THE WINNER OF the 1980 Boston marathon, Jacqueline Gareau once said of muscle fatigue: “the body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop”.
Former world champion marathoner Rob De Castella also noted:
“If you feel bad at 10 miles, you’re in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you’re normal. If you don’t feel bad at 26 miles, you’re abnormal.”
The stress of running definitely causes pain for runners after enough time, but this is not always the body saying that it doesn’t want to run as Gareau said.
Ten years ago, American journalist Christopher McDougall released his bestselling book Born to Run, which argued, as it says on the tin, that humans are actually very much designed for long-distance running.
Why then, are the injury stats for runners so high, from casual joggers to marathoners, if running is what we were born to do?
McDougall’s book made a case that footwear was a major contributor to running injuries, and that by moving to barefoot or minimalist footwear, that the foot could reach its most natural form and help prevent common running injuries such as runner’s knee and plantar fasciitis – a common heel problem.
Cue the running community starting a barefoot craze in search of a quick fix to injury problems.
Unfortunately, many runners found that it wasn’t the quick fix that they’d hoped for, as the sudden change in footwear contributed to injuries in different areas of the foot or legs.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Christopher McDougall’s book was incorrect, however. So what are the facts? Are runners better off with running shoes or without?
To find out, we spoke to Dr Joe Warne, of TU Dublin, who has done extensive research into the benefits of barefoot running and minimalist footwear to see what can be gained by the casual runner to help avoid injuries.
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To be fair, there are a lot of runs on at the moment so id imagine its of interest to some people. The wonderful thing about choice is, everyone has one. You don’t have to read the article
Reply to Conor Glancy. Not sure why it posted as a new comment
Ask South African Zola Bud who made it to the olympics running barefoot
@goliathof1: do you have their contact details?
@goliathof1: yes, but she lost to people wearing shoes. Odd that.
@Darius Guppy: often runners who wear shoes train barefoot. Then Nike or Adidas or one of the big shoe companies show up and design “barely there” footwear for them and pay them a tonne of money. Joe and Josephine Public watching from their armchair saw “oh there is runner X winning competition Y wearing brand Z. I must buy myself some brand Z runners to be like runner X.”
@Darius Guppy: Mary Decker tried to trip her up, if this didn’t happen Zola Budd probably would have won the race… barefoot ..
@Eleanor Ni Chaomhanach: Im not sure Decker would tell it like that….
Slow news day
See lots of folk out running on the roads, storing up trouble for themselves with hips and knees.
Safest to run on grass only.
@Josh Hanners: show us some evidence that running on roads causes knee and hip joint issues…there is none
@Josh Hanners: but if running on grass will they not keep stopping at shops to get munchies therefore negating the goal of fitness?
@Eóin Ó Briain: Knee, hip, ankle and foot injuries are prevalent in runners’ legs. One of the worst is plantar fasciitis in people with high arches, which can take many years to overcome. Knee and hip injuries are also common in people who frequently go on long walks on hard surfaces.
https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/running-injuries-causes-prevention-treatment#1
Not listed are much more common varicose veins which can lead to blood clots in the legs and the danger of thrombosis. People who spend a long time working on their feet on hard floors (concrete or tiled but not timber) are also prone to varicose veins.
@Canny Jem: WebMD is hardly a valid source of scientific evidence. The thing is all sports have their own risks of injury, that’s just the way life is. Appropriate strength training and a graded approach to running will negate a lot of those injuries. What you fail to mention is that running has huge cardiovascular benefits and if someone enjoys it, they can reap a whole host of health benefits. It’s fear mongering cr*p like the stuff you’ve posted that makes people petrified to move.
@Roy Hartigan: WebMD is just one of a number of sites you can search on the topic. I picked that one in response to Eoin ‘cos it gives a simple list of common running injuries.
I’ve been a sportsman all my life – gaa football, hurling, handball, soccer, cycling, squash, golf, mid-distance running (10-12k) and weekly 2-hr walks – and suffered a range of injuries, so I know what I’m talking about. An old knee injury has flared up such that I’ve had to give up all except short walks and been recommended knee replacement. I loved sports and wouldn’t change any of that.
A young fit man I know who worked as a waiter had to give up running, gaa and rugby due to plantar fasciitis, which 12 years on still plagues him. He’s now a driver, less often on his feet.
I’m not scaremongering or discouraging sports but it is absolutely essential to take precautions, wear the correct work and sports shoes that support your feet and legs and have enough cushioning to stop collapse of high arches and avoid varicose veins.
@Roy Hartigan: I swim twice a week for years. Yet to suffer an injury and unless I dive in at the shallow end I’m hoping it stays that way. Anyone I know who runs spends half their life injured. I know runners who have had hips replaced in their forties. There is runners face as well to contend with. The skeletal face look certainly doesn’t suit everyone. In contrast regular swimmers always have amazing physiques and manage to look the picture of health whereas runners tend to look wiry, gaunt and skeletal.
@Sean: Agreed… Swimming is the only sport where you exercise every muscle in your body and develop good all-round physique. I used to swim a lot as a youngster but other sports took over my time.
Unfortunately, maintenance of heated swimming pools is costly and generally not economically sustainable on a nationwide basis.
@Canny Jem: find me an article that actually provides evidence that running leads to joint deterioration.There is none,plenty of evidence to the contrary.That article you provided gives examples of injuries caused by poor loading of muscle tissue nothing got to do with joint issues and can be generally be avoided by training correctly. It even mentioned blisters which is laughable. Varicose veins caused by running…face palm!
@Eóin Ó Briain: I don’t have to “find” you an article with the evidence, Lazy Eóin… you can research it yourself online or ask your GP.
When, in my early sports days (my 20s), I got the knee injury that restricted all my later sporting activities, my local GP warned me that I would suffer later in life because of it. I didn’t believe him – but he was right… He knew this because one of his friends, who played international soccer for Rep of Ireland, one Terry Conroy, was, even then in his mid-30s, using crutches or walking sticks as a result of injuries from his intensive running as a winger in his football days after all his English FA club and international football days.
When I brought a friend to Blackrock Clinic for unfruitful treatment of his plantar fasciitis, I wasn’t that astonished to see a once-very-famous hard-man Irish rugby international player sheepishly sitting in the waiting room, obviously looking for some healing for his old running sporting injuries.
I never discourage people from running; I always encourage it in my sons and grandchildren, a great healthy, natural activity, if done under proper training and wearing proper supporting sports footwear for competitive or leisure purposes.
fancy dan trainers or barefeet wont stop you from breaking your ankle in a pot hole !
I’ll stick to my asics, thanks all the same
I guess its ok as every dog walker is highly responsible and there is no poop for runners to squelch on
I run a little bit – by no means a “runner” but I don’t think you have to be bare feet to not heel-strike. I don’t heel-strike when I jog or run in runners. I only heel-strike when walking.
Ultimately, I think barefoot only makes sense on softer surfaces. Think of the glass, stones, etc., on footpaths and roads.
Abebe Bekila won the marathon in the Olympics a number of years ago running barefoot.
@Canny Jem: of “negros”? Are you serious? There arent distinct breeds of people you know, we are all just a blend of humans.
People from different areas have evolved different traits based on their environment no doubt but that would be regional (like you mentioned with etophia). Skin colour does not have a link with the hip joint or heel.
@john doe: A good point, thank you, one which acknowledges differences between certain runners and people of different biological races… (I’m disappointed to see my original comment has since been unnecessarily deleted; there were just simple scientific facts).
A scientific study many years ago looked at why Afro athletes do better than Caucasian ones, reported in some detail in a TV sports documentary I once saw – I remember it well because I, as a sportsman, was so fascinated with what it showed.
It showed the differences in skeletal bone structure and bone socket fluidity in the hips, knees, feet and shoulders between the two (incidentally comparing them with Asians, who were generally lesser sportingly accomplishing and – for illustrative purposes – with the movements of the greater apes, our barefooted close-DNA cousins). It also highlighted high-mountainous region athletes’ athletic and breathing differences.
I don’t have a link to that scientific study of long ago but I did a quick online search and found this link (amongst others) that corroborates the study’s evidence as I remember it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_sports
In contrast, one might ask why athletes of sub-continental India or mainland Africa rarely excel in some sports like running (though some do). Africans don’t excel at golf or cricket (both sedentary sports), while Indian sub continentals excel at cricket, yet excel at fast squash, badminton and table tennis sports (e.g. Pakistan and Asia).
If you want to notice the difference between Afro and Caucasian heel bone structure, the next time you walk behind an Afro person, look closely at the back of the western shoes they might be wearing… there’s always a gap between the back of the top part of the shoe heel and their rear ankle ligaments compared to Caucasians (who don’t have that gap), because of their longer, pushed-back, heel bone structure that is admirably suited to natural running.
@Canny Jem: I checked back on my original comment since deleted and have edited it somewhat to remove what the moderators might have seen as “toxic”…
“It is known that African sportspeople often ran to school barefooted whose feet became hardened and so became accustomed to that.
Additionally, African athletes’ hip joints are slightly different from Caucasians such that there is more looseness and fluidity that enables them to move quicker comfortably. Also, the heel bones of Africans are slightly more prominent to the back and easier to run on.
Those who come from mountainous countries such as Ethiopia (and Mexico City), where the air is more rarefied, have a naturally-developed breathing ability that allows them advantages. That’s why the best sprinters and long-distance runners are of African origin”.
@Canny Jem: A little intelligence can be a terrible thing
@Gaseous Vertebrate: Yep, agreed! Some Journo commenters are too ignorantly big for their britches.
watch out for the cig buts@$$@#
Dog poo, stones and broken glass would take the joy out of barefoot running!