Shoes, running and the marathon

Running has become all the rage. I went from playing basketball to trail running and long distance hiking it less than six years, all in my 40s. Shoes were my first major purchase and the most complicated by far. In just this short time span I’ve watched the trends go from minimalist to maximalist, from Born to Run barefoot, to plush, cushy clown shoes like the Altra Paradigm I wore in my last marathon. To top the scale of trendiness my toes were dressed in injinji socks. For the tall and heavy going for long distances a large toe box and good cushioning is a godsend. I am a firm believer in using the right tool, shoe, for the right job, activity, and that nothing in nature comes in binary, black-white, right-wrong. This is not to say that all is good and nothing is wrong, to the contrary, fads are totally wrong and sponsored athletes acting as high priests for one type of product are more disgusting than just wrong. No shoe will make or break your run, protect you from injury or be the silver bullet for anything. We all comes in very different shapes and sizes and the shoe that is ideal for a 60kg elite professional, running sub-3 minute kilometers for 42.2km is not my ideal shoe. I am a middle-aged, tall and heavy guy that just wants to have fun, avoid getting hurt and will be happy with 5 minute plus per kilometer for a marathon. Hence, a racing flat shoe with minimal cushioning that is made for performance might not be what works best, maybe no-one knows what is yet but I’ll just take the educated guess and say that compared to the elites, I must be on opposite end of the spectrum.

For a serious discussion, read http://sportsscientists.com/2008/04/running-technique-the-footstrike/