not quite everything you knew about running is wrong...

Jon Stewart interviewed Christopher McDougall, author of Born To Run, on the Daily Show. The promo promised that "everything you thought you knew about running was wrong."

It was a fairly good interview, and sounds like a good book about the Tarahumaras, but it didn't quite get to the part where "everything I thought I knew about running was wrong." I haven't read Born To Run yet, (there is a great review coming out soon in the Oregon Distance Runner), but the gist of at least part of the book is that these Tarahumaras can run for so far and for so long because they run naturally. In part, they run well not despite the fact that they wear modest sandals, but because they wear modest sandals. And so the bad guys are the giants of the shoe industry who sell these "technologically advanced" running shoes to the dim-witted American masses.

Well, that's partly right. Nike, of course, started the techologically advanced athletic shoe industry, spurred forward by Bill Bowerman's waffle iron. They wanted to design shoes with as much support possible with the least amount of weight - the better the shoe worked, the less of it you would need. Even durability was not important, as Bowerman claimed the perfect shoe would distentegrate just after finishing your race - any more would be too much, and slow you down. So, you look at shoes worn by world-class runners today, and no matter what brand they are, they will all be light, solidly built, very functional shoes designed by athletes for athletes.

The problem is that all these running shoe companies took the new material and new construction methods born in the 1970's and 1980's and started designing them for the masses - athletic shoes for non-athletic people. And that's how you get crap like Air Max. They may be OK for walking around in, but they were not designed for running. So, a large percentage of shoes put out by Nike, adidas, Puma, Saucony, New Balance, Asics, Reeboks, etc, etc, are crap - shoes designed to "correct" a person's running problems - those people who haven't yet learned how to run. The "athletes" are seen as a market, so to sell to non-athletes, (additional markets), they have to dumb-down the shoes in an attempt to get people to run, and that's where runners get achey joints and tendons.

Nike and other shoe companies have known about the Tarahumaras for years, and have designed shoes based on the Tarahumaras, and based on running barefoot or near-barefoot. There's a lot of great shoes out there, and the running shoe companies are making some really great products. But, they're also making crap. It's like car companies that make some really, really great cars, but they also make crappy cars, as well. Why? Because some people might want a cheaper alternative? Crappy shoes usually cost about the same as great shoes, and they certainly cost the same to make. And, wearing bad shoes costs much, much more in the long run.

Running barefoot is good, and I do so once in a while. But, running in good shoes is better than running in bare feet all the time. In any case, I'd rather run barefoot than run in bad shoes.