[Teaboy]

How do you forefront foot run down hill? do any of the competitive distance runners compete, successfully, bare foot? At the risk of sounding like an ignorant old colonialist many of the African distance runner's formative years would have been spent running barefoot (or is that a romantic notion and Kenyan runners are hot housed in state of the art sports science centres from early childhood?)

[Duma]

Zola Budd

[Plattsy]

I've got some of these:

I like them, but they are purely off road, and I found it pretty tiring to begin with. The feeling of being about to break into a sprint all the time is pretty odd until you get used to them.

These and related versions are on sale at Jones'. The trail glove in store was £42.50.
http://www.jonesbootmaker.com/main/brand2/Merrell/Merrell/152/0/18

[boulderingbacon]

How do you forefront foot run down hill? do any of the competitive distance runners compete, successfully, bare foot? At the risk of sounding like an ignorant old colonialist many of the African distance runner's formative years would have been spent running barefoot (or is that a romantic notion and Kenyan runners are hot housed in state of the art sports science centres from early childhood?)

its true that Kenyans dont have trainers when growing up and learning to run just because they cant afford them but almost all athletes will do speed sessions with no shoes on to keep strengthening there feet. its common practice with a lot of coaches to make them do laps of the track with bare feet.  like ive said before the barefoot concept is a bit mis led, its not about being barefoot and tree hugging its about conditioning your feet to be stronger and improving your running form.  which is easiest to do when running bare foot because it forces you to have good technique or you get injured.