I love this thread.
The whole barefoot running natural hippy type thing makes me smile.
For some people less is more,but these people have always and will always be super efficient runners,
I have read many stories about the early marathon runners running in plimsoles and the legendary Bikila winning gold barefoot ,but come on,these people are not in the majority.
I think we need to take a step back and not get taken in by all the hype.
The fact is many thousands of runners are running today because of the improvement in modern running shoes.Yes i understand people still become injured ,I speak from experience here,but i am willing to bet they would have become injured even earlier running barefoot.
To quote Tim Noakes from "The Lore of Running" "We do not understand why modern running shoes help protect against injury , but they do".