Barefoot Running and the Boston Marathon

See Jim run? Time was, eons ago, he outran animals that were faster but lacked his endurance. He caught up with them and ate them for dinner.

Nowadays Jim Webber runs the Boston Marathon without Nikes. Yesterday you may have seen him jogging up Heartbreak Hill. He finished all twenty-six-plus miles, landing on the balls of his feet, like his ancestors who didn’t have shoes. He's definitely a cutie.

Actually, for many years this Jim—me, James Reiss—used to run in Nikes and Adidas around the jogging track circling the reservoir in Central Park five times a week. Lately, I've drastically cut back on my running schedule. I'm aware that a good many running enthusiasts prefer to be unshod and, as barefoot boys and gals, are toting up miles in marathons coast to coast from Hopkinton to Nob Hill.

Luckily, at least one Boston podiatrist, Ed Mostone, has questioned the biomechanical benefits of running barefoot on city streets. Many of Mostone’s unshod patients come to him with foot wounds from broken glass, sharp stones and the like. In a wonderful New England accent he asserts that “barefoot running is not the best for people,” especially outdoors.

This Jim (Reiss) completely agrees. Here’s one instance where I favor the intelligent design of, say, New Balance sneakers over the Darwinian evolutionary pattern of hoofing it without shoes over roadways and inner city streets. Thems are my sentiments, though, alas, I'm now only a Runner Emeritus.

Seriously, this cutaway produced by PRX’s very own Emily Corwin won’t give you blisters or shin splints, though it may make you giggle.