ORTHOTICS FOR YOUR SHOES PERFECT FOR IMBUBE ROUTE

MBABANE – More runners are spending big bucks on orthotics.

Should they be in your shoes too?
Ted Spiker once wrote a story of Kenyan runner Stephen Ondieki where he mentioned that in 1997, just two months after moving from the grass and dirt of Kenya to the paved roads of the United States, 28-year old Ondieki, started experiencing severe pain in both feet.

He thought he just needed to adjust to running on hard surfaces, but an examination revealed the real cause. His feet excessively collapsed inward when he ran, and, as a result, his knees rotated inward.

This double whammy put too much stress on his lower limbs, resulting in five stress fractures in both feet. The remedy wasn’t surgery, rehab, or an introduction to the swim coach. All Ondieki needed was an orthotic, a shoe insert that corrects biomechanics inefficiencies. It corrected the problem once and for all for Ondieki, who finished second in the 2000 Division I-AA Cross-Country Championships and won the 2003 Hispaniola Half-Marathon in the Dominican Republic wearing custom-made orthotics.

Orthotics cost between US$10-US$80 (E140- E1 120), depending on its sophistication. Since the Imbube marathon will be run on tarred surface, orthotics can be the perfect mechanism for runners to last the mile. 

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