Nobody wants to comment if the article is in favor of barefoot running? In my opinion this article is dangerous. Will someone be dumb enough to take off their shoes and try to PR their next 5k after reading this article? I hope not. Once again another useless article and study. Too small of a sample, treadmill trials, too many unknowns like if the runners had any barefoot experience. Kevin doesn't even have any barefoot experience. "Although Kevin hasn’t started barefoot running himself, he has adjusted his training based on the knowledge he gained during his research by allowing his foot to flex more, as it would naturally when barefoot."
Sorry to be so critical, but if the article went the other way the study would get torn apart here.
What is with the articles about speed and barefoot running lately? That should be the last reason someone wants to run barefoot.
I believe the greatest barefoot experiment on the net is this forum, it has survived everything that has been thrown at it and flourished!
These are real quantifiable test results covering a large cross section of people and cultures over many years.
To be honest, this forum is probably is probably the reason I still run barefoot. It's nice to have a place with people who support and understand you instead of just thinking that you're nuts. Having people to talk to who share your passion and go through similar things is great!
In my specific case, n=1, I do run faster and better without shoes. No one possesses any scientific evidence to the contrary!
We've already established in other threads that Active.com lacks writers with the appropriate expert experience or scientific background. Any favorable or unfavorable articles can all be safely ignored. The same applies for most news sites.
In fact, I'm considering adding Active's entire domain to my firewall, to block them out completely.
If someone is so easily persuaded by an small article citing a pilot study, then they are also probably easily swayed by fancy shoes, flashy clothes, trendy toe shoes, and catchy jingles. We really can't sanitize the world of all undue influences. Our personal experiences here probably provide the best and most sincere testimony (unless someone collects enough money to do a massive study one day.)
I never had any doubt that under good conditions (regarding running surface, weather, etc.) a runner with good form is able to be faster barefoot than with shoes on.