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Vibram's line of FiveFingers shoes have been around for about five years, but have surged in popularity recently. Photo by Ben Pierce.

When Leif Summerfield made the decision to tackle the Ed Anacker Bridger Ridge Run last year, he had just one question: Could he do it?

A runner in high school, Summerfield, 32, had drifted away from the sport after graduation. Having not run in years, the Ridge would be a real challenge. To top it off, Summerfield wanted to run the notoriously-rugged crest of the Bridgers lightly shod — in Vibram FiveFingers shoes.

Summerfield surprised more than a few people, including himself, finishing the run in 5 hours, 35 minutes.

“I didn’t expect to do that well,” Summerfield said on Tuesday. “It wasn’t the FiveFingers that made me go that fast; it was that I was free to run for the first time.”

Summerfield turned his attention to “barefoot” running after reading “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen,” by Christopher McDougall. The book explores the running techniques of the Tarahumara Indian tribe of Mexico’s Copper Canyon and details McDougall’s rediscovery of running after suffering repeated running-related injuries earlier in life. Summerfield said he read the first few pages and couldn’t put it down.

“I fell in love with trail running,” he said. “The book is a really good primer on the physiology of barefoot running — taking shorter strides, strengthening your arches. You feel like you are working less. It is more efficient.”

As the science of running (and running shoes) continues to evolve, a growing body of evidence points to the benefits of running barefoot or in minimalist footwear. A study by the Harvard University Skeletal Biology Lab (published at www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu) noted that humans have only been running in traditional running shoes since the mid 1970s.

The study found that the cushioned heel present on many traditional running shoes alters the foot’s natural fall. Rather than a forefoot or midfoot strike, modern running shoes encourage a heel strike which distributes the impact force on the foot and leg in a markedly different way.

“For millions of years, it is likely that runners landed with no single, specific foot strike, and rather landed with a variety of foot strikes including forefoot, midfoot and heel strikes, but we suspect that the most common form of foot strike was a forefoot strike,” the study found. “These kinds of strikes (i.e. landing first on the lateral ball of the foot) lead to lower impact forces which may lead to lower rates of injury.”

The study also found that individuals accustomed to running in traditional running shoes and heel striking would likely require significant conditioning to achieve similar results as a forefoot or midfoot striker in “barefoot” or minimalist footwear.

Summerfield said he ran just a few miles a week for two months before he felt comfortable increasing his runs to longer distances.

“You literally have to retrain your legs and feet to run in the barefoot style,” Summerfield said. “The first time you put FiveFingers on you are probably going to feel energized, you are leaning forward and on your toes. And then you stop running and realize your feet are freaking out and the next couple of days your calves are tied up in knots.

“These are small muscle groups, but they are so important in the foot’s biomechanical design.”

Curt Smith of Schnee’s Boots & Shoes on Main Street said he doesn’t see Vibram FiveFingers or other minimalist running shoes as the single answer for runners, but rather as a training tool in a runner’s lineup of footwear.

“The days of long strides and a lot of impact on the heel and needing all that Nike Air and all that stuff — I don’t know if that is going to be a huge drive down the road,” Smith said. “It is now a focus on getting people to run right.”

Smith said Vibram’s FiveFingers shoe line is being joined by minimalist footwear from brands like New Balance, Merrell and Saucony. He said newer models of minimalist footwear have the familiar rounded cap of traditional shoes, rather than the individual toe sleeves of FiveFingers.

Smith said the biggest drawback of minimalist footwear is the limited protection the shoes offer.

Summerfield agrees.

“I stubbed my toe twice on the Ridge and I remember both places it happened,” Summerfield said. “The little toe usually takes the hit. The lack of protection under the arch (is also a liability). If you stretch you arch out and hit a rock it feels like you are going to tear a tendon, but there are actually trail running FiveFingers now that address those problems.”

Despite their limitations, Smith said minimalist footwear has definitely caught on in Bozeman. He said the shoes are popular in the gym, on the trail — even as water shoes. About the only place you won’t see people wearing FiveFingers is out on the town, he said.

No doubt, they’re a pretty bold fashion statement.

Smith said he sees the future manufacture of running shoes meeting a middle ground between the ultra-minimal FiveFingers and traditional running shoes, models that put an emphasis on proper running form.

For Summerfield and others that have adopted the “barefoot” running style, that’s great news.

“Barefoot running allowed me to rediscover the joy of running and in particular the joy of running in the mountains,” Summerfield said. “And we live in such a perfect place for it.”

Related posts:

1. Gallatin Valley Pheasant Forever making strides with young bird hunters

Tags: Bridger Ridge Run, Ed Anacker, FiveFingers, running

This entry was posted by Ben Pierce on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 at 12:01 am and is filed under Bozeman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.