A year ago, I stood in the starting type of the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Cross Country Championship Finals and watched my daughter run like a Freshman for Hillsdale High. The PAL consist of high schools from Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Carlmont, El Camino, Half Moon Bay, Hillsdale, Jefferson, Menlo Atherton, Mills, Oceana, San Mateo, Sequoia, South Bay area, Terra Nova, Westmoor, and Woodside. The two.95 mile CSM/Crystal Spring Cross Country course is how It's my job to test a lot of minimalist trail athletic shoes. But on that day, I scanned all of the athletic shoes the senior high school girls are wearing and barely see half a dozen minimal shoes. Same for the five races that followed. A sprinkling of Saucony Kinvara and one Vibram Five Fingers.
This afternoon, after i watched and took photos in the starting lines of 4 races, at least half these shoes are minimal shoes or cross-country flats. But dominated by Nike Free, Saucony, and New Balance. And I was surprised to locate a few girls wearing Newton Distance. No Vibram Five Fingers around the corner. Although an unscientific observation, I'm glad that more and more high school children are transitioning to minimalist running shoes before further damage to their body. My daughter started wearing minimal shoes last year and raced within the Adidas adipure Gazelle. Her shoe rotation includes the adipure Motion and SKORA BASE.
Knock on wood, my daughter have not had any running related injuries since she started wearing minimal shoes for training and racing. A few team mates have various type of foot and ankle injuries this season. But I'm trying my favorite to convince these to changing their shoes and running form for sustainable running. The parents may be convinced but the kids have to take the initiative to alter.
As for the Freshman/Sophomore races, both winners wore Asics minimal shoes. Freshman Zoe Barrie from Aragon High clocked in at 20:01 in her own NB XC 900. The boy's winner, Sophomore Michael Berket from Carlmont clocked in at 17:15 in his NB RC 5000. Maybe minimalist athletic shoes are finally replacing traditional heeled running shoes and answers are beginning to show. Most significantly, so long as the children run injury free, parents and coaches will be super happy. A minimum of I am. Onto Track & Field season next where minimalism has barely started but that's also...
For detailed reviews of minimalist shoes, check out Minimalist Athletic shoes for those shoes that we have wear tested.

Posted by: sandyyy0708 at 02:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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