Rusty running in the Bahrain Marathon Relay in his Vibram Five Fingers Speeds.
Rusty was lucky enough to score some Vibram Five Fingers Speeds while in Germany. He is now in Bahrain and sent us this story:
On October 29th, 2010 our team of 16 from ISA Fire Dept ran in the Bahrain Relay Marathon. I'm deployed to Bahrain. Our team got 32nd out 164 teams. Our team was made up of 16 Firefighters at ISA Air Base. The Speeds did awesome. I love them. I've been using them for the last 5 months here at my deployment everyday for running and working out. Pretty much everywhere I go when people see them they want to know what they are and how I like them. And to tell you the truth, I love them so much because they are the Europe edition and no one has them and they draw a lot of attention due to the fact they have laces! I feel so lucky to have been stationed in Germany at the time they came out. And when I get back to Germany, I will buy another pair of them if I can get a hold of them.
Thanks for the story Rusty! Now if we can just convince Vibram to sell Speeds in the U.S.
About the Author — Hailing from College Station, Texas (Home to Texas A&M!), I grew up running cross country. Believe it or not, I gave Justin the name for this site back in early 2009 but I didn't jump on the toe shoes bandwagon until a year later. I am also really into quadcopters and drones and have a blog called OddCopter.com.Britt has written 161 articles and 67 comments.
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I'm so glad I ordered my Speeds from overseas. They are a great all-purpose VFF. I get plenty of comments on them, but I always hate to tell people you can't buy them in the US. 
Yeah, I'm glad I finally caved and had some shipped from the UK.
Couldn't help but notice that in the picture, he is about to land on his heel. I saw someone in a race this weekend doing the same think in Bikilas. Kind of defeats the purpose of the VFFs if you continue to heel-strike, doesn't it? Seems like it would be painful as well. 
As has been noted before, there is no way to tell if he is about to heel strike from a single snapshot. Personally, I doubt he is heel striking. When I look at this picture, I see his momentum carrying him forward to a nice midfoot or forefoot strike. 
A single photo is not a clear indicator of heel striking. This has been discussed before and a single photo as "proof" has been debunked as a viable method for examining foot strikes. Check out a video of VFF's and foot strikes and you'll get a more accurate "picture." In all of my marathon VFF joggling pics I looked like I was heel striking, but I was not. Pictures showing the split second before striking do not accurately show the actual strike movement. 
I love the Speeds and think they look very cool. Haven't tried a pair yet though.
I would recommend them over Bikilas. 
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