So Benjamin Pacheco ran 14:47.62 for 5000m in @Crocs at the @PortlandTrack Twilight meet on Saturday.

Results: https://t.co/XDpvY5wJVn pic.twitter.com/64p9d5kjVn

— RunnerSpace (@runnerspace) May 9, 2021

We live in Utah, the land of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Independence Day Parade in our city had a 5K earlier in the morning. We noticed many of the finishers wore Crocs instead of running shoes. Now, Utah has many oddities, but this was a new one. Turns out, running in Crocs is a recent Mormon success story:

Mormons have a bunch of kids. And Benjamin who ran so fast is one of ten kids. Benjamin’s dad retells the story of how it all started:

Well, it started by accident really, back in 2009. About to head out for a run, I noticed that two of my children were wearing Crocs: “We’re ready!” they said. And despite me telling them to go and put some proper shoes on, they insisted they were fine as they were. Not in the mood to argue, I went along with it.

Via running heroes

And the moral of the story: kids can spark innovation.