The Barefoot Running Book - Jason Robillard [50]
Now why would a Family Doctor be researching running injuries and experimenting with all types of running techniques and shoe designs in his free time? The answer lies in my quest to run completely pain free and with effortless efficient function with big toes that do not bend and in the more challenging quest to share the hard lessons learned with others wanting to keep moving for life.
I have been a runner since age 13 and ran competitively at University of Virginia in the mid 80’s. As an often injured runner, my interest in medicine was sparked after experiencing our team physician Dr. Danial Kulund of Charlottesville trying some seemingly bizarre at the time and innovative approaches to running injuries. He was the first to have people run in the pool and built softer lightweight orthotics in his toaster oven. It seemed like there must be better ways to treat these maladies and Dr. Kulund blazed his own path. Dr. Kulund was one of the first to encourage water running for training and rehab and had a deep hot-tub-sized pool in his office with a tether. He gave elite and recreational runners rebirth by his methods. Runners train in water now not just as injury rehab, but for prevention and supplemental training. Twenty years into my medical career I am reviving the passion I felt at that time by working with innovators in running technique, functional strength, safer aerobic conditioning, and foot wear design.
Dr. George Sheehan was another pioneer and his ideas were also way ahead of his time. I read Running and Being in high school and did not really understand a lot of what he was talking about then … but now I do. Holism, prevention, understanding movement and the root causes of injury—that is the holy grail of running pain-free for life.
“If athletes were given less care and more thought, the doctors might come up with some original ideas on why illness persists, why injury doesn’t clear up. If more non-physicians could be induced to lend their ideas and talents, we might see a completely new approach to sports medicine.” —Dr. George Sheehan 1975
A modern innovator applying these innovative and integrated principles is Jay Dicharry at The University of Virginia Speed Clinic. His inquisitiveness and pursuit of new methods gave me the opportunity to present ChiRunning research at the 2008 and 2009 UVA Running Medicine Conference and our community running event, Freedom’s Run, as a model for community engagement at the 2010 Conference. Jay connects form, function, performance, and injury prevention and empowers those he sees with insight, cues, and detailed instruction to self correction. He is producing the needed research to prove the principles that “Natural Running” speaks of.
We live in a sportsmedicine world now where running injuries are still treated with rest, ice, new and bulkier shoes, stretching, MRI’s, other fancy tests, and various other devices. Despite all this care, of which there is little to no evidence base, we are still getting injured at the same high rates. Runners are becoming former runners not by choice, but out of suggestion from the health care field as the answer to their body’s discomforts.
I’ve been through the pain cycles too in younger years. Frequently hurt, I managed sub 2:25 marathons with the usual busy school and job commitments of a physician. I discovered in 2000, after years of progressive