PUBLISHED 09/15/2006
1991: The Internet
By Bob Cooper
Breakthrough: Connected the running world in record-breaking time
Running would seem to have no more in common with computers than, say, Apple has with oranges. Yet the Internet has given us convenience, information, and motivation--so all we have to do is lace up and run.
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| Corbis |
With the Web, we can hire online coaches, look up race results, and Google for training and nutrition advice. Just a decade ago, we couldn't register for a race online; this year, more than one million of us will sign up for an event via Active.com. We can also do a lot of good. Since 2002 when Team in Training launched its online campaign, its annual fund-raising drives for cancer research have soared from $500,000 to $34 million.
Fresh Thinking: Soon, runners will have more interactive, all-in-one online communities, similar to sites like myspace.com. You'll be able to blog, swap routes, and share race photos and finish-line videos across desktops, and eventually, send them to cell phones.
1984: The Stability Shoe
By Mel Cheskin
Breakthrough: Turned running shoes into an aid for knee pain
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| Courtesy Brooks |
In the late '70s, shoe manufacturers took different routes toward a common goal: developing a shoe to correct excessive pronation (the inward roll of the foot). Saucony employed a plastic external heel stabilizer; Etonic used a full-length removable insole; New Balance straightened the last (the foot form), and Brooks, with its Chariot, introduced two densities of foam in the midsole. As each company released a shoe, others built on it. The result: shoes that kept the ankles, knees, and hips aligned during footstrike, effectively reducing overpronation--and the knee pain that often came with it.
Fresh Thinking: Stability shoes can weigh more than 15 ounces. But by removing heavy foam in the midsole, Nike made the 10-ounce Air Cesium (2006), which is still sturdy enough to correct overpronation.
