Runner goes barefoot for awareness, beliefs....
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
crazyfrog
Kermitologist
|
|
|
Joined: 31 May 2003
Posts: 7610
Location: atlanta
|
| Back to top
|
|
 Posted: 11/25/04 - 12:02 Post subject: Runner goes barefoot for awareness, beliefs....
the crazy lady who works in my lab is a personal friend of this guy.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/1104/25barefoot.html
| Quote: | The soles of Bob Dalton's feet look unprepared for his Thanksgiving morning task. They are leathery, pinkish-brown, tough and soft like an old purse. Not even a hangnail.
They don't look ready to pound 13.1 miles along Peachtree Road in the Atlanta Half-Marathon.
Without shoes.
Is this guy crazy? That's what race officials worry about. "This is stupid," said Atlanta Track Club executive director Julia Emmons. "The medical team will be prepared."
Dalton, though, says his plans are perfectly natural and he hopes to give others more to think about on this day of plenty.
The soft-spoken 56-year-old from Kennesaw has run barefoot for 12 years, though never in a road race. In that time, he's formed a philosophy about feet, health and those who are needy.
A former manager of a Phidippides shoe store, Dalton knows that many of the 8,500 runners in the Atlanta Marathon and Half-Marathon will wear shoes made by Asians paid a fraction of what Americans would earn for the same work. Pockets of poverty exist much closer -- in southeast Atlanta, not far from the finish line at Turner Field.
"When we all sit down and have a blessing over a huge Thanksgiving dinner, the people making these shoes and some people in Atlanta never in their lives have a meal we take for granted," he said.
A chiropractor, Dalton believes health depends on feeling the earth. Shoes dull the feet's nerves that help communicate balance, pain and other sensations to the rest of the body. That's why Dalton started running on grass soccer fields in 1992.
His haiku on his race T-shirt sums this up:
Slow down touch the earth
You will feel a true blessing
True security
His wife, Lydia, worried about glass, nails and germs on the street, but Dalton suffered no ill effects from a recent 12-mile training run around Town Center mall. His size 11 feet have no calluses, blisters or black toenails. He regards his soles as human Teflon, flicking off specks of glass, pebbles and debris as he runs.
"I'll be careful," he said. "But it feels so good."
When a 173-pound man like Dalton runs, each step registers a load three times that (519 pounds), estimated race medical director Perry Julien, a podiatrist. Beyond cushioning, shoes protect the feet from road hazards.
"Any overuse injuries we treat, you could potentially have running this race barefoot," he said. "There are better ways for him to let his message be known than try to harm himself."
Dalton had no qualms signing the medical release required to run today. He did that many times when he raced in shoes. He won the first triathlon in the Southeast in the early 1980s, and was fast enough to kept a 6-minute pace to win a 10-mile race.
The recent election inspired him to take his unshod step back into racing. He sees a country deeply divided where people should be standing up -- or running barefoot for -- what's important to them. He is trying to follow in the footsteps of leaders of grass-roots movements, such as civil rights.
"They were considered nuts, and they weren't after personal security," he said. "To make a change, you've got to take a step out there. This is my gesture."
Dalton doesn't intend to rival such notable barefoot Olympic runners as Abebe Bikila and Zola Budd. He expects the race to take 2 1/2 hours, more than 11 minutes a mile.
He'd be faster in shoes, but speed is not the point. Slowing down and thinking is. |
|
|
|
|
|
MechEngDropout
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Posts: 10474
Location: Off the grid
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/25/04 - 12:06 Post subject:
Just don't whine when someone steps on your foot.
|
|
|
|
|
Cappy
Excelent
|
|
|
Joined: 16 May 2002
Posts: 27368
Location: Spreadsheetylvania
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/25/04 - 12:07 Post subject:
To each is own I guess
|
|
|
|
|
elkid
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Nov 2002
Posts: 8353
Location: hiding out in Philly
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/26/04 - 10:09 Post subject:
Idiot.
|
|
|
|
|
gretriever
Hipster Doofus
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jul 2003
Posts: 19385
Location: A moving target in a firing range.
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/26/04 - 10:31 Post subject: Re: Runner goes barefoot for awareness, beliefs....
| Quote: | | A former manager of a Phidippides shoe store |
I wonder why! Dollars to doughnuts he was asked to leave.
If he focused his energy at some of those people making nothing making the shoes, or (when he was the store manager) giving some shoes to those kids in the 'pockets of poverty,' then people wouldn't write him off.
|
|
|
|
|
prohemp
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 14 May 2002
Posts: 7716
Location: in the cradle of liberty
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/26/04 - 22:55 Post subject:
I read in this month's popular science that Nike did a study that concluded that training in the barefeet actually increases your running speed. The idea is that barefeet running strengthens feet that have been coddled and pampered.
Naturally this theory does not sell many shoes so Nike developed the Nike free 5.0
http://www.nike.com/nikerunning/usa/home.jhtml?ref=http://www.nike.com
|
|
|
|
|
jrjo
Gone Fishin
|
|
|
Joined: 15 May 2002
Posts: 16451
Location: Lake Wobegon, MN
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 13:22 Post subject:
I've seen plenty of bare-foot runners over the years. There were a couple guys regionally here that were pretty good marathoners going barefoot. It's not so off the wall. In fact, we'd probably all be better off doing some occasional barefoot grass running.
|
|
|
|
|
Pug
The Movie Geek
|
|
|
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Posts: 8924
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 13:29 Post subject:
I don't know if its for me, but okay.
|
|
|
|
|
elkid
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Nov 2002
Posts: 8353
Location: hiding out in Philly
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 13:30 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | | In fact, we'd probably all be better off doing some occasional barefoot grass running. |
Why?
|
|
|
|
|
jrjo
Gone Fishin
|
|
|
Joined: 15 May 2002
Posts: 16451
Location: Lake Wobegon, MN
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 13:46 Post subject:
http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.htm
Here's one link I surfed up but there's a lot if you do a google. Whenever I've come across an article, study or first-hand experience about it, it's always positive. Just like the Nike-Free link that Prohemp posted goes on about, there is running benefit in having strength in the feet. Not only in injury prevention but also speed. Anyway, for a time I did some grass/hill running barefoot and now that I'm reminded again, I probably should get back into it next summer. 
|
|
|
|
|
MechEngDropout
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Posts: 10474
Location: Off the grid
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 13:58 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | | I probably should get back into it next summer. |
Can't handle running barefoot in snow? What are ya, a wuss? 
|
|
|
|
|
megawill
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1552
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 14:41 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | | I've seen plenty of bare-foot runners over the years. There were a couple guys regionally here that were pretty good marathoners going barefoot. It's not so off the wall. In fact, we'd probably all be better off doing some occasional barefoot grass running. |
|
|
|
|
|
gretriever
Hipster Doofus
|
|
|
Joined: 16 Jul 2003
Posts: 19385
Location: A moving target in a firing range.
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/29/04 - 14:44 Post subject:
The only two barefooters I can think of are Abebe Bikila and Zola Budd. I think Bikila learned his lesson after the Rome Olympics and was seen shortly thereafter doing his races in shoes. And Budd got spiked by Mary Decker in L.A.
Thanks, but I'll continue to wear shoes when I run.
|
|
|
|
|
track girl
Member
|
|
|
Joined: 14 May 2002
Posts: 378
Location: UK
|
| Back to top
|
|
Posted: 11/30/04 - 11:34 Post subject:
As far as I know, it can be really benefical to run without shoes to develop certain muscles in the foot and so on. We were encouraged to do this by Bruce Tulloh (his daughters raced barefoot) but never on the roads, on closely clipped grass, and in training, not races. I think the main worry is stepping on something sharp. I wouldn't be happy with running a road race barefoot, but that's up to him really. Although still I'm not quite sure what his message is, or how clear it is, so maybe that defeats the object a bit.
|
|
|
|
| |
All times are GMT - 4 Hours
|
|
|
