Barefoot Running: the Best Way to Run?

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Tim Powell Ms. Louise Simmons ENG 111-FJT28 April 12, 2012 Barefoot Running: The Best Way to Run? Most people, when they think about running, would typically lace on the old running shoes and head out the door to tackle a few miles. This is the vision we most often associate with running, especially when it comes to our feet. They are comfortably nestled in a pair of shoes specifically designed and manufactured for the purpose of protecting our feet from the pavement, the trail, the treadmill, the elements, and anything else we subject them to in our pursuit of logging some miles. Within the last few decades or so, a new movement has taken root in the running world: barefoot running. Amongst the hordes of runners embracing “the latest stabilized, cushioned and customized shoe technology, barefooters have been quiet contenders in the running world for many years.” (Saremi, “Barefoot Running”). The trend was already in existence long before Christopher McDougall brought it into the public mind with his best-selling book, Born to Run (Knopf, 2009). The author writes about a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumaras who are distance runners covering several miles a day with either barely shod feet or nothing at all on them. Are they some of the best runners in the world today? Maybe, if the criteria to judge such a status are by what is on their feet. They can be said to be among the best “long distance runners” in the world, but best runners as far as style and technique are concerned? No, they fall short in that area. According to some runners, barefoot running is just a fad. In the running community, Dr. Daniel Lieberman, PhD, is known as the “Barefoot Running Professor”. His favorite motto when speaking about his favorite topic is, “If you think barefoot running is a fad, then it’s a two-million-year-old fad.” (Nearman, 2011). Dr. Lieberman is a

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