weighing in on the shoes/no shoes debate

Wednesday mornings are usually my day off from the gym, but today when I woke up, I decided I needed to run a few miles because I am way behind on this mile challenge. So instead of driving out to the gym, I went downstairs to use the "fitness center" in my apartment building. And by fitness center, I mean a 10x15 foot room that has a giant support beam in the middle and contains an old elliptical, bike, treadmill, and two rusty 5-pound plates.

So I hopped on the treadmill and took off at a nice pace until a few minutes in when my music player ran out of juice. Then I was just trudging along in silence staring at the walls and the seconds seeming to tick backwards on the treadmill. I couldn't get over how boring it was. And then I started thinking about running, and this mile challenge, and this blog, and running barefoot, and it hit me. Now was the perfect time to try running without shoes. Of course, like an idiot, I looked around to make sure no one was watching before I took off my socks and shoes and started running again.

Now, as a kid I grew up in the country. We had acres of land and in the summer when school was out, after breakfast my mom would basically kick my brothers and I out of the house. She'd make some sandwiches that we ate outside for lunch and if you were thirsty you took a drink out of the garden hose, but my days were mainly filled running around the yard and arguing over the governing rules of ghost runners. (Honestly, if I have a ghost runner on second, and hit a double out to center field, that ghost runner would have made it all the way home - only an idiot stops at third.) All the running around the yard was normally done barefoot and by dinnertime our feet were all grass stained. I always thought I was a faster runner without shoes. And never once did I complain of knee pain or shin splints.

There's a totally different feel to running that way - and today reminded me of being a kid again. Honestly, it made running almost fun. That is, until it started to hurt. The treadmill belt wasn't exactly smooth, so after a while it felt like I was belt-sanding my toes. Between that and my lack of tunes, I stopped after only two miles, but I think barefoot running has its merits.

Anyway, long story long, I like running without shoes.