Spaulding National Running Center

I left the Spaulding National Running Center (SNRC) with a more painful injury (Achilles) than I came in with (hamstring). They don’t seem to have a plan in place to address secondary injuries if they develop as a result of switching to minimalist running under their care. In addition, they misplaced my prescription twice, cancelled multiple appointments and made scheduling errors that set my progress back several weeks, and I didn’t receive the initial evaluation report for more than 4 months following the appointment.
I recommend doing your research and addressing concerns before starting at SNRC, as the initial evaluation is costly. The director, Irene Davis, is a proponent of barefoot running (not currently mentioned on the Spaulding website:
). At my initial evaluation, she recommended gait training to transition to minimalist running.
Two months later, I started gait training. I worked with a PT, spending 3 appointments learning exercises, followed by 4 weeks of gait training. It was not made clear to me at my evaluation that my running fitness would take an immediate, significant decline once I began gait training. Normally I run 20 – 30 miles per week, but once I started gait training I did not run outside of the clinic, as advised by the PT, and I only had 1 or 2 appointments per week (6 total) where I ran for 15 or 30 minutes at 2 min/​mi slower than my normal pace. My hamstring pain eventually subsided, but less than 35% of my time on the clinic treadmill was pain-​free.
At my last gait training appointment in January, I was given shoe purchasing instructions and guidelines for running on my own outside of the clinic. I built up volume following the guidelines for 3 weeks before my only scheduled follow up appointment. On my last run prior to my follow up, I hurt my Achilles while running in the snow. At the start of the appointment I told the PT about the injury and he had me run until I told him the pain was worsening. They let me leave the clinic knowing I was injured and continued to coach me over email for several months, ultimately suggesting I transition back to heel striking. The PT brought me in for a complimentary visit, and after 3 months of injury Dr. Davis added to the email advice, but I didn’t get tools to effectively deal with the injury until I visited my ortho.
From online blogs I’ve read, several bloggers have had significantly different experiences at the SNRC. One blogger lists 10 weeks of 1 – 2 runs per week in the clinic, while another spent at least 2 months running in the clinic followed by 2 follow-​up visits based on milestones she reached. I noticed that Dr. Davis offered words of encouragement to a blogger via Twitter within a week of ignoring an emailed question I sent to her (she did not interact with me following the advice mentioned above).
I have since seen a slide listing forefoot strike transition guidelines that Dr. Davis presented at a conference. It is clear that I received fewer appointments than recommended and this quick transition could have caused my injury. My impression is they want to get as many customers through as possible, and they only care about your outcome if you are a part of one of their research studies or a blogger providing publicity.
Some other points to note are that the SNRC admittedly did not fix my hip drop (even though they claim to correct faulty gait mechanics), they don’t have data on their success rates (no planned long term follow up or final report on my gait changes) and, after leaving the clinic, Dr. Davis mentioned in an email that the new gait may take weeks or months to feel natural. Even though SNRC claims to take an evidence-​based approach, there currently isn’t evidence in the literature that minimalist runners have fewer injuries.
There are other running centers in the Boston area to consider, especially if you do not desire to transition to minimalist running.