The first time I consciously noted a barefoot runner was in Cambridge, MA a year or so ago. She was a typical runner type physicue sort of girl with long blond curly hair in a pony-tail I think, cute, I remember that. I passed her along the Charles River and wondered how long she'd been experimenting with that form of running. Kenyans grow up running barefoot so I understood the benefits, it seems to promote much greater muscular strength in the feet.
There are over 100 muscles in the foot, 26 bones, and 33 joints. This is a great place to recruit new volunteers to help you run better and faster if you get tired of working your quads, hams, calves, core, and your spiffy new running shoes aren't giving the mojo you really desire. I saw a few guys running barefoot perhaps six months later as I was on a group run in Brookline, MA and again marveled at the clean, pure, almost perfection of running without shoes. This was an ideal that I might never experience.
I am one of the 20-30% of individuals who do not have proper arches and thus require adequate support to correct how my feet land (pronate) as I walk or run. I have realized that my overpronation which causes my feet to fan out in more of a duck like pattern poses some hazards to my running career which I hope to continue the remainder of my life. With this in mind I decided to try some barefoot running to try and teach my feet to make some changes. Change is good right?
Barefoot running on the beach sounded exciting, but I've had experience in sand and am not a big fan. I decided to take the experiment indoors to my health club and treadmill. Oh, and I despise treadmills, they are my sworn enemy and although they birthed my passion for running I long ago scorned them for the joy of outdoor running.
I returned to the treadmill only as a test of the barefeet. I started out rather slow about 1-2 min slower than my easy pace and just stared at my feet to make sure they were landing properly without the support of a shoe and orthotic. I felt pretty comfortable after a few minutes so I steadily upped the speed to a much faster racing pace and then ran for 3/4 of a mile before slowing it back down to a walk. I'm glad I stopped then because I felt the tips of my toes eagerly preparing to graduate from being slightly irritated to full on blisters. Otherwise I felt great but I think I did work the muscles pretty well because a day later as I neared my apartment my right foot started hurting and today is still sore. I think it's a good sore though, sort of like when you weight train or do lunges. Next time I run barefoot I'll get some special "shoe gloves" they make which look funny because they're just like gloves for your feet complete with toe/fingers.
Oh and if you're interested I found a few links on Barefoot running or Barefooting as it's known:
barefootrunner.com,
barefootrunner.org,
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