Allison's Big Toe

I’m Famous!? Well, Noticed.

Every week, the guys behind the “Geeks in Running Shoes” podcast use the Twitter search function to find a running topic of interest.  Then they follow one Twitter user based on the search. This week, it was me!

Here’s how it happened.  One of my work friends mentioned that there was a “natural running” store opening in town, with it’s grand opening on Saturday.  My husband and I decided to check it out, and found out that it’s called DHP Natural Running, which I guess is a chain. I was not wearing my Vibram FiveFingers, but we sauntered in, just with the intention of saying hi and chatting a little with the employees about barefoot/natural running. We approached the three employees standing around and I congratulated them on opening their store. I mentioned that I recently completed a half marathon in VFFs, and instead of asking how it went, one of the ladies got a little skeptical and quickly let me over to their display of VivoBarefoot Evos.  She started giving me a really strong sales pitch, about how the Evos were “made for running” unlike the FiveFingers, which are really “boat shoes”.  I felt the shoes in my hand and indeed, they were flexible, but still much too thick a sole for my liking.  She started talking about the puncture resistant rubber, etc. etc. and when my husband asked if she had ever tried FiveFingers, she wrinkled her nose and sniffed, “Oh, no. I can’t imagine wearing something between my toes. I don’t even like those toe socks.”  I knew then that any sort of friendly (or informative) conversation was impossible with this woman, so we just left.

The next day, I tweeted: “Employee lady at the natural running store was rude to me yesterday: “VFFs? Those are boat shoes *smirks*” She had never even worn them.”

When the Geeks in Running Shoes guys did their podcast twitter search, it was suggested by their guests Coaches Jeff and Diane from PRS-Fit to search for “natural running” (I think they are proponents of a running form of the same name).  Lo and behold, my tweet came up, because it inlcuded that phrase. You can download the podcast on iTunes, or listen to it here. They mention AllisonsBigToe in the last 10 min. or so.

The hosts read my Twitter bio on the air: “Barefoot running as much as possible, perfecting my ChiRunning form, and working everyday to find the true meaning of health and happiness” and then their guest Coach Jeff commented about how he thinks ChiRunning and Danny Dreyer (creator) got a lot right, but that it’s not really a “performance based” form/program, which really rubbed me the wrong way.  ChiRunning is definitely about performance! It’s all about having a form that will sustain a person through hours and hours of running without injury or fatigue. 

Also, Coach Jeff did a good job discussing how VFFs encourage a runner to run on the forefoot, not the heel, but another thing that bothered me was that he then heavily discouraged running in VFFs on “pavement or other hard surfaces”, I’m assuming because he thought it would be too rough on the body.  I ran my whole half marathon on pavement, and didn’t have any biomechanical strain or problems, because I was carefully following the ChiRunning form.

In fact, Christopher McDougall actually mentioned in a video interview in the New York Times (at about minute 1:35) that smooth, man-made surfaces like pavement are “like cream [for a barefoot runner]…smooth and contoured”. One-two inches of padding in a running shoe is not going to protect a runner from over one hundred pounds of downforce on impact, whether s/he is landing on dirt or on pavement. Proper form must be followed with or without shoes, but barefoot and/or FiveFingers allow a runner to build up the foot strength that is needed to maintain this form.

All that said, I’m glad the podcast opened up these topics for discussion. It seems there is still a lot of work to be done in informing the mainstream about the benefits of running without traditional built-up motion control sneakers.

What do you think?