I Hear Footsteps

Yesterday I planned a monster run. 3 mile warm up, San Dieguito Half Marathon, 3 mile finishing run. Warm up was fine, first 4 miles of a very tough half marathon were fine and then I started hearing footsteps. In other words my mind went from concentrating on my pace to concentrating on the feet around me. That's not uncommon for me. Just ask my wife, I am always looking at and listening to feet.

For the most part yesterday I saw and heard good things. Either through their own doing or through the help of a really good retailer people have shoes matched to their running which generally makes for quiet running. I was happy to see a number of the "other" brands out there yesterday. Lots of Newton and lots of Zoot. In fact I think Zoot was on 3 of the top 5 runners overall. Not bad for a little brand.

What disturbed me and always does by the way was the sound of slapping feet. My gosh I think, can't you hear that. Do you like that sound. Do you think it's normal to make that sound. Quit, for the love of all things running, quit so we can run in peace. Seriously though that's not normal. There are two causes of loud slappy running. First, there are runners. Runners with poor running form don't run quiet. There is a cure for this, learn good form. That doesn't mean Pose Method, or any other method (although if you ran Barefoot, you would run quiet). It simply mean's good posture while running. Generally when you hear the slapping and it is the runner, you see a runner that is leaning really far forward and using their feet to chase that lean. Slap, Slap, Slap, Slap, Slap, Slap.

The worst of all though is not the runner but the running shoe. I've been known to have memory in my feet. To know what a shoe should fit like based on the previous version. Well I'm beginning to be able to tell the shoe or the brand by their sound. And that I tell you scares me. Either because the shoe companies don't pick up on it or I'm loony for caring. I will not call the brands out, and I certainly will not call the shoes out. Keep building those shoes folks, please keep building them. For you the runner listen up: If you hear yourself slapping and you feel you have good running posture, ditch the shoes. That's not normal and there are better shoes built for you. I tend to think they all start with Z and end with T but maybe I'm biased right now. Ditch those loud slapping dogs and make running peaceful for all of us around you.

It's a good live....

Dave