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Avoiding the Shoe Blues

By Andrew Browning
<[email protected]>

Sam Morris, cross-country and track runner and senior, is one of 35,000 runners from around the country preparing for the Mini Marathon, which takes place in Indianapolis on May 8. This year’s race will be Morris’s fifth Mini Marathon, and his first half marathon since he finished with a time of 1:25 in a race at Fort Benjamin Harrison in October. 

Morris said he has come to enjoy the 13.1-mile races more than the traditional high school 5k. “I don’t really like the fast-paced races, “Morris said. “I’m better at the longer stuff where you have to hold a steady pace for a long period of time.”

Yet Morris, as much as anyone, has come to realize the importance of the shoes he wears during his races and the months of training beforehand. Morris has battled  several injuries throughout his high school running career, and these injuries prevented him from running the Mini Marathon last year.

“I had two stress fractures my junior year, one during cross-country and one during track, which is why I know that shoes are really important,” Morris said. “It was probably from overtraining during the summer, and I may not have been wearing the right footwear because I don’t think it supported my feet properly.”

Jon Grant, program manager for St. Vincent’s sports performance, said about 80 percent of the athletes he treats in the spring are dealing with running-related injuries. He said one of the main mistakes that athletes make when they train is spending too much time and too many miles in their running shoes.

“One of the first questions I ask the high school and middle school kids is, ‘How old is your shoe?’” Grant said. “Generally speaking, no matter how much you use your running shoe, at six months of age it loses 40 percent of its cushioning.”

Vincent Georgescu, an employee at Runners Forum and senior, said he has learned the ins and outs of footwear after over two years working in the shoe business. 

He said another issue that can cause problems for runners is when they wear a shoe that doesn’t match the biomechanics of their foot and stride.

“When people wear the wrong shoes, their body reacts,” Georgescu said via e-mail. “If a person is under-supported (like Morris), then the pronation can cause their knee and hip to turn awkwardly which causes injury.”

Senior Kim Collins is another runner who knows what it’s like to endure hardships as a result of footwear.  Like Morris, she too has battled injuries during her high school running career, and had to find the appropriate shoes to correct the problem.

“I have slightly flat feet, and I also have knees that bend in slightly,” Collins said. “So after a while my shoes wear away, and it gives me knee problems and I have to get shoes with extra arch support.” 

Collins ran the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 11 with Team World Vision, an organization dedicated to raising money to build wells in Africa. She said she dealt with her knee problem off and on during training for the marathon, but a more pressing issue arose when she developed tendonitis behind her left knee just a week before the race.

“I’m not sure if it was the shoes or just over-training, but it was too late to switch shoes,” Collins said. “A week before I was supposed to race I went out to run and couldn’t make it out of my cul-de-sac because it hurt so bad.”

Collins said she took appropriate measures to stretch and ice her knee during the week leading up to the race, the tendonitis wasn’t a factor during the marathon. She finished in 4:08, and raised over $600 for Team World Vision.

Collins can be considered one of the lucky ones. She overcame knee problems and tendonitis to run a full marathon in October.

Meanwhile Morris is just trying to stay healthy enough to run a Half Marathon in May. He said he has been wearing a new style of shoe that he hopes will solve his recurring foot issues, and he believes smart training will get him to the Mini with two healthy legs.

“Now I wear a neutral shoe, meaning there’s no support in it, because I have inserts in my shoes that keep my foot stable and help prevent injury,” Morris said. “Hopefully if I train smart then I shouldn’t get hurt and I should be good to go.”

Georgescu echoes Morris’s newfound belief in the value of the proper pair of shoes.

“It is vital for runners and walkers both to train in the correct shoes. By supporting the feet properly, the rest of the joints from the knee and up to the hip will remain properly aligned and in place which will keep the athlete happy, healthy, and able to keep training,” Georgescu said. “The beauty of running  is that the only piece of equipment that you really need to keep injuries away is the right pair of shoes.”

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