Taking off your shoes and running barefoot along roads and sidewalks is surely asking for trouble especially when you consider that between 50 and 80 percent of runners are injured at some time every year, according to estimates.

Well, meet someone who thinks otherwise – Christopher McDougall. He not only runs totally barefoot most of the time, but also last year published his best-selling book on the subject 'Born to Run' and is now one of the most well-known advocates for dumping hi-tech running shoes and going native.

This week American Mr. McDougall will visit Bermuda to give a barefoot running seminar and speak at a presentation evening. So what's his story, and how are the big running shoe companies reacting to the debate he has ignited?

"I would not have considered myself a runner by any stretch. I ran by default, as a punishment for what I had eaten the night before. The difficulty I had was that I was constantly getting hurt and having to stop and then being told I needed to get the right shoes to deal with heel pain or Achilles pain," said Mr. McDougall.

In 2001 things got a lot worse. He was hit by what he describes as 'a blinding pain' in one of his feet. He went to a doctor who, in so many words, questioned why he was even running given his large frame (he's 6ft 4in tall and weighed around 230 lbs at the time). At this point he quit the activity.

But a few years later, while on an assignment in Mexico for The New York Times Magazine, he saw a picture of a man in a robe and wearing flimsy, homemade sandals, happily running down a rubble-strewn mountainside.

That was his introduction to the mysterious tribe called the Tarahumara Indians, who live in a remote canyon area of Mexico and thrive as runners capable of tremendous feats of speed and endurance. They wear the most rudimentary footwear but avoid typical running injuries and can still run great distances well into old age.

"I thought 'Who are these guys?' I wanted to know what they are doing that we are not doing."

He went on an expedition to find the tribe and learn from them.

Seeing the Tarahumara run, Mr. McDougall said: "They moved across the earth in a way that seemed lighter than air." And importantly to him, they weren't all small, lithe, wiry people. He found one of them to be physically a near match to himself, with the same size 13 feet.

He was soon learning about running anew, but it was falling into place bit-by-bit.

"It took a long time for me to get back to first principles. I thought it was all about running technique, but it is about how your body connects with the ground."

While researching his book he became involved in bringing a handful of America's top ultra distance athletes deep into the Copper Canyons, in Mexico, to race the Tarahumra, including Western States 100-mile Endurance race multi-winner Scott Jurek and 'Barefoot Ted' (Ted McDonald) who mostly runs without shoes.

"We are told that you have to have these fancy running shoes, but the Tarahumara didn't need them. I met Barefoot Ted, then Scott (Jurek) who runs with the thinnest of shoes. I kept meeting these great runners who all ran without the big, heavy shoes and it came to me as a total shock."

Mr. McDougall believes he made an error in the way he transitioned from shoes to barefoot (or minimal footwear). At the time, around four years ago, the current debate about barefoot running versus running shoes was not happening and so there was less knowledge to draw upon.

"I was ill-informed as there was almost no information available. Almost everyone I ran into said the only way to do it was to gradually thin out the shoes I was wearing. What I should have done was to have gone directly to bare feet."

Minimal shoes, such as Vibram FiveFingers, are great tools, according to Mr. McDougall, but he says if you are running on a surface where you don't need protection from the likes of rocks, stones or tree roots, then going barefoot would be his option.

"People have this squeamishness about going barefoot. Price adds comfort. They say they feel better paying $80 for a pair of these shoes and now they are on their way to learning better technique. Some people experiment on a beach or on grass, but it is so pliable and soft that you can get away with a multitude of other sins. You must experiment on asphalt or a concrete sidewalk."

He says doing it that way also has a built-in mechanism to prevent over-exuberance as unconditioned bare feet quickly signal to the body when they have had enough. Mr. McDougall said: "When your soles aren't accustomed to barefoot running they'll only let you do half-a-mile or so to begin with."

But running on hard roads without some kind of foot protection. Surely that can't be good?

Roads are no problem, whatsoever, states Mr. McDougall, and he cites research by Harvard professor Dr. Daniel Lieberman, which indicates that the initial impact shock from the feet up the legs is three times greater in runners who typically land first on the heels than it is in runners who land on their forefoot.

"Shoes muffle the pain, so you do not feel the impact shocks," said Mr. McDougall. "When you take your shoes off you feel that pain, but it is useful to have this as you learn immediately that bad technique is painful."

He said this feedback from your feet forces the body to correct running form. "The two things are inextricably linked. You can't run comfortably if your form is wrong, and shoes are nothing to do with it."

Comparing running to being basically a number of jumps, he said the correct, pain-free way to run involves keeping the spine straight, the knees bent and the body gently leaning forward.

"If you watch the first 20 runners in a big city marathon you will see them using the same running technique – a very light and gentle style," explained Mr. McDougall, but as the thousands of runners behind come past, they exhibit all manner of not-so-perfect styles of locomotion.

For the Pennyslvania-based writer and runner, what he wears on his feet when he runs – if anything – depends on the terrain he expects. He has some light, minimalist shoes that he wears on woodland trails and alike.

He highlights two difficulties he had when he transitioned to barefoot running.

"I thought I could learn better running technique just as well in shoes as I could barefoot. When you run with shoes it is the brain telling your body what to do, but when you don't have shoes on it is your feet that tell your body what to do," he said, explaining that tiny adjustments are made to posture and movement when there are signals being constantly sent from bare feet with each step.

"The second difficulty I had was over-exuberance, even when I knew I should throttle back."

So how have the multi-million dollar running shoe companies reacted to the barefoot running debate?

"I didn't know what to expect, but there has been one reaction I've noticed, and that is a virtual surrender by the shoe companies. The big news is that there seems to have been a silent recall of the motion control shoes – they are taking them off the shelves," he said.

"The irony is that minimal running shoes have been around for ever. We had all these companies putting out these shows in the 1970s. The shoes were virtually all the same, so they started adding junk to them to distinguish them from others on the market."

And the reaction from fellow runners? That has been overwhelmingly supportive, he said.

"That's not such a surprise. Somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of runners are injured every year, so there are a lot of runners who are frustrated. So when they start experimenting with correcting their running form they say 'Hey, this makes perfect sense'."

• To attend the dinner presentation evening at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel on Saturday, where Mr. McDougall will be the guest speaker, contact Sarah Thompson by e-mail at jtbermuda@hotmail.com. The event is open to all and is the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Club awards night. Tickets (including dinner) are $50 for members and $65 for non-members.

• A barefoot running seminar with Mr. McDougall will be held this Friday at 6.30 p.m. and tickets are $5 for MAAC members and $15 for non-members. E-mail Sarah Thompson at jtbermuda@hotmail.com.