Penguin, un-gazelle

A few weeks ago, as part of the marathon clinic a doctor came in to film us run. We were all taken to a parking lot and asked to run up and down the driveway a few times. Today was the day that the doctor gave us feedback on how we can improve our form. Yeah, if I’m being honest, I figured that my running form would be pretty bad. Yeah, I’m improving, but I’m clearly not the most efficient. A lot of people have pointed out that I’m a shuffler; my feet don’t really make it that far off the ground. You see a lot of fabulous runners that kind of look like gazelles out there. In contrast, I’m more like a penguin. It’s not pretty. Anyway, knowing that, I was afraid to see what the doctor ended up capturing on camera.

When my turn came up he immediately pointed out that my legs seemed to be doing the opposite of what most people would do. I think he said that I tended to lean toward the outside instead of pronating. Interesting point because I naturally have flat feet, which means that I naturally pronate. I wear some really high stability shoes, so I wondered out loud if that had anything to do with my leaning outwards. As I watched myself run, I felt that my movement in my upper body was just odd. I can’t put my finger on what it was, but it’s definitely not how a typical runner would move. Indeed, the video captured the fact that I didn’t get much air time. I was told that I should lift my leg more. As I landed, the doctor pointed out that my knees just looked unstable. There was a lot of movement going on at the joint. He was baffled. Seriously! He said that he couldn’t immediately tell if it’s a muscle imbalance, or if there was just something else going on. I think the words he used were “definitely not normal.” Seeing as how I agree, I couldn’t help but laugh. In comparison to all other people who were analyzed, I stuck out like a sore thumb. He did say that it seemed like it wasn’t a structural problem, and that whatever it was it could be trained out of me.

So, at this point I’m thinking of heading in to that sports clinic and letting him do a proper analysis. I know that improvements can be made. Thing is, if what I’m doing at the moment is working for me, is there really a need to change how I function in some revolutionary way? My technique may not be the most cool to look at, but it gets the job done, no? Maybe I’m just daring to be different. Hmm.

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