Bare Foots

Today I ran two miles.  Barefoot.

Andrea and I both took a few laps around the high school track this afternoon, sans shoes, while the kids played in the puddles.  It was Andrea's third time out, my first; we stuck to the grass infield because the tootsies are a bit tender yet.

Okay, so... why?  I've got a perfectly good pair of running shoes, I'm not generally known as an dirt-between-the-toes,  Mother-Earth-loving, tree-hugger, so what's up with the barefoot nature-boy act?  Here's the story.

A few weeks ago Andrea checked out a book called "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall, on the second-hand advice from her second cousin's brother-in-law.  It was a good read, but more importantly it got her thinking about a better way to run.  She hates to run, but she started to do some research into some of the things that are talked about in this book, specifically about barefoot running.  She found lots of information, including accounts of track coaches who see fewer injuries when they have their athletes practice barefoot, and research into the bio mechanics of your foot and what happens when you give it support that it doesn't need and then go out and run like a spastic jackhammer.

So she decided to try it.  The barefoot thing I mean, not the jackhammer.  She ran a few laps on the grass.  She ran out of breath because she's in terrible shape, but her joints didn't hurt afterward!  And she felt like she wanted to do it again.  So she did.  And she felt like there was hope after all.

Then she told me I should try.  So I did.  It felt good.  But I can tell I've exercised a whole different set of muscles.  Like all of the ones below my knees.

  

Of course, you can't really just go barefoot everywhere, so Andrea also did a little shopping and found something cool to cover the tender tootsies.  Check them out, genuine Vibram FiveFingers Classics!

I actually saw somebody running in these last summer during one of my off-road triathlons.  They'll make you look twice, but they seem to work - the guy finished ahead of me!  I'm not sold yet on the footwear, but I'll definitely try a few more laps with the grass between my toes.  Come out and join us!