Brunswick Crossing 5k Race Tips: Shoes Loose? Tie a better knot!
Brunswick Crossing is having our first annual 5K race. Get ready to lace up on May 19th, as we host the 5K Twilight Valley Trail Run to save the WB Tower. The WB Tower was the last railroad tower operating in Maryland which closed in December of 2011. The City of Brunswick, the Brunswick Potomac Foundation, and the Brunswick Railroad Museum have joined forces to save this last piece of Brunswick Railroad history raising funds to move the WB from its current location to a new location. Brunswick Crossing is proud to contribute to this worthy cause.
Do your laces come untied while you are running? Chances are you’re tying them wrong. Have you heard of the Ian Knot? Ian Fieggen’s knots will keep you from loosing time during the race or any other sport that includes running. The Ian Knot is elegant, fast, and secure – if you can tie it. If your laces are twisted in ugly double-knots or you bows are uneven; perhaps the bows are bunched or tangled, it isn’t your fault. It’s just the way you were taught.
Think back to when you were little, in the midst of learning to secure your footwear. First you were shown how to take one lace and pass it under the other. And then you were instructed to loop one lace and make a bow. Easy enough!
Only it’s not that simple. In fact, there’s more than one way to tie a standard shoelace knot, and Fieggen says the odds that you’re screwing it up are pretty much 50-50. Almost all shoe closures start with a knot, and finish with a bow. Unfortunately, if you tie the bows in the same direction as the starting knot, you’ll end up with a final product that won’t stay in place. This is called a granny knot. If circumstances put you in the granny camp, you are doomed to looseness, stooping, and retying. To keep your laces nice and snug, you need to fashion a reef knot, where you tie the starting knot in one direction, and the finishing bow in the other. The difference between a granny and reef knot is a matter of tension: Lace tautness generated as your foot moves actually tightens a reef knot, while that same strain in the bottom part of a granny knot will work the top part loose.
Below are instructions on how to tie the Ian Knot!
1. Tie a starting knot holding the right lace between your right thumb and forefinger, and the left lace around your left thumb and forefinger. Try to hold the left lace taut.
2. Make one loop with the loose end behind, and one in front. Use your right middle finger to push the end of the right lace behind, and turn your left hand to swing its loop to the right.
3. Cross the two loops over each other. Use your left thumb to push its loose end to the right, as your right middle finger pushes its loose end to wind up inside the left loop.
4. This move requires each hand to use the two fingers inside its own loop to grab the other loop. Use your left thumb and forefinger, and your right thumb and middle finger.
5. Each hand releases its own loop and pulls the loose end of the opposite loop through its own. Don’t pull the ends all the way through, as this would form a knot instead of a bow.
6. This final step simply completes the knot by pulling the loops tight. With practice, you can tie your laces faster and more symmetrically than with a conventional knot.
Fieggen has thought about shoelaces for 25 years. He invented his namesake tying method in 1982. The Australian initially wasn’t looking for a way to keep shoes from coming undone; he was trying to make his laces last longer. The problem with traditional tying is that it favors one side of the lace so that side wears out faster. He was very concerned with efficiency. The knot he came up with pulls evenly from both sides, so that the laces are handled evenly.
Give the Ian Knot a try next time you go out for a run.
Brunswick Crossing is Frederick County’s most dynamic planned community. We are very excited to be including our new paved trails on our 1st Annual 5K race. 100% of our proceeds from this race will be donated to the Brunswick Potomac Foundation to “Save the WB Tower” fund. Don’t like to run? No worries. Join us for an evening of activities and fun.
