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Running Toward

By Jan Nesset

"YOU'RE AN ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN!"

As the accident-in-waiting, I was grateful for the critique. Twinges in my knees had been pestering my running, giving me fair warning of a gathering disaster.

A "heel striker," my initial foot strike is hard to the heel, which starts the list of my running wrongs. That, and, according to the wisdom, I was not leading with my chest, nor running with a proper cadence, nor relaxing my body and stride, nor keeping my feet where they belong under my pelvis. All this, all wrong for decades.

My critic, Lee Saxby, was giving private one-on-one assessments from the Terra Plane booth at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show in Salt Lake City. At this show, retailers, manufacturers, nonprofits and other entities gather to talk shop, make deals, share ideas, create partnerships and bask in the glow of other people whose livelihoods are built on the outdoors. The mood was more upbeat this year than at last year's show. Way upbeat.

Upbeat in part because of people like Lee, who excitedly evangelize their sport and ideas. Lee, a Brit, is a biomechanic, a barefoot running coach and a movement specialist. He bloody well knows running. In fact, he's the guy who changed the life of Chris McDougall, the author of the best-seller Born to Run, by showing him how to run properly - in bare feet. And now he was challenging me to run healthier but also getting me excited about running in bare feet.

Barefoot running is a big story from this Summer Market. Another is stand-up paddleboarding. While neither can be an easy sell, at first glance paddleboarding looks to be the most difficult to learn - tippy board, long paddle, water - compared to barefoot running - feet, solid ground. Not so fast. While a steady neo-paddleboarder can stand on a first try, barefoot running can take more than six weeks to become comfortable. I believe it.

My runs typically average an hour. My first barefoot run: 13 minutes! With calves tightening, screaming at me to cool it, it was either stop in my tracks or injury! I'll stick with barefoot running but in measured steps.

Sticking to it. To me, that's the biggest story of all to come out of Summer Market. The outdoor industry sticks with it, staying creative, innovative and forward-thinking even in tough economic times. Obviously, the industry pays attention to both words that define its market: "active lifestyle." Rather than turning tail and running from hardship, it runs toward solutions. We should follow that lead, all of us.

It's like choosing to run barefoot, rocks in the road be damned.

- Jan Nesset, Editor in Chief