Posts Tagged ‘barefoot running’

An Emerging Trend

Bad news for gecko shoe aficionados – it appears an unholy alliance has been created between regular running shoe folks and the barefoot crowd to slam your choice of footwear.

Both of these groups are starting to agree that minimalist shoes are some sort of half-assed attempt at barefootery without the balls to go all the way. (Notice how I included three body parts in one sentence there? Would you believe I never spent a day in journalism school?)

Bruce Wallace of the Boone County Journal is the latest to go off on those barefoot fellow travelers. He writes:

“If you want to run barefoot, run barefoot,” I said over dinner. “I ran around barefoot as a kid – never seemed to be a big deal. Why should I pay $75 bucks for a shoe that tries to tell me I’m barefoot, but I’m not?”

I’ll bet they drink lite beer, too.

Inigo Montoya on Barefoot Running

I’ve addressed this issue before, but there still seems to be some confusion about what “barefoot” means. Yesterday, Jeff Strickler of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote a column headlined “Definition of barefoot running varies.” It begins, “Many barefoot runners don’t actually run with bare feet.”

I don’t really want to be a stickler with Strickler or with anyone else struggling to describe what they wear on their feet when they run. But barefoot means bare feet. Using the term incorrectly or inappropriately doesn’t change its definition. At Running Is Funny, we defer to Inigo Montoya on proper usage – “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

No Running Bare in Boulder, Foot or Otherwise

Boulder, Colorado, has already demonstrated its serious commitment to keep runners from displaying body parts while on the road. But Born to Run author Christopher McDougall thought he was on safe ground when he organized a barefoot group trail run to promote his book. It turned out he didn’t have a special use permit for the size of the group, and he was ticketed by Boulder police.

Doesn’t Barefoot Mean No Shoes?

I’m a little confused by this review in Wired of Vibram’s new Bikila shoes. It begins:

FiveFinger shoes made by Vibram, the poster children of the barefoot-running movement, are as close as you can get to running in your bare feet without having to worry about hookworms and broken glass.

One of the company’s newest offerings, the Bikila LS, is designed specifically for the barefoot runner. Named after Abebe Bikila, who ran barefoot and took the gold medal in the marathon in the 1960 Olympics, the Bikila LS sports a few features added specifically for distance runners.

The outsole is beefed up with extra padding on high-impact areas like the heel and forefoot to soften the impact of running on concrete, and Vibram has added cushioning in the cuff and the shoe’s topline to reduce irritation and pressure on longer runs.

I realize the term “minimalist” may not have reached wide usage yet, but there’s something jarring about saying a shoe “is designed specifically for the barefoot runner.” Particularly if it has a “beefed up” outsole with extra padding and added cushioning. To me, that sounds like a shoe.

Perhaps it’s appropriately named after Abebe Bikila, who won the 1960 Olympic marathon in his bare feet. But Bikila went on to win the 1964 Olympic marathon in a pair of Pumas, bettering his record by three minutes.

The Tarahumara Diet Is Tough to Swallow

Ever since the publication of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, a barefoot and minimalist running trend is sweeping America, based on the author’s examination of the Tarahumara people of Mexico. In case you’ve been vacationing in Antarctica for the last couple of years, the Tarahumara are phenomenal long distance runners. It’s only natural that pioneering souls would seek to emulate them, hence the shift in footwear choices and, increasingly, diet.

McDougall raves about the Tarahumara drink they call iskiate, or, as McDougall  names it, “10,000-year-old Red Bull.” It’s made from chia seeds - yep, the same stuff you use to make your Chia Obama. It’s said to provide high energy, though I suspect there’s a significant placebo effect.

This being America, quite a few people are turning the Tarahumara diet into a business opportunity, such as Fuel Your Run the Tarahumara Way, which offers “15 pinole and chia recipes for the modern athlete.” The author tells us the recipes are “made from real ingredients, so you’ll know exactly what you’re putting in your body—no mystery sugars here.”

Cross-cultural contact greatly enriches the American diet, so if you like pinoles and chia seeds, I say go for it. But it should be noted that the influences go both ways, and the Tarahumara are making some interesting dietary choices of their own.

National Geographic also spent time with them, and its recital of Tarahumara nutrition varies quite a bit from the exotic:

“They also eat a lot of Maruchan, the Japanese instant noodles that come in plastic-foam tubs. Foil-wrapped potato chips, too, and plastic liters of Coca-Cola, and Tecate beer in pop-top cans…”

The article suggests the Tarahumara are beginning to lose their running endurance, simply because they now have navigable roads. Even worse, the men have taken to wearing “pointy-toed boots in leather dyed to match their belts” and women are wearing – what else? – athletic shoes. “I’m not putting on huaraches,” one said. “I get too many stones under my feet.”

McDougall’s best-selling book brought new attention to the Tarahumara, which led to increased Western tourism to their region of northern Mexico. It would be a bizarre twist if Born to Run indirectly caused a running shoe boom among the Tarahumara.

At Least One Reason Not to Run Barefoot

Snakes.

Barefoot or Barefaced?

Back in August 2009, Tellman Knudson sent out a press release announcing he would run barefoot from New York to Los Angeles to raise $100 million for homeless youth.

Today, a Vermont newspaper reports Knudson spent four months and $500,000 in road expenses to reach West Virginia, then returned to his Vermont home to “regroup.” Now he has to explain to the Internal Revenue Service how he’s collecting donations without being registered as a non-profit organization.

If Knudson’s charity seems a bit hinky, so does his Internet marketing business OvercomeEverything.com. The Rutland Herald lists some of Knudson’s consumer problems here.

Turns out his running mileage didn’t stand up to scrutiny either.

Off camera, however, Knudson wasn’t running his promised 26 miles a day. He didn’t hit that goal until Oct. 25, his Web site reports, then dropped to seven miles on Oct. 26, three miles on Oct. 27 and no miles on Oct. 28, when he took one of several multiday breaks because of problematic weather or persistent foot injuries.

Maybe this is all a misunderstanding and bad luck. Maybe Knudson really is a caring philanthropist. But I would suggest that if you want to give money to support homeless youth, donate to the organizations that provide them with direct services. And do your research, regardless.