Welcome Frederic!

I lived in France (Nesles-la-Vallee) for a year as an exchange student when I graduated from high school. Loved it there! I can't wait to take my family there some time in the near future... maybe some time in the next few years.

Good morning Frederic -

I too suffered a stress fracture of my second metatarsal whilst training for a sub 1:45 half marathon. I think it stemmed from careless. When I started back up after my 2 months of recovery, I started slow with low mileage and focusing on each step that I made. I tried to not care about my time and just focus on my posture and stride. I successfully recovered and ran the Seattle Half Marathon without issue.

I think you'll be fine just go slow and don't over do the training. Give yourself plenty of time to ramp your training back up.

Good luck!

• kw

Salut Frederic,

I also live in France (Bagneux near Paris), and am happy to see other minimalist runners here. I used to read Jogging International until I got into the minimalist thing, then kind of abandonded it. I'd love to read your French reviews, where they in Jogging International?

I have been running in Bikilas for a few months and have been looking for another shoe for long runs that's slightly less minimal. I got a pair of Nike Free 3.0 II a week or so ago. I've ran about 30km in them, and so far I like them. You can still get a pretty good biomechanic, but they allow for a certain sloppyness that the Bikilas don't. The edge of the sole has no ridge, and the upper fabric is quite stretchy so my wide feet just hang over the edges where they need too, like in summer sandals. I haven't ran enough in them to really have a finished opinion, but they are significantly less shoe than normal running shoes. I tried on a pair of Kinveras, they were way to narrow for my feet, and I also found them a bit too much shoe, but lots of people seem to love them.

Good luck on the marathon. I'm signed up for the semi-marathon de Paris, my first semi-marathon. I'm very excited!

Niki

Hi Niki,

My minimalist reviews are, for the moment, on the website www.wanarun.net but I hope to be "allowed" to write some for Jogging International in the next future. Printed magazines are still a bit traditional and commercial interests are driving some of the editorial choices. Minimalism isn't enough popular over here to be featured in the mag. However, I wrote a short pieces of news about the NYC barefoot run in october for example. It's just a beginning ... I will also be given pages in the special issue "Running Gears 2011" ... With the coming models from Merrell, NB, Somnio, Altra looking more like classical shoes, this will certainly help me. FRED