Here is the text of my daughter-in-law's paper for her course at the University of Alaksa, Fairbanks, for which she chose my running for her subject.
Bare Your Sole (An Oral History Report)
I only know one person in real life who runs barefoot and that is my father-in-law,
Michael Bailey. Although he has been running barefoot for more than four years now, he doesn’t
personally know anyone else who does this either! Considering what a popular sport running has
become, that is fairly remarkable. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports
that approximately 10% of Americans habitually jog or run several kilometres a day (the
percentage is higher if one includes treadmill exercise and related sports), making running one of
the most popular sports worldwide. Running USA reported a 300% growth in running event
finishers from 1990 to 2013 - and that is just recorded event finishers of tracked races in the
U.S.A. One study claimed 50 million American participants in the sport of running. (
Hryvniaka,
Dicharryb, Wildera 2014, 130). Almost everyone has either taken up running for exercise or
pleasure at one time or knows someone who has.
I chose to do my oral report on my father-in-law because I think this particular hobby
shows a glimpse into his person as well as illustrating a cultural issue with wider implications.
To begin to understand this, you might have to see him run and witness the sheer enjoyment he
gets from running. But to really understand, you also have to know a bit more about the uniquely
beautiful person he is. Because Michael lives in Ireland and I live in Alaska, my interviews with
him were conducted by Skype, recorded, and then transcribed.
Michael is an Englishman, born and bred to honor and respect tradition and propriety and
yet he emerged from his culture as someone ultimately valuing individuality and authenticity
much more. He was born in Winchester County Hospital in 1962, the same year Elizabeth II was
proclaimed Queen, and the first jetliner made a return trip across the Atlantic Ocean in one day.
He attended Alresford Preparatory School a "dame school" - the earliest predecessor to a private
school with 30 pupils of mixed ages in one room and one proper teacher, plus her sister to help
her. His grades there earned him a place at Peter Symonds College and later the University of
Oxford.
Two of Michael’s great loves, running and trains converged in his version of running as
he mapped out his routes “en voyage.” “Until I became too embarrassed to do so,” he recalls, “in
the lunch break at senior school, I would often run around the games fields pretending I was a
railway locomotive and, in open country on grass or lake shore, I find myself still doing the same
in my runs today, choosing my way so that it is carefully graded as a railway would need to be.”
Michael learned to trust his intuition and instinct over the social “herd mentality” long before he
took off his socks and shoes. He remembers loving Bruckner’s music as a teen and realizing that
most people either had never heard of the man or his music, or had heard and loathed it: “Well
that cemented my adulation. My very own composer!” Then there was the time that my conflict
avoiding, peace loving father-in-law spoke out in the church government meeting of his Open
Brethren childhood church. There were “gospel meetings” every Sunday evening. Naturally he
supposed that folk who need the gospel are unbelievers, so when it was proposed that a "special"
Sunday evening meeting be held to which everyone should invite their unbelieving neighbors, he
pointed out the oddity. Indeed wasn't this what every Sunday evening was for? So in what way
could it be "special"? There was a bit of a silence before the meeting settled down to
conveniently ignore this comment.
In fact, Michael’s love of running may be one of the few ways that he is part of a typical
majority; “I did not fit in with the cool crowd at school. Of course, there is a very well defined
caste system in a boys school. I was neither at the bottom and definitely not near the top, but
probably closer to the bottom - after all, I have never liked competitive sport especially anything
involving a ball, and you cannot excel unless you are a sportsman, never mind what grades you
get academically. Which kind of counts out rather a lot.”
About four years ago, when my mother-in-law read an article advocating running
barefoot and jokingly passed it to Michael saying, “You really ought to try this”. The eccentricity
of it wasn’t off-putting for even a moment. The lake shore and mountain runs that my father-in-law
enjoys so much were rapidly deteriorating his shoes and he needed to replace them quite
often. He complained, “I don’t like spending money on running! Running barefoot has been
quite a savings. I regretfully do not enter races because to pay to run, well it just really adds up
for me.” Interestingly, one man who met Michael on a run stopped him to chat and was
interested in running without shoes because he could remember a time when he went to school
without shoes because he couldn’t afford them! As for “barefoot shoes”, well, that line of
questioning drew even more contempt from Michael: “I would never use
Vibram barefoot shoes
out of principle and cost! I find it strange that Ireland is so well suited with running conditions
and climate year ‘round to run barefoot but if you go to the Irish website www.barefoot.ie, it is
all about these
Vibram five-fingers. It is really just an advertising site!”
As he ran without them, Michael became more and more convinced that running shoes
are not all they are purported to be. “Running shoes are designed to make you dependent on
running shoes,” he advised me. “People believe that the more cushioning in a shoe, the better.
The reverse is true but you will never convince them of this because of advertising. The primary
reason is that the ankle joint and length of foot provides a suspension system - a natural
springiness and cushioning. I’m not a doctor, but running barefoot encourages you to land on the
balls of your feet rather than on your heels. I have to consciously raise my ankles when running
on difficult surfaces to exacerbate this effect. If you land on the heel, there is very little
cushioning and this shocks the muscles of the leg. Running shoes provide what is lacking and
encourage landing on the heel and create a vicious circle to the financial gain of the
manufacturers and believe me this deception is big business.”
Indeed recent research has confirmed that footwear does influence function. Specifically,
the increased sole thickness, which is marketed in athletic shoes as cushioning against harmful
impacts, could be interfering with the functional ability of the human foot. (
Franklin, Grey,
Heneghan, Bowen, Li 2015, 232). In fact the actual shoe construction can change impact and gait
in a manner that increases injury risk. Knee injuries in particular are reported to improve with
proper transitioning to barefoot running. (
Hryvniaka, Dicharryb, Wildera: 2014, 133). At
comparable speeds, the impact for a forefoot landing runner is approximately three times less
than that of a heel landing runner. In addition, during a forefoot landing part of the impact energy
is translated into rotational energy - which increases forward motion; as opposed to a heel
landing in which most of the energy is lost in the impact. (
Lieberman, Venkadesan, Werbel,
Daoud, D’Andrea, Davis, Ojiambo, Pitsiladis, 2010, 532-533).
And indeed my father-in-law is not the only one who has noted the expense of running
shoes and therefore the potential for a bit of a racket in their purchase price and lifespan. The
National Sporting Goods Association says that 44.6 million pairs of running shoes were sold in
the United States in 2012, and the sales of running shoes in the United States totaled $3.04
billion! Other current research has pointed out the huge market that has been created for running
gear and the fact that running shoes have become increasingly more expensive with more
technology and research behind their design. However, running injuries have not decreased
commensurately with the investment in research and design. (
Hryvniaka, Dicharryb, Wildera:
2014, 132). So, these are not just the claims of one man who enjoys being a bit different.
Many of the rewards Michael most enjoys though are the intangibles. The convenience of
being able to plunge into the lake at the end of a run for a quick swim without needing to take
shoes off nor return to a certain spot to pick them up is one of them. The simple enjoyment and
sheer pleasure of feeling the run is another. “It is very cool to feel the earth under your feet. I
drive barefoot as well. Would you go around wearing gloves all the time? No, you wouldn’t
because you wouldn’t feel things if you did!!”
Even this profusion of feeling contributes to the safety of barefoot running according to
my father-in-law. “The foot has an abundance of nerve endings”, he exclaims. “Look at the
suspension system in this picture. It spreads the impact over a fraction of a second of time, long
enough to react to pain and adjust one's landing and thus avoid injury. At the same time the eyes
are picking the best route through a difficult terrain, Mowgli-style which the shod human is
largely unaware of.”
No one is totally immune to the challenges of barefoot running, enthusiasts included. My
father-in-law reports that the common problems he faces are difficult running surfaces like loose
chippings on roads, getting a thorn or splinter in his foot, and cracks that occur from dried out
skin. These in particular are painful and require vigilant care. The cracked skin can be treated
and covered with
Elastoplast (or “
Band-Aids” as most Americans call them) or even super-glued
back together. It brought to mind the childhood stories from the
Little House on the Prairie when
Laura and Mary would have to suffer through the first weeks of the shoeless summer waiting for
their feet to “harden.” Since no one could afford shoes that weren’t strictly needed, they only
owned shoes for the winter months and for school. Michael has noticed that if he goes even a
few weeks without running barefoot, his feet soften noticeably and make running out of doors
more uncomfortable again. Barefoot running, it appears, is a lifestyle choice and not an
occasional sport.
Even these difficulties are ones that Michael seems to embrace. “There is a challenge in
going a long distance. There is always the small concern in the back of my mind, what if a crack
in my foot opened up and gives me real agony when I’m far from home and far from help? One
of the best experiences I have had is going over a mountain called Church Mountain. There are
the ruins on the top of an ancient church, just a pile of stones. It was the furthest I had ever been
and also fairly remote. I did meet one or two other hikers on the way but in the main I was
running away from people.”
When I questioned him on how barefoot running has most changed his life, he reports, “I
have found more liberty in challenging myself since taking up barefoot running. I haven’t found
any converts though. So far they all laugh at me, which I find strange.” In his closest group of
friends and family, Michael notes that while none of them have tried out any barefoot runs, they
have all become more comfortable going barefoot indoors. It is just this social bias that he loves
to challenge.
“It just isn’t done! I was in a shop and I happened to have been driving without shoes so I
went in with my wife and the manager stopped me and asked me to leave. For hygiene reasons! I
didn’t argue the point there and then, but I sent them an email and asked them to explain the
hygiene point and they refused to answer. I can’t see how or why it could be more or less
hygienic whether you have shoes on or not. So really it isn’t socially acceptable to go without
shoes. People will look strangely at you in the same way they used to if you didn’t have a hat!”
He related another story in which the local police were called and asked to come out and see why
there was a man running in the rain with no shoes.
As a modern society, how many of the things we wrap ourselves with in response to
advertising, fashion and mainstream culture actually turn out to be encumbrances which weigh
us down, perhaps even hurt us? The advance of civilization is not always true progress. I think
that if a boy from Winchester in the fifties, educated at Oxford, steeped in tradition can grow into
a man who loves to challenge the idea of social norms and status quo, it may well be that many
more will follow his barefoot steps. Eventually shoes could become an optional accessory, the
way hats and gloves have become today. Meanwhile Michael enjoys the interesting people he
meets, the great outdoors he discovers, and the good health he enjoys because of his hobby.
When you consider the boy who chose Bruckner simply because he loved the music, and in part
because no one else did, the young man who asked why the neighbors should be more in need of
the gospel than the church members, if you are fortunate enough to see this man moving joyfully
and effortlessly the way our ancestors may have done, you too will glimpse a bare and
unencumbered soul.
Interestingly, in one of the studies done on barefoot running (
Hryvniaka, Dicharryb,
Wildera: 2014, 131) 52% of 509 barefoot runners said they had started running this way in part
due to “media hype” - books, news, blogs etc. Perhaps the herd mentality that made running
shoes the essential equipment they are today can inspire a movement back out of this cul-de-sac
into freedom where such pioneers are seen as exceptional, rather than as the exception. Never
one to relish that side of the camera lens, my father in law grins as we conclude our interview.
“Just to finish this off, guess what I’m going to do now? Go for a run”!
References Cited
Franklin, Simon, Grey, Michael J, Heneghan, Nicola, Bowen, Laura, Li, François-Xavier 2015,
“Barefoot vs common footwear: A systematic review of the kinematic, kinetic and muscle activity
differences during walking” Gait & Posture 3: 230–239
Hryvniaka, David, Dicharryb, Jay, Wildera, Robert 2014 “Barefoot running survey: Evidence
from the field” Journal of Sport and Health Science 2: 131–136
Lieberman, Daniel E., Venkadesan, Madhusudhan, Werbel, William A., Daoud, Adam I. ,
D’Andrea, Susan, Davis, Irene S., Ojiambo, Robert, Pitsiladis, Mang’Eni & Yannis: 2010, “Foot
strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners” Nature 463: 531-
534
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Participation in Physical
Activities: Adults Aged 18 and Over (National Health Information Survey, 1998, now age
adjusted to 2000 population); Available from
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/physical/stats/pasports.html. (Accessed July 2000)
Fig. 1 Liszewski, Erica: 2011, Basic Animal Anatomy Available from http://emgzine.com/item.php?id=729.
(Accessed July 14, 2016)
