Is barefoot running backfiring?

Over the years, Rick James has been one of the Charleston area's most consistent competitive triathletes. Year after year, even into his mid-50s, James has been right in the mix and challenging himself in events from the Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series to the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

At the May 23 Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series, I saw him walking his bike back to his car when he should've been finishing the run, and I asked if he had suffered a flat tire on the bike course.

"No," he responded. "I have a stress fracture."

I was surprised to hear that answer. In my experience, stress fractures don't typically happen to seasoned male athletes, especially to guys with the experience of James. Since I was busy shooting photographs and he seemed intent to put up his bike, I didn't ask any more questions, and we didn't catch up later.

But it bugged me on a minor level.

Maybe a day later, I recalled seeing him last winter running on Sullivan's Island in Vibram Five Finger shoes, a minimalist, glovelike foot covering that basically allows you to run barefoot without shredding the bottoms of your feet. Later, outside the Fort Moultrie Visitor Center rest rooms, I asked James about the Vibrams. Like many runners, I've been thinking of getting a pair.

James told me he loved the Five Fingers, as do many people, and that he had logged 10 miles in them. OK, cool.

So after the triathlon, I wondered if his sudden, enthusiastic switch to Five Fingers had anything to do with the injury, but I didn't bother to call him about it until I got an e-mail from Brian Johnson, an assistant coach for College of Charleston cross country.

In the e-mail, Johnson forwarded two recent online articles on barefoot-running injuries. One appeared May 23 on competitor.com and was titled "The Barefoot Running Injury Epidemic" . The other came out May 29 on sportscientists.com and was titled "Barefoot running: It was a stimulus plan for physical therapists after all." Both basically noted anecdotal accounts by sports medicine doctors and physical therapists of increases in barefoot-running injuries.

Granted, until people started running barefoot or in Five Fingers in the past two years, there was nothing to compare it to, but the reports underscore that the jury is still out, and probably will be for a while, on barefoot running, which experienced a resurgence last year with the publication of Chris McDougall's popular book, "Born to Run."

So I called James and asked him about his injury.

"I have never had a stress fracture before," says the 56-year-old teacher who lives in Ladson, but then he admitted to not seeing a doctor. "The injury fit all the symptoms of a stress fracture, so why go to a doctor? He'll tell me to do everything that I already know to do."

James is not down on Five Fingers, but blamed himself. He ran speed work and did 14- to 15-mile runs in the weird-looking footwear. His calves were really sore. He simply didn't give his body time to adjust. His wife, Nancy, still runs in them and hasn't had any problems.

"Everybody's bones are different," says James, who probably will ease back into running using running shoes.

Meanwhile, Johnson, a veteran coach and a recent 2:39 marathoner himself, isn't down on barefoot running, but his approach is more as a supplement to training in shoes fitted at a running specialty store.

"I think that some strides and light barefoot running could help many people. It strengthens your feet and gets you moving efficiently," says Johnson. "Like many fads, I think that many people took the idea (of barefoot running) and ran with it (pun intended) without gradually building into it and letting their body adapt. Really though, some people were still trying to run fast and do normal training, but with Vibrams, and their bodies were not adapted."

Johnson reiterated a gem of knowledge espoused by the legendary coach Jack Daniels: "Everyone is an experiment of one."

Indeed, we're all a little different. There are no magic pills or practices. Everything in relative moderation. Now, how much are those Five Fingers?

Reach David Quick at dquick@postandcourier.com.

 E-mail this story   Printer-friendly version  

Copy and paste the link: