If you're still here, let me explain that last part a bit farther. The germ of this idea began about a year ago when I heard a radio interview with a man named Christopher McDougall who had recently published a book called Born to Run. In a nutshell, the book's premise is that running barefooted is far better for us than running with shoes. And yes, when I heard that I nearly turned to another station.
Instead, I listened a while longer, and McDougall's argument began to make sense. After all, for the last two million years, give or take a millennium, we human beings have been running, and for the vast majority of that time, we weren't wearing Nikes.
McDougall is good about backing up his assertions with statistics, statistics that suggest that the running shoe industry is causing injuries rather than preventing them. Running shoes, the argument goes, keep us from feeling pain, but do not keep us from hurting ourselves. Also, we run far differently in shoes than when barefooted, striking down hard with our heels rather than distributing the huge force of that impact.
All of this began to resonate with me, because I have experienced extreme pain from running. Just before I turned forty, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon. The last six miles were excruciating. My arches felt as though they were on fire, and every time my feet struck the ground, that fire shot up through my legs. The memory of that pain kept me from running another marathon.
But now here I am, a decade later, planning to have another go. I've been doing some short three mile runs through the neighborhood barefooted, and longer runs wearing Vibrams, a minimalist alternative to standard running shoes. Running this way takes some getting used to. I get blisters on the balls of my feet when I over do it, and an ache in my lower legs. But overall, I am feeling much better, and having a lot more fun.
So have I found the answer? I don't know. Too soon to say. A large part of the reason I'm writing this blog is to explore and share my experiences. It should be an interesting adventure.
