A running shoe story

 

This morning, I decided to do a 5k in my Onitsuka Tiger Serranos; yes, the lifestyle shoes manufactured by the makers of Asics. 

Thin soles, nylon uppers, much like the way I remember running shoes to be back in the 70's, no fancy tech like carbon plates or anything like that which almost all running shoe companies are raving about nowadays and many runners are  spending their hard-earned money on trying to emulate their professional idols who win races and set records in such "fast" shoes. (Dunno where they got that monicker because the shoes don't run by themselves, do they? How can they be fast without the humans wearing or using them?) 

Through my running experience, I seem to have been running better in shoes with low to moderate stack height.  My best performances were when I ran in shoes with thin soles like the Adizero Rocket by Adidas, Saucony Type A9, and similar traditional racing flats. I recorded my best full marathon time back in 2011, a sub-4 which put me in 10th place among male runners, in the original Asics Hyper Speed. Perhaps my small physique and light weight enabled me to run long in these kinds of shoes without much physical trouble.

Back to my Onitsuka Tiger Serranos experience this morning. I liked it. There was none of the burning sensation on my soles that I was expecting from running in such thin-soled shoes without much cushioning. In fact, I am thinking of running the same distance again in them tomorrow. Or maybe in the Mexico 66s which my wife bought me as a birthday gift.

And while I'm at it, I read online that back-to-back Olympic Marathon champion Abebe Bikila, famed for winning his first Olympic marathon gold in Rome running barefoot, wore Onitsuka Tiger shoes in 1957, the first time in his career that he ever wore shoes. Four-time Boston Marathon and New York Marathon winner Bill Rodgers wore Onitsuka Tigers in winning a number of his big marathon races in the 70's. 

I don't know about you but having such historied shoes on my feet makes me feel a lot nimbler.