Brett Sutton has been saying this for years in regard to triathlon and especially IM. Have a look through some of his blogs.

If you watch any of the the available super-slow-mo videos of elites at major marathons (there are many on YouTube), it's interesting to note how many of them do land on their heels. Not all but a number of them. They barely touch the ground with the heel before immediately, smoothly transitioning to midfoot and forefoot. But their heels do touch first

Also, pronation is bad... wait what..

The bottom line is think less & run more. That's a proven way to increase running economy.

There are really only a few ways to increase running economy
run more frequent
run more volume. By this I don't mean 30-35 mpw to 40-45 mpw. Probably more along the lines of working from 30-35 towards 70-80mpw
run longer long runs at an easy pace
run really fast, more like 400-1 mile race pace fast
run hills -easiest if you can find a ton of hills to add into every run vs just doing hill repeats although those aren't going to hurt
and don't over stride, although some of the above can help fix that

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Well, I am actually a bit relieved that foot strike pattern is not that important to focus on because even though I was really careful in trying it, I was on the brink of a repetitive use injury. When I was running forefoot style I was 10-20 sec slower per km at a given heart rate, it also felt a ton harder and after 1 km I was burned...

Sad thing is that even after 5 years in the sport all the magic bullets that I shoot and all the snake oil that I buy have minimal to no effect and only solid training does. But why? I am so smart, way smarter than anyone else here! I hate to be told that I won't be able to qualify for Kona with 6h of training per week....dammit. Snake oil is just too attractive.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your input. I can't avoid thinking that you know what you are talking about and that is indeed greatly appreciated - but I am like my kids, I sometimes don't like to be told the truth ;-)
Uli

Overall, the most important aspect is that your foot lands underneath your body rather than in front of it.

However, I would ask anyone claiming that their natural way of running is to land on their heel, to please take their shoes off and go run a few meters on the grass barefoot and then see if you still claim it doesn't matter if you're heel striking.

I appreciate that people can run fast on their heels, the same way people can make a variety of different styles of any movement 'work', but I do not believe it is the natural or most efficient way to run and see this best demonstrated by trialling running without shoes on.

Most important and the best place to start for running though, is to get the foot landing under the body.

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Feel the Speed

Could have sworn a read this in running magazine at the public library in the late 70s.

Anyone else remember it?

I think it was when Bill Rogers was winning Boston

I thought this was already accepted as fact for the last Literally 40 years?

yes to all of this. focus on a high cadence (especially when racing) and you get that foot strike under the body.

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USAT Level II- Ironman U Certified Coach

If anything years (And years and years...) of running striking forefoot have messed up my big toe and ball of foot. Feels like mortons neuroma but don't think it is. I've been doing calf stretching and ankle flexibility exercises. Modifying the gait to more heel to midfoot strikes made a huge difference to my symptoms.

This. I used to believe that I needed to get on my fore foot to avoid injuries, but it really turned out that focusing on landing more forward on my foot just taught me to land with my feet under my body vs reaching out with my foot. I think more people associate heel striking with over striding because it is so exaggerated.

I can definitely see where landing with your heel first can work in a smooth stride though, as long as it happens under your body. You really are not weighting your heel much either, mostly just lines up your foot to the ground so you can roll to the fore foot to push off.