mojodragon

Ok, so I was running in the Omaha Marathon on Sunday, when I got passed by <a href="www.barefootrunning.org">Barefoot Rick.</a>

I started reading up about this, and I think I want to try running barefoot. So yesterday, I went out, took my shoes off, and started walking around the parade ground on base. This didn't seem too bad, and I decided to try a little trot. 1.5 miles later, I was still jogging on the pavement, and passing people that were in shoes. Ok, so it's going to take a really long time to ramp up to where I can do a whole marathon that way, but it took me a long time before I could do it in shoes, too. And here, I have this wonderful opportunity to record my progress, my experiences with this style of running, and the hard-learned lessons that come about from my self-inflicted painful journey.

Tuesday was my first attempt at BR. The websites that I've read have said to take it easy at first, that it takes time to build the callouses that you need. So, I went out intending to just walk a few miles on pavement, to toughen my feet up a bit. When I got out there, however, I decided to see what it felt like to jog. I found that it completely changed the way that I run. No longer was I heel-striking, dragging my toe, or taking really long strides. Also, I watched the ground in front of me like a hawk. I ran 1.5 miles, and then stopped. At this point, I noticed one of my toes was bleeding. Not too bad, but I called it a day. Note to self-find out if I'm using my toes properly when I run.

Total BR miles to date: 1.5