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Marathoner hits his stride in bare feet
Kathleen Nelson
POST-DISPATCH
03/18/2006

Rick Roeber has run more than 5,000 miles barefoot over the past
three years.
(Courtesy photo)

Even though thousands will take the starting line for the Spirit of
St. Louis Marathon and Half-Marathon on April 9, Rick Roeber should
stick out like a sore thumb. Or at least a big toe.

Roeber will be the barefoot guy.

Naturally, your first reaction is shock. Why would anyone want to
deal with the possibility of hot pavement and shards of glass, rusty
nails and loose pebbles, step after step after step? But thinking
about what comes naturally gives Roeber's stance some credence. All
of our predecessors on the evolutionary ladder did just fine without
shoes.

Consider T-Rex. Big T relied on his teeth, which evolved into such
efficient shredding machines that he didn't need to rip his prey
apart with his front paws or legs, or whatever they were. Eventually,
his front appendages shrunk to those pathetic little stubs. Feet
haven't slipped a rung on the devolutionary ladder just yet, but ...

"Shoes lull us into a false sense of security, and they encourage bad
running technique," said Roeber, who claims to have shed chronic knee
pain when he kicked off his shoes. "If you give someone enough
support and padding, they can run any old goofy way they want."

The word "goofy" pops to mind when first talking to Roeber, but,
really, it's unfair. He remembers in loving detail the joy of running
through the grass barefoot as a kid.

Roeber has racked up more than 5,000 barefoot miles since 2003. He
swears that the worst injury was "this recurring pain in the heel,
the result of a piece of glass that had been in there for three
weeks. Got a needle and dug it out. It was no big deal."

Even modern medicine isn't ready to debunk his position. Dr. Mark
Halstead, a sports medicine specialist at Washington University, is a
runner and has many patients who are runners, though "none admit to
running barefoot." He hasn't shed his own shoes but sees the benefit
of barefoot running as a training tool.

"Shortly after we learn to walk, we're put in shoes, so we can't
tolerate the hot pavement or pebbles," Halstead said. "The foot
really is bio-mechanically efficient in and of itself. It's reflected
in the shoe companies now."

Researchers at Nike have discovered that a bare foot lands more
evenly than a shod foot, spreading the impact and pressure over a
larger area and forcing the body into proper alignment. The company
has developed a shoe, called the Free, the sole of which provides
more flexibility and less structure.

Makes one wonder whether Phiddipedes, the guy who keeled over after
running from the plains of Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C., had so
much as a pair of sandals to his name. Barefoot running has a couple
of contemporary advocates in Abibi Bikila, who won the 1960 Olympic
marathon barefoot, and Zola Budd.

Neither was as vocal as Ken Bob Saxton, Roeber's mentor, who should
have played Tom Hanks' stunt double in the running scenes of "Forrest
Gump." Saxton has been featured on TV and in magazines, touting the
virtues of barefoot running.

Roeber, on the other hand, shuns evangelizing about the joys of
barefoot running. He'll be happy to talk to anyone who notices. The
chatter never interferes with his run, though, because he's not out
there to rip up the course.

"If I'm an evangelist of anything, maybe it's of having fun with
running, not taking yourself too seriously," Roeber said. "Unless
you're an elite runner, you're basically not going to win any prize
money. So you might as well go out and have fun."

Halstead agrees with Roeber that a weekly barefoot run, worked up to
gradually, could be a good training tool, and some people will adapt
easier than others. Roeber and Saxton are among the lucky ones.

St. Louis will be Roeber's 16th barefoot marathon and 34th overall. A
resident of Kansas City, Roeber, 50, ran the St. Louis Marathon in
2001 - with shoes.

"I like the course," he said. "What I've noticed is that the hills
aren't steep but long. It's very well-attended, especially through
the West End. The alternative lifestyles like to get carried away."

On April 9, they'll find a worthy and likable hero.