solution.

I just remembered that I'm not someone to emulate regarding footstrike or shoes. I had a birth defect where my lower leg bones were twisted so my feet pointed sideways, and I was in those tres chic Forest Gump braces until I was 3-4. My feet still point 20-30 degrees sideways when I stand or walk, and about half that when running. I land on my lateral heel and toe-off from my big toe, faster paces and I'm landing more midfoot. So my wear patterns on shoes are NOT normal, and what works for me may not work for most. I do take some comfort that Kipchoge appears to also have the same splayed feet when running!

There are many reasons to run.

I'm not running to stand on a podium, but to experience moving through the landscape as a runner and tap into the unique physiology humans are lucky to have. Have a hunch that wearing sandals will make that experience more profound.

There are many reasons to run.

 

I'm not running to stand on a podium, but to experience moving through the landscape as a runner and tap into the unique physiology humans are lucky to have. Have a hunch that wearing sandals will make that experience more profound.

Murray - yup. As a fitness-and-fun runner just seeing if being in excellent shape from intense winter ski racing was good enough to run 26.2 miles without stopping and without that much, if any, training (yup, it was), it's worked for me for 45 yeas, especially since barefooting and in a variety of sandal wear from here and Japan to make it more interesting since 1990.

When running fast for AG's and PR's are not motivating factors, comfort and fun, to say nothing of being cheap, are the most important priorities in choosing footwear.

ps Steve - a favorite picture of ours too is DS in full Noah determination expression too rounding the small oval track in a kindergarten class race