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4A • June 22, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com SignalViewpoints Putting it all on the (laundry) line W PHOTOS JUSTIN TER HAR The two running shoes used in Justin Ter Har’s study: the Hoka One One maximal running shoe and New Balance traditional neu- tral running shoe. If the shoe fits, should we run in it? E very shoe can make you run further and faster. At least what their manufacturers want you to believe. “Our J-Frame supports and guides your foot without the use of heavy, rigid or unforgiving materials,” reads promotion from Hoka shoes. “It gets its name from the “J” shape, which uses a firmer density foam to support the inside of your foot and heel. It’s stability plus Hoka comfort.” Ever since P.F. Flyer’s sent kids dreaming of speed — “shoes guaranteed to make a kid run faster and jump higher” — the goal has been to get us to purchase a competitive edge. Stakes rose and the velocity of our runners increased. The shattering of the 5-minute mile, the legend of Olympian Steve Prefontaine, the Oscar-winning, cross-country journey of Forrest Gump — all created a cultural image of the runner against the world, a solo unaided by gad- getry, an engine, a horse or a ball. With one exception: the running shoe. Running shoes matter Justin Ter Har will be the first OSU-Cascades undergraduate to begin a doctoral program in OSU’s neuromechan- ics program. He starts in the fall and is the recipient of a graduate teaching assistant- ship. The Seaside High School grad is part of an academic team that delivered the thesis, “Influence of Maximal Running Shoes on Biomechanics Before and After a 5K Run” on June 7 at the American College of Sports Medicine Northwest Chapter conference. Ter Har, 24, knows the joy of running, first developing an interest as a freshman in Bend. “Competing against myself every day was an important thing to me,” he said. “Now I run every other day about five to seven miles.” Locally, he likes to run at Gearhart’s Del Rey Beach. Ter Har and co-author Christine D. Pollard studied the impact of shoes on a runner’s lower extremity biomechanics — actions of the ankles, knees, hips — im- portant for clinicians to reduce injury. Footwear is a unique garment that “affects how we attenuate our forces,” Ter Har said. “We wear T-shirts, pants and different clothing items, but none of those actually supports us like footwear does.” Justin Ter Har, a co-au- thor of a study of running shoes. SEEN FROM SEASIDE R.J. MARX Any increase in lower extremity forces can lead to injuries in running, so researchers look at shoes and see if they reduce any of the lower extremity forces, he said. The one thing between our feet and the ground affecting those forces is our footwear.” ‘Born to Run’ Ter Har’s thesis offers not only a mini-buying guide but a history lesson. In the early 2000s, author Chris MacDougall’s “Born to Run,” inspired runners to emulate the barefoot style of Native Mexicans who could run distanc- es of up to 100 miles at incredible speed. Madison Avenue touted the image, with the introduction of the minimalist running shoe and claims that a lack of cushioning would reduce injuries by pro- moting a more natural foot-strike pattern. The weekend warrior could opt to run barefoot or in a minimalist shoe like a Merrill Glove, with no “heel to toe” drop and no midsole cushion. “The goal is to create a natural, ze- ro-drop experience, so that you can have full foot contact in a lightweight, but sturdy design,” Merrell writes of their 12 varieties of barefoot running shoes. When research on minimalist shoes failed to show benefits in running speed or decreased injury risk, their popularity declined. The industry pivoted the other di- rection as the company Hoka One One introduced a “maximal” running shoe, thought to reduce the risk of injury with a highly-cushioned midsole. “The sweetest cushion” is how a 2016 television ad illustrated it, with “Mal- lowman,” a giant running marshmallow in a white padded suit reminiscent of the Michelin Man, racing all over town to a doo-wop soundtrack, leaping over sidewalks and little white dogs. Surprising results Ter Har and Pollard sought to mea- sure the loading force impacts of the Chart measuring the wear of running shoes on a runner’s lower extremities — ankles, knees and hips. maximal and the traditional shoe. In the study, 15 female recreational runners, from age 23 to 51, with a mean age of 34, ran a minimum of 15 miles per week. Two shoes were chosen for comparison: the maximal Hoka One One and a traditional New Balance. Participants attended the biomechan- ics laboratory for two separate testing sessions, with seven to 10 days between sessions. For one of the testing sessions, the participants wore the neutral running shoe and for the other testing session, they wore the more cushioned. What surprised Ter Har and Pollard was that lower extremity impacts of the cushioned Hoka One One were greater than the traditional shoe, a phenomenon Ter Har called “totally counterintuitive.” A higher loading rate has been asso- ciated with a higher risk of developing a running-related injury. Runners should consider this poten- tial increased risk when choosing shoes, authors concluded, although further work is necessary to better understand the longer term impact of maximal shoes. Ter Har wears an Altra Superior 3.5, with “a little bit of cushion,” considered a partial minimalist shoe. Meanwhile, after his June com- mencement he plans to continue his studies as a postdoctoral scholar and graduate teaching assistant. “I’m interested in footwear in pread- olescent children,” Ter Har said. “How an implementation of a minimalist shoe in children could actually make a large effect on running-injury risk down the road.” hen I was a kid growing up on the Jersey shore, when I was living with one of my mother’s boyfriends in a sprawling if ramshackle house, we had a clothes line strung up on the side yard May, June, July, and August. It was a swaying, often sagging, temporary affair; the clothes pins, which were made of wood, were kept in a drawstring canvas bag. Our housekeeper, Marguerite, who started out with the family as a baby nurse and then stayed on for 20 years, insisted it on the sum- mer clothesline. There was a VIEW FROM noisy, dented THE PORCH and slightly EVE MARX rusted clothes dryer on the glassed in back porch, right next to the washing ma- chine, but in fair weather, Marguerite craved the smell and feel of clean, salt air dried shirts and sheets. Ours was a good-sized household with loads of sum- mer guests; there was a lot of wash to do and Marguerite did two loads a day. She recruited my stepsister Mary Gail, 8, and me, 10, to hang the wash on the line before we headed out anywhere. When we returned a few hour later, usually looking for lunch, Marguerite told us to bring it all in and sort through it; we brought her the sheets and all of my step- father’s shirts. She spent most of her afternoons ironing in front of the TV, watching what she called her “sto- ries.” Although she was hopelessly addicted to “Another World” and “Guiding Light,” possibly due to her for- mer status as a registered nurse, Marguerite was an enthusiastic follower of “The Doctors,” and “General Hospital.” Her favorite, however, was a new soap at the time called, “Young Doctor Malone,” which she thought stood apart for its use of actual medical crisis, a charac- teristic generally missing from her other soaps. When my husband and I first saw our little house in Seaside, I immediately was impressed with the sturdy and permanent clothesline. I realized that with the outdoor shower and proximity to the Cove, it no doubt had been created as a place to rinse and dry wetsuits. Almost as soon as we moved into the house, I began hanging laundry out on it. There really is nothing as amazing as climbing into a bed with freshly laundered, air dried sheets. In my fantasy life, the sheets, as well as the towels and the pillowcases, would be freshened every day. When we lived back East, my husband took his work clothes to the Korean cleaners who washed and ironed his shirts. Once a week I picked them up neatly folded and packed in a cardboard box. As you may have noticed, there is no such service available in Seaside. The near- est dry cleaner is in Astoria, for heaven’s sake. I admit I’m not much for ironing. I ironed my hair as a teen, but that’s my only attraction to an iron. My son who washes and irons his own shirts in Portland is aghast I don’t even own an ironing board. Luckily if I pull the button down shirts out of the washing machine and get them on hangers damp, hanging them outside on the line makes it possible to get away with just iron- ing them a tiny bit. EVE MARX Laundry on the line in Seaside. Keeping track of library items turns to new technology n a galaxy far, far away, Mr. Spock and Luke Skywalker were walking through the local intergalactic library when they spotted a couple of books and tried to walk with them out the door. But they hadn’t checked them out yet and an alarm went off stopping them at the door! Is this space technology? How do library staff know? It’s actually not that futuristic. If libraries have a radio frequency identification system, it will set off an alarm that tells staff exactly what items Spock and Luke were interested in. Apparently Luke wanted to borrow “Vader’s Little Princess” to read to the new crop of young Jedi, while Spock was more interested in “Dr. Spock’s Baby and Childcare.” Hmm, a new Vulcan family just might be in I PUBLISHER EDITOR Kari Borgen R.J. Marx BETWEEN THE COVERS ESTHER MOBERG his future. Now this sounds space age, but if you visited the Seaside Public Li- brary recently, you may have noticed something new. As you walked through the library lobby and into the main doors into the library, you may have noticed there are now three clear gates you walk between as you enter into the main library by the circu- lation desk. These clear gates are part of the library’s brand new radio identification system and just like CIRCULATION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER Jeremy Feldman John D. Bruijn ADVERTISING SALES SYSTEMS MANAGER April Olsen Carl Earl CLASSIFIED SALES Danielle Fisher Skywalker and Spock the gates will tell staff if items aren’t checked out properly. Thanks to the Friends of the Sea- side Library and the Seaside Public Library Foundation, the library is upgrading with the system. This system has been a long time coming. One of our current board members remembers talking about this before the current library building was built, which is 10 years ago. Quite a few li- braries in Oregon have had the iden- tification system for over 15 years. For Seaside, the original price tag was too expensive. But as technol- ogy and software changed over the years (and actually got better), prices dropped and finally with the help of the library friends and foundation, we were able to make the purchase. STAFF WRITER Brenna Visser CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Skyler Archibald Rebecca Herren Katherine Lacaze Eve Marx Esther Moberg Jon Rahl You may have noticed when you walk into grocery stores or other large businesses, every time you go through their main entrances, you will pass through similar kinds of gates. It’s a very close system to what the library will be using. Every item is tagged for security and inventory purposes and when that item passes through the gates and isn’t deactivated, it will set off an alarm. For the library it’s a red light and a sound. This will alert staff that we need to check that the items have been checked out correctly. These systems use what is called a passive radio signal, it only activates a signal when it goes through the gates and emits far less radio frequency wave- lengths than any cell phone. The library hopes to use this new system for better accuracy in checking in and out items, inventory of the Library, and also for security purposes. We want to make sure that Mr. Spock and Luke Skywalker learn the proper way to check out books. We also hope that the new system will help you be able to have more confidence in our accuracy of checking items in and out. Coding the entire library will take some time and please be patient with us if you see some books missing from shelves while staff are working on them. So come on over, visit the library and check out the new identification system. We can’t promise to beam you up, but we are working on mak- ing your experience enjoyable here at the Seaside Public Library. 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