Zola Budd placed barefoot running on the world stage when she competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Her barefoot run became a side note when contact was made between her and fellow competitor Mary Decker.
Today, barefoot running is gathering momentum thanks to the best-selling book by Christopher McDougall, “Born to Run”. Born to Run is an historical approach that expresses why running is part of our nature, a gift that each of us can participate in. Ted McDonald, a barefoot running guru from Seattle states, “that since the 1970’s, we started thinking we could do a better job with the feet than evolution”.
Well, a few footwear manufactures have taken note and provide a more minimalist approach that incorporates a more natural foot strike, such as Vibram, with their five fingers shoe and Inov-8, with their patent pending ‘Fascia-band’.
Consider how you run. Maybe Zola Budd was on pace.
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