Regards,

Sergio (from Brazil)

Robert,

Thanks for your comments. You correctly note that unless runners are accelerating, they must land slightly in front of their center of mass. I give all the credit to Pete, Steve Magness, and others for making this point clear to me, although I’m not sure it’s a particularly insidious myth to bust. Once you fall over a couple times, you figure out pretty quick that landing directly beneath your center of mass isn’t a workable style of running.

Still, as I’m sure both Pete and Steve would agree, one of the key points of “good” form is landing close to the center of mass. Relative to Hall and some of the other runners Pete’s students filmed, Meb lands farther in front.

On the other hand, as Pete mentioned to me during one of our interviews, Meb’s “bad” form has carried him to an Olympic medal and a major marathon title.

Peter Vigneron