One of those who complained of the pain showed me the new pair of shoes that caused it and one thing that immediately stood out was how thick the sole and how stiff the shoe was. I didn’t ask but I was willing to bet anything that it was one of those shoes that attempt to “correct” perceived imperfections of a runner’s feet and deficiencies in his or her form.

FOOT STRIKES. The difference in foot strikes of the same person running barefoot and wearing a shoe. Running barefoot, the person (described as an elite Kenyan runner who grew up running barefoot) has a forefoot strike. When running in shoes, he has a midfoot strike event without changes in positioning. A Harvard University team said "the wedged shape midsole of the shoe affects how the runner's foot contacts the ground." (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

When runners talk, one will inevitably ask another whether he or she is neutral or stability or cushioning. These are, of course, shoe types as defined by manufacturers.

I often get asked that question and I just answer “neutral.” But the truth is, I can’t recall the shoe type recommended for me when I had my feet and gait tested.

I do not know the scientific bases behind segregating runners into different shoe types but I do not believe it. I think the best shoes are those that work with the feet and not try to control it.

When I choose a shoe, my primary consideration is comfort. I want to be able to move my feet, to flex it. I do not believe in those so-called anti-pronation features. “The foot is supposed to pronate,” said Dr. Gerard Hartmann, the physical therapist of such runners as Paula Radcliffe and Haile Gebreselassie.

Shoes with features that “correct” runners’ gait or feet cause injuries, according to the seminal running book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall.

“Wearers of expensive running shoes that are promoted as having additional features that protect (e.g., more cushioning, ‘pronation correction’) are injured significantly more frequently than runners wearing inexpensive shoes (costing less than $40),” the book said, quoting the 1991 report of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

The book said a study by Bernard Mart, a preventative-medicine specialist of University of Bern, found that runners wearing top-of-the-line shoes are 123 percent more likely to get injured than runners in cheap shoes.

Harvard University evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman, meanwhile, led a study that looked into how humans ran without the modern running shoes (which were produced only in the last few decades).

“Many people think modern running shoes are necessary in order to run safely and comfortably, but they were invented only in the 1970s,” said the website on barefoot running set up by Lieberman’s team.

Running flats

“Before then, running shoes were just simple running flats that had little cushioning, no arch support, and no built-up heel. Humans were running for millions of years, apparently safely, in running flats, in thin sandals or moccasins, or in no shoes at all. Our research indicates that they may have been able to do so by forefoot or midfoot striking,” the site said.

The site said barefoot runners often adopt forefoot or midfoot strike gaits and have a softer, gentler landing. This “may reduce their risk of injury.” McDougall himself provides anecdotal evidence in his book. He reports running back and forth on a force plate while alternating between bare feet, superthin shoe and a Nike Pegasus, a well-cushioned running shoe.

“Whenever I changed shoes, the impact levels changed as well—but not the way I’d expected. My impact forces were lightest in bare feet, and heaviest in the Pegs,” he said in the book.

The explanation? McGill University researchers performing tests on gymnasts found that the thicker the landing mat, the harder the gymnasts stuck their landings. In searching for stability, the gymnasts slapped down hard to ensure balance when they sensed a soft surface underfoot.

It’s the same with running, “Born to Run” said. “When you run in cushioned shoes, your feet are pushing through the soles in search of a hard, stable platform.”

High impact

Lieberman’s team, meanwhile, said in their Stanford University website that modern running shoes encourage heel striking, which causes “rapid, high impact transient” about 1.5 to three times your body weight, depending on your weight, upon striking the ground.

The team said “this is equivalent to someone hitting you on the heel with a hammer using 1.5 to as much as 3 times your body weight. These impacts add up, since you strike the ground almost 1,000 times per mile.”

The team found that in forefoot striking, there is “essentially no impact transient.” They found that even on hard surfaces, runners who forefoot strike “have impact forces that are seven times lower than shod runners who heel-strike.”

A caveat: Lieberman is known as the “Barefoot Professor” and his study was funded by Vibram USA, the makers of the minimalist shoe Five Fingers (the ones that look like gloves for your feet).

I don’t know about you, but I choose to trust nature and human evolution over marketing-driven shoe companies. Humans have been endurance runners for more than a million years, Lieberman’s team said.

“Our endurance running abilities may have evolved to enable our ancestor to engage in persistence hunting long before the comparatively recent invention of projectile technologies used for hunting,” the team said.

We exist today because our ancestors ran down prey over long distances and on bare feet.

Renaissance Man Leondardo da Vinci said it best, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Here’s a video clip of The Barefoot Professor:

Badwater is the world’s toughest race. The ultramarathon passes through Highway 190, which might as well be the Highway to Hell. The road gets so hot runners have to stay on the white stripe to prevent their shoes’ soles from melting.

SCOTT JUREK with Tarahumara runner Arnulfo Quimare in a race chronicled in the book "Born to Run." Jurek won the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon despite collapsing on Mile 60. CLICK TO ENLARGE. (FROM THE FLICKR PHOTO PAGE OF WOLF GANG)

On mile 60 in that year’s race, Jurek collapsed, vomiting and shaky, after chasing the early leaders. Yet his wife and his friends, who served as his crew, let him be. They didn’t try to help him get up. “They knew there was no voice in the world more persuasive than the one inside Scott’s own mind,” Christopher McDougall said in Born To Run.

The book then documented Jurek’s internal dialogue:

“There’s no way, Scott told himself. You’re done. You’d have to do something totally sick to win this thing now.

Sick like what?

Like starting all over again. Like pretending you just woke up from a great night’s sleep and the race hasn’t even started yet. You’d have to run that next 80 miles as fast as you’ve ever run 80 miles in your life.”

After 10 minutes of lying on the road “like a corpse,” Jurek got up and won Badwater, setting a new record by finishing in 24 hours and 36 minutes.

The mind, ultra-runner Jonel Mendoza said in his talk to Cebu runners earlier this year, is a powerful thing. If you think it, you can probably do it.

Never mind the heart or the lungs (just yet). These two organs are generally able to immediately adapt to the added stress of running. Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy associate professor Miriam Nelson says your body immediately adapts to the stress and makes your organs and muscles fitter.

When starting out to run, don’t dwell too much on pace or finish times just yet.

Instead, strengthen your mind.

Before even lacing up your shoes, prepare your mind. Tell yourself, “Tomorrow, I will run. I know I will be groggy as I reach for the alarm clock but I will force myself out my bed, change into my running gear, get out the door and run!”
And when you run, push yourself to your mental limits. Will yourself to continue running.

It’s a trick even the top runners resort. Top American long-distance runner Kara Goucher says that she does “a lot of dreaming” when she runs.

“I can’t tell you how many state championships I won in my mind back in high school, how many NCAA titles I won in my fantasies at the University of Colorado, and how many Olympic medals and major marathons I’ve won in my head in the past few years,” she said.

It’s also something the head coach of Team Running USA drills into his athletes.

“Act as if you already are,” Terence Mahon is quoted as saying by the Runner’s World, “This is one of the many mantras that we employ when it comes time to go after a goal that is beyond what has already been accomplished.”

“Breaking new ground physically requires you to first break that mental barrier so that it can come into being.”

Jonel is right. The mind, indeed, is a powerful thing.

The New York Times article “The Human Body Is Built for Distance” says the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall “has reframed the debate about the wisdom of distance running.”

ELITE Kenyan runners lead the pack of the Smart Subic International Marathon 2009. The Kenyan runners look built for the sport with their thin frame and long, lean legs. Scientific studies have shown that humans evolved to become endurance runners. Click on photo to enlarge (PHOTO BY MARLEN LIMPAG)

In the book, Mc Dougall studies Tarahumara Indians, a tribe in Mexico known for running long distances wearing only thin-soled sandals.

Tara Parker Pope writes in her article:

“Mr. McDougall makes the case that running isn’t inherently risky. Instead, he argues that the commercialization of urban marathons encourages overzealous training, while the promotion of high-tech shoes has led to poor running form and a rash of injuries.”

The article said many runners get injured because most people only start running in adulthood. Poor form also causes and exacerbates injuries.

“What’s the solution? Slower, easier training over a long period would most likely help; so would brief walk breaks, which mimic the behavior of the persistence hunter. And running on a variety of surfaces and in simpler shoes with less cushioning can restore natural running form.”

While writing the book, McDougall, who has suffered running injuries, corrected his form and stopped using thickly cushioned shoes. He has been running without injury for three years.