The explosion of barefoot/minimalist runners due to "Born to Run" is really ridiculous. People blindly believe "facts" that are thrown out in a book that contain absolutely no sources, footnotes, or end notes. Studies, facts, and figures are used liberally in the text, but not backed up by any sort of bibliography. The story itself is very interesting, but I was turned off by the author's incessant need to blame every running injury on shoe companies (Nike in particular). Those who know me, know that I could be considered slightly biased due to my job. However, I would have had the same reaction regardless of which shoe company McDougall decided to blame for injuries. Another issue I had with the book is that he took several facts about Nike (and Bill Bowerman) and negatively construed them out of context to fit his argument for barefoot running. People are blindly throwing out their running shoes and opening their wallets to purchase pairs of Vibrams. I'd be interested to know if McDougall gets some sort of kick-back from Vibram.
Anyway, back to barefoot running itself...I think its a wonderful compliment to running in a pair of trainers. I think there are plenty of people out there who can successfully run barefoot without issues. I do think, however, that it is not for everyone and its not a "cure all" for people with running injuries. Those who choose to ditch their Nikes need to ease into barefoot running.
Back to the subject of this post. I read this post on facebook this morning and its the first time I've really found myself in agreement with the overall point of an "article" on barefoot/minimalist running.
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