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)
