Magnificent article on barefoot running.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A couple of interesting recent facts: the bloke who finished 5th overall out of 85,000 in the recent City 2 Surf 14km fun run ran in Vibram fingers. And the bloke who holds five world records from 1,500 to 5,000 metres in the 55-60 category runs barefoot (and is an Aussie!).

Both blokes were interviewed for a recent weekend newspaper article on barefoot running. I'm not sure how long it will remain online, but for the moment you can read it here. If it goes offline I've copied it and will re-post it, because it's well worth a read.

There's no real conclusion of course, but I did strongly agree with one thing the barefoot proponent said, which is that by wearing sports-style shoes all day (as I do) you are shortening the Achilles tendon, rather than stretching it. That's particularly a problem for me on hill climbs, and still causes me a bit of grief.

Anyhow, it's a great article. Have a read.