Well wishes to my dad, and free shoes for you

This is going to be about knees. I'll also give you a chance for some free shoes. But mainly about knees.

My dad is in hospital today, having knee replacement surgery. The surgery is happening in the UK, so like as not he's out by now, and I hope it's all gone well. He's only seventy-cough, and there are likely a few reasons why he needs knee replacements now. At University he was an excellent middle distance runner - used to train with Roger Bannister in his heyday, and could run the mile with the best of them. In those days, running shoe technology wasn't too advanced, and I recall him complaining on a number of occasions about how the streets of Sheffield were not kind to his achilles.

My dad returned to running in his retirement, and was doing some impressively quick times in his late sixties. He really enjoyed it - also enjoyed the new shoe technology that had come along in the 80's, which gave him much more cushioning. Unfortunately about a year ago, his kneee gave way while walking along a path. Various trips to the doctors and MRI's later, and the long and the short of it is that he's knees are shot and he needs replacement surgery. Given my dad's athletic history, this is hard for him, and I hope he can get back being active in some way or other after a speedy recovery. Knees are important.

I'll get to the free shoes in a moment. I need to talk about my knees next.

I have a bit of a different journey than my dad. I was 'less than athletic' at school. Overweight and would make up any excuse not to exercise. I finally started regular exercise when I was 17 and ran (mainly to decompress) regularly during University. My first marathon was when I was 21 - took me 5 hours and 35 minutes, and wasn't kind to my knees (by mile 16) or my hips (by mile 22) and had me hobbling for weeks afterwards. Given that I'm 6'7" and (was) overweight, I can only imagine the kind of pressure put on my joints at every step.

I keep on discovering that there's things we seem to do naturally that we actually need to learn. Like breathing. Or, in this case, running. In the last few years I've become a big fan of 'minimalist' running - it's been a struggle to re-learn how I run, so that I'm not jolting shock all the way through my joints, but instead, treading more softly, with greater cadence. Whether it's barefoot running, or (my preference for longer distances) in Newton running shoes, lighter and running properly is the way to go. A friend of mine referred me to Newtons, and their lightweight design, but more importantly their ability to cause you to run correctly, without striking down on your heels.

I promise I'll get to the free shoes shortly.

So with a new (and I'll admit, goofy) style of running, I now run marathons 106 minutes faster than when I was 21 - with no pain while running, and (apart from needing a little calf massage) only 1-2 days recovery, with no joint pain. I won't run distances over 8 miles in anything other than my Newtons, and am so thankful (for my knees) that my running is now so low impact.

The evidence is building for the harm big, spongy, badly supporting running shoes can do to you. I've spoken to a few people (when they ask about my garish colored shoes) about how great the Newtons are, and I keep on wincing when I hear the argument "Yes, I've heard great things about them, but I run a lot and go through a number of pairs of my Nike's, and the Newtons are really ($175) expensive."

Don't even get me started on how if you're 'going through' your running shoes, maybe that means lots of impact. Grrr.

So, in the hope that I can help at least one person to not have to go through what my father's going through today, I'd like to give you a pair of Newton running shoes. No more excuses.

Here's how it'll work. Using the power of the interwebs, I'll randomly pick someone (US or UK resident - mailing from anywhere different gets complicated) out of the next 100 twitter followers I get (I being 'tallmike'), contact you, and we'll go from there. Regular distance runners using non-minimalist shoes only please - we don't want these to languish in the garage now, do we? Oh - and this isn't some lame way to get followers - beyond tweets about my running & occasionally about my Google products, I'm fairly busy and don't say much, and feel free to unfollow as you wish. For any lawyers out there, this is not sponsored by Newton in anyway, and I'm doing this solely to give you a new pair of running shoes, as provided by Newton, in your size/style. I make no claims as to whether they will help you as they've helped me - so much of this is up to you. If you go out, fall over or otherwise injure yourself, that'd be what we call "your problem". You'll need to figure out your style (neutral or stable), and would likely be best if you took video of you running to figure it out right. If you live in Seattle/San Francisco or the UK, I reserve to the right to deliver in person. If you live in Seattle, these guys have been really nice to me, and have the technology to do the video thing.

Phew. That's enough for now. Here's to wishing my dad a speedy recovery, and hoping you start 2010 with a plan to run differently. Me? I'm off to work out what else we're doing wrong and I should re-learn - oh, and run a little more.