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Born to Run? Move over Chris McDougall and Daniel Lieberman. I’ve got A Running Story for You.

(I’ve just realized that this is last year’s running picture and NO ONE has the FiveFinger feet on. I’ll figure out where this year’s pix is and get it up here! 8/14/10)

We’ve just had our annual Family Run. This year the warm-up, stretch-it-all, pre-run chat was about John, Rob, and Doug’s FiveFingers. They’ve been experimenting with those minimal shoes that look like gloves for the feet. http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/index.cfm.

At Christmas we’d had a few laughs when different family members gave each other copies of the same book, Chris McDougall’s Born to Run. It’s about early man and the fact that the ability to sweat allowed them to do persistence hunting where they just out-ran their food, thereby giving them a protein source that eventually got them Into the Game with superior brains.

I’m pretty sure our FiveFinger guys aren’t trying to run-down local bobcats and, in Rob’s case, cougars to feed their growing families. And I know their brains are nicely developed already.

Barefoot running is a hallmark of human evolution you know, says one of the kids. It’s natural. It seems that this Harvard prof, Dan Lieberman did all kinds of biomechanic studies of running. He discovered that running barefoot avoids a jarring impact. Barefoot runners land on the ball or middle of their feet instead of crashing down on the heel with every step.

Not everyone is convinced that this is accurate.

Do they cut down on injuries? Sarah asks while she laces up her ASICS GEL-1150s. (www.roadrunnersports.com)

Her question activiates my pentimento reflex and memories of different sports equipment and injuries emerge as I spoon avocado into Baby Luke. For instance, during the highschool basketball years we bought Platform Strength Training Shoes. (2jumphigher.com/shoes-that-make-you-jump-higher)

Jack and the boys experimented with these shoes because they purported to increase vertical leap. I can’t remember if they dunked regularly because of these shoes, but I do recall that there was lots of discussion about strange new pains and possible strains and sprains. These contraptions, er, shoes, keep the feet and legs steady and support the ankles and tendons while the wearer does a series of runs and leaps.  They look like high heels but without the heels.  My ankles ache just thinking about them.

After lots of last minute sunscreen and visor searches, the runners run off, as they tend to do. Or in the case of the FiveFinger wearers, they slappadslappad off.

I wipe avocado off Baby Luke and remember a Lafayette Street incident. Like it was yesterday. It’s another memory inside a memory and concerns my Dad and his Bates College cross-country team, circa 1934.

All my life I’ve loved this story. Then one day, Dad changed it.

See Patty’s Page for this story inside a story.