Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Terrible analogy.
The increase in the number of running races, triathlons, increase in enrollment limits to existing races would indicate an increase in the popularity of running.
Sure there are more fat people but more people are also running that wouldn't be able to run without running shoes.
Quick search found that marathon participation has doubled in the last decade -
Marathons have become so popular that what once seemed masochistic now seems almost normal. Almost.
Half-marathons' popularity continues to grow
Terrible logic.
The fact that the number of people participating in marathons is increasing may have nothing at all to do with shoes. If anything, I bet it correlates far better with the obesity epidemic and the perception of running in our culture as the "proper exercise" for losing weight.
Yes, and if people's only option was to run barefoot or with vff's, you wouldn't see as many people running and more people would be biking, swimming, etc.
Dude, again, that's entirely your assumption.
For example, from
The Health Gazette: "In 1979, over 700,000 people died of heart disease. At the start of the exercise boom in 1968, there were about 100,000 people jogging regularly. In 1978, the number of joggers increased to a remarkable 27,000,000." You think shoe technology made some astronomical leap in those 10 years to account for such an increase?
You may also want to read
"Fitness Movement" and
"Who Knew? The Running Boom Re-Booms" both of which discuss reasons for the running boom of the 70's and the new running boom of the last decade and neither of which mentions shoes as a cause, at all. In particular, people primarily took up jogging "for reasons of health" and that the recent boom in marathon races is simply due to more women participating and that "almost all of the races now make a point of including a charitable aspect". You'd also note that bodybuilding and aerobic dance also had huge increases in participation - you think that's also due to shoe technology?