Kick Off Your Shoes

WHAT?!? I should be running barefoot? Am I now Zola Budd?

Well, I don't know what to think anymore. It seems like the more we know, the more we discover we're doing it all wrong and that we had it right long before technology entered into the picture. Certainly it applies to more things than running shoes . . . but how practical is this advice?

I just bought my new running shoes . . . it's hard to throw them out when they've only gone about 50 miles so far and I threw down a chunk of change for them! I haven't suffered IT Band Syndrome since my first marathon (knock on wood) and though I suffer leg and foot cramps at night sometimes, I don't blame my shoe. I'M lazy but I don't think my FOOT is.

Yet, Zola Budd did it. That tribe in Mexico does it. I'm sure my beloved Kalenjin's do it.

I think maybe their running routes, though potentially hazardous, are different than running the DC city sidewalks. Do I want to risk running through the broken glass, garbage, construction waste, and water from who knows where with BARE FEET? Yuck - that's a definitive NO. I think of the years I ran on the C&O Canal - all GRAVEL. Somehow I just don't think that would be very comfortable. Aren't we risking one injury for another?

Of course Mr. MacDougall isn't saying the professionals advocate running without shoes - just different kinds of shoes. Apparently I can look forward to "non-shoe" shoes that will cost me a fortune.

Maybe it's time to run in my Tevas.