Running by Peter Fagan
Running: the most natural form man has adopted throughout the centuries. Man was born to run, literally; it’s in our genes, our physiology. We needed to hunt, we chased down our kill for hours till it keeled over panting and exhausted. The first cave drawings were of us running – we were running experts. Yet why is it today that running seems less like Mo Farah striding out and comfortably clocking under 30 mins for 10k and more like a geriatric trudge? The mention of running is often followed by a groan. How did things ever get this bad? you may ask. Well, let me introduce you to our good friends at Nike and Adidas.
Yes these guys have been telling us lies for years. See, there used to be a time where there was no such thing as the conventional running shoe; it’s more recent than you think, as late as 1964. A man called Bill Bowerman is to blame for fucking up your running. He began the craze by creating a new shoe designed especially for running. He claimed his shoe would guarantee injury-free running. At the time virtually everyone had perfected gait (technological term for running form); there was no such thing as orthotics because no one needed them; injury was an especially rare incident. Our ancestors fell for Mr Bowerman’s antics and they purchased the runners. The running boom during the 1970s spurred on the Nike Corporation’s success which contributed to making it the most recognised sports brand in history while in Europe a German company known as Adidas entered the market with the same mentality. Running shoes became more and more supportive with buzz words such as EVA, over-pronation protection and heel strike being bounced around. The general population became injured and what was Nike‘s response? It’s running on the roads that’s getting you injured; here, buy our even more supportive shoe for another hundred bucks (so we can squeeze every last dime out of you). The running population developed fallen arches, weak calves and shattered knees which made us even more dependent on Nike and Adidas. Mr Bowerman became a millionaire out of our misfortune and to be even more of a bollicks he decided to exploit child labour and other forms of labour in developing countries such as the Philippines and China. Yet, believe it or not, we relished and glorified Bill Bowerman. Nike‘s valuable marketing scheme clouded our judgement and to this day has disguised the truth from us. So we became frustrated by all the injuries and most of us simply gave up.
That’s essentially where we lost not only the will but the skill to run.Yet there is a way to run like a pro again and it doesn’t involve wearing no shoes and moving to Africa to train. There has been an outcry by the running community for change and with this there has been the development of minimalistic runners. They take a while to ease into, as in don’t buy them thinking you’ll be able to run 10 miles everyday with ease. It takes a while to build up and strengthen your calves. So, grab a pair of minimalistic runners and start today: you’ll be running like Mo in no time.