I was driving back to the office and noticed a lady running down the sidewalk. We often talk about somebody being a heelstriker, a mid-foot striker, or ball of the foot striker, but she was actually a heel striking on her right foot and ball-of-foot striking on her left foot. She was actually so biased towards her toes on the left that often her heel never reached the ground.
Has anybody else seen something like this? Have you seen it in somebody that you considered fast? Would you conceivably use two different shoes designed for two different strides?
I’ll guess it’s biomechanical issues due to body asymetry. Could be something like one leg being quite a bit shorter than the other, etc. Custom orthotics or even custom shoes might help.
I broke it 10 years ago in high school - running. Had numerous surgeries to try to fix it. Got it replaced 5 years ago. The whole story is in the hip replacement thread.
I run with (I’m told) a stilted gait. It feels smooth to me, though, and it’s fast enough to do what I need to do!