Born to Run finally exposed!

That's a lie. They have massive placebo effect. Every race I put them on, I convince myself I have a magic advantage that no one else does and that my shoes will do all the work for me. Gaslight yourself into PRs. It works.

jjkj

The Tarahumara were always my favorite part of that book. Of course even that seemed exaggerated because if there were this group of poor super-runners living in Mexico, at least some of them would have emerged on the international running stage to lift themselves out of poverty. Was there any truth to that part?

I have painful memories of my Asics Tiger "minimalist" shoes from the 70's that were basically a solid slab of rubber. Constant blisters, Achilles problems, PF, and stone bruises of my heels. Yeah, they were great!

It certainly continues to draw in many many folks who don’t know better as well as some that should know better. Last year when I called my primary care hospital for a running-related injury, the triage nurse asked me several questions about my running, shared with me that she was a runner too, and excitedly asked me if I’d read Born To Run. I knew she was just being nice and friendly, so I just politely told her oh, I just run with regular running shoes.

Some of them would indeed finish in the top five or ten in ultras and I’m pretty sure there was at least one that won one those mountainous ultras. They run in huaraches and their traditional wear and do well and have disproportionate depth of talent relative to their community size, but they don’t dominate the sport like East Africans do distance.

I find it telling that the very first thing Kenyan runners do once they have the means is get a pair of running shoes. Even if they are secondhand and falling apart.

re: "On there being no cheating in ultramarathons (this is the author, not Mcdougal:"

Naive, out of touch and hypocritical: cheating to win gives one fame, and fame can now be monetized via youtube, twitter, insta etc. Sure ultra is a niche market, but winning still helps. Even if you get accused of cheating it will bump hits.

I read Born to Run and enjoyed it. I interpreted it as a novel "based on" a true story, but with the use of artistic license, like in the movies. I never took it to be 100% hard non-fiction, or absolute fact. I'm also not the type that would throw out my shoes, start running barefoot and move to a desert hellscape to run 50 miles daily, because I read it in a book.

That was hilarious.

I just love the word Tarahumara. Sometimes I'll just blurt the word out loud in a Spanish accent because I like how it sounds.

bbc.com

Mexican Tarahumara woman wins 50km race wearing sandals

https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

The 22-year-old is from Mexico's Tarahumara indigenous community, known for being excellent runners.

Open link

Mexican Tarahumara woman wins 50km race wearing sandals.

LOL! Looks like someone aint see no antelope.

Go to Africa - antelopes up to 2000 lbs roam the earth.

One of the funny things about minimalism is that it was extremely popular on Letsrun before Born to Run. Like back in 2004. Do a deep dive on some of the old threads about training in racing flats (there were no "minimalist trainers" back then). A lot of people were running in the Puma H-Street, which was basically Puma's legendary Harambee track spike, only instead of a spike plate it was just smooth rubber. There was a poster who went by "Trackhead," who talked about how to convert XC spikes to road shoes by gluing a Vibram sole on them (Vibram was, and always has been, primarily a company that makes rubber outsoles for other brands).

Obviously the pendulum swung back pretty far, but I think a lot of people today don't realize that minimalism has an enduring legacy in today's training shoes: Shoes today typically have a much lower drop than shoes in the late 90s and early 00s. Hokas (often cited as the "maximalist" opposite of minimalist shoes), actually have way, way lower drop than most training shoes from back then. Also, medial posts for "overpronators" have become far less prevalent. If you went into a running store in 2000, there was a 90% chance that the shoe salesperson was going to say that you pronate and put you in in something with a seriously built-up arch. There are still some shoes like that around, but they've become much more niche.

Personally, I trained mostly in racing flats from around 2005-2009. In my experience, I found that running in minimal shoes seems to reduce the risk of injury to knees and hips, while increasing the risk of injury to the feet and lower legs. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that there is something to the idea of developing good form by running in minimal shoes, but that lots of cushioning is beneficial if you want to pour on the miles, especially running on concrete. (When I was a minimalist, I was obsessive about finding natural surfaces; with more cushioned shoes, I honestly don't care.)

As for the book itself? Even as someone who had basically bought into minimalism, I was constantly rolling my eyes at some of the claims. And the story? I'm sure something like that happened, but I felt like I was listening to a 10-year-old attention seeking kid who just can't help but make stuff up.

I did. It fixed the shin splints I had almost immediately by doing my track workouts barefoot. I did that for a few months and it worked great, but I got a stress fracture 2 days after taking a couple weeks off and then using minimalist shoes. I agree with whoever said McDougal didn't go into the issues that can arise from running barefoot. The first time I went barefoot I believe I was doing 10x400, and I only did 3 or 4 of them barefoot. I had super painful blisters and my calves were so sore the next day that I could hardly walk, but my shins felt great for the first time in a long time.

I still love running barefoot. It feels awesome and automatically gives me better form. It will absolutely tear up your calves and feet unless you're doing a mile on grass or you're running barefoot pretty consistently, but my favorite runs are 5 mile barefoot easy runs. If you want to try it, the advice I wish I had is to start just by doing a mile cooldown on grass or a track, and slowly build up to being able to do more. It could help you if you have injury issues, but it comes with its own risks.

How much weight is applied to the scale so that this thread with its 3-4 posts per hour has been listed as “Super Hot” all day?

"If anything, the opposite might be true: fringe, rebirth-driven sports such as trail running, CrossFit, and obstacle course racing (OCR) pull in a demographic that by nature skews disproportionally toward those possessing less than upstanding scruples.".....now that's a claim!'

Am I missing something? Born to Run was written WAY before super shoes. How can he advocate against something that had not been invented yet? I am aware of the minimalist focus, which was popular at the time the book was written, but true "super shoes" weren't a thing.