with or without running shoes?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/30shoe.html
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
I just went and read the article. Kudos to the reporter. He asked the New Balance engineering manager for some independent evidence that his shoes might do any good and the response was pathetic! A 2006 study by three doctoral students that did not even address injury rates. Add to this I have no idea where in academic pecking order the journal Gait and Posture lies (pretty low I bet) and the conclusion is this basically proves there is no evidence.
Just to be clear, there does not appear to be any evidence against shoes helping either! No evidence, is just that, no evidence. Pretty sad. All this could be fixed, to the benefit of millions of runners, with a relatively inexpensive study funded by the NSF. Given the billions spent or things that benefit nearly nobody this seems like a good way to use some instead.
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thanks jay and lynne for linking the Sunday NYT article on "Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants."
Posters over at our runningbarefoot.org discussion group especially like the insinuation that barefoot runners must have some sort of "biomechanically perfect" feet so don't need the shoes.
“In 95 percent of the population or higher, running barefoot will land you in my office,” said Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, medical director for the New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the New York City Marathon. “A very small number of people are biomechanically perfect,” he said, so most need some sort of supportive or corrective footwear.
However, a large number of the runningbarefooters have such imperfect feet, PF, etc. that, after thousands of dollars of orthotics, prognoses never to run again, etc., they'd given up on running gave up on running altogether (for up to five years in one case) and only found out they could run again when trying running barefoot as a last ditch test case.
There's also a funny parody from Runner's World on the article
Barefoot Running: An Opposing View
Why do you suppose barefoot running has taken off like it has? I have no earthly idea. I just don't get it. I mean, the human foot is a wonderful thing, but it's fundamentally inferior to a quality running shoe. Does the human foot have PolyGraf UnderG.I.R.D.® support panels? Not last time I checked, it didn't.
Are you saying that running shoe technologists are smarter than God? I'm saying that God may have created a lot of cool stuff, but He never came up with a Grip-Lok TETHER Clamp® system for a more stable ride.
http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2009/08/running-barefoot-an-opposing-viewpoint.html
Runners World has not totally discounted running barefoot and has even recommended it for training for shod races.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-240-319--6728-0,00.html (August 2004)
in fact, our runningbarefoot.org guru barefoot kenbob was recently interviewed for another pending barefoot article too.
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dear ilene,
that's 'cause you're always lookin' at the men's feet or something.
your friend,
Zola.
ps - someone who missed the planned RnR barefoot still wants to do it on the beach sometime.
Hola Zola!
Come down and run on the beach here!
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
Carolyn
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