Run Barefoot!

Yes, you heard me. I haven't posted anything in over a month, and I figured that since one of my more popular posts advocated the merits of abnormally high fecal consumption, I would dive right back into this with another ludicrous idea that will probably make many of you continue to shake your heads and wonder what this country has done to me. After all, who goes to Afghanistan for a year and comes home a barefoot-running organic-food devotee? Me, apparently.

Barefoot is actually a bit of a misnomer, since I haven't gone all out and stripped down to entirely naked soles. The shoes I've been using are called Vibram FiveFingers, which are basically rubber-soled toe socks. Yes, they look goofy, and no, I don't care. If you want more on the shoes, take a look at the Vibram website.

Let me call for a few minutes of patience at this point. Converting people is far too lofty a goal for something like this, so my intention here is to answer the "Why in the hell..." types of questions that generally circulate when I either talk to people about this or when people see me running. I am going to try to keep this brief, though, because among the many things that I am not, both podiatrist and orthopedist rank high on that list. Rather than rehashing the internet research you can do on your own, I'll try to give a brief summary of the aspects of going barefoot that make the most sense to me.

To start with an example: Take off you shoes, jump off the ground, and force yourself to land on your heels. Your inclination is going to be to land on the balls of your feet, because of the vision-blurring jolt you get when you hit the ground on your heels. Now add forward motion. Every running step you take directly onto your heels transfers that jolt through your legs, although you might not notice it because of the big pile of foam Nike has been kind enough to place under your foot. Fortunately, your genes have been kind enough to counter-offer a more sensible (and cheaper) solution: Your arches.

Your arches are big shock absorbers, and running barefoot takes full advantage of that. It took me some getting used to, but after a couple of days of running without conventional shoes, I had adjusted to landing each step on the balls of my feet. The research I found - all online, so not necessarily unbiased, I should add - basically agrees with the fact that you dramatically reduce impact by running on the balls of your feet, even compared to shoes with padded heels (whose reduction of impact force is surprisingly low).

Running barefoot also engages all of the minor muscles throughout your feet and ankles that for most people are probably significantly weakened by the excessive motion control offered by normal shoes. I don't have anything to back this up other than some anecdotal evidence from around here, but I suspect that people who routinely walk or run without shoes, or with shoes that offer minimal support, roll and break their ankles much less frequently than conventionally shod individuals. Seeing the local population here has convinced me of that, because so many people wear sandals or flip-flops all the time (winter included), and yet they can bound up and down loose, rocky hillsides that would snap American ankles like toothpicks.

I could keep going, but I'll spare you all more theorizing on my part and just respond the incredulous questions and comments instead. I've hesitated to write this post for a while, because 99% of the barefoot running I've done has been on a treadmill, and I'd like to withhold judgment until I can get out on some normal roads and trails and up the mileage a little bit. Since that won't happen for a few more months, and since I needed a good catchy post topic, I figured I would jump right into it now.

If my little bit of personal experience isn't enough to convince you of the merits of going barefoot, here's what I consider the most persuasive argument of all: Seven million years of shoeless bipedal evolution, resulting in possibly the most capable endurance-running animal on the planet. I'll take that over Nike any day.