Really, Now?

During my read of Born to Run, I came across a quote that struck me as odd. It read, "'No wonder your feet are so sensitive,' Ted mused. 'They're self-correcting devices. Covering your feet with cushioned shoes is like turning off your smoke alarms.'" I thought that this was really interesting because most of the time, you hear doctors encouraging good, cushioned shoes, but this book claims that your feet naturally correct themselves because of pain. This actually makes sense to me because your feet are designed to have a certain form when you run, but if you don't fall into that gait, it's probably going to be painful, until you get into stride. During cross country, I noticed that there were all kinds of running forms between the girls and they were so different that you could tell who a runner was from far away without even seeing her face, just by looking at how she was running. That's how diverse our gaits were! We had "jicky-jackers", "ballerinas", and even "hunchback"(me...)! Maybe it's because we all wear these expensive, cushioned running shoes...Hmm.... I wonder what would happen if the entire cross country team went a day of practice completely barefoot...