Encouraged by my barefoot walking and short spurts of running totally barefoot last week I decided to try a short run actually barefoot – i.e. without my barefoot running shoes. I really should have waited until my blisters had healed, but hey, this whole process has been marked by being a bit impulsive.
So I set out to run completely unshod until my feet told me to call it a day. Bare feet are the best limiter so all the true bare-footers’ will have you believe, so what was the worst that could happen?
To run from my house, up to Clapham Common, a complete circuit and back again is 6k. I set out on this run with my barefoot huaraches (mexican sandals) rolled up in my hands to change into once my feet had had enough. Most of this run was on paving stones, so the feeling underfoot was mainly smooth and nice. The occasional bit of tarmac road to cross wasn’t so nice, but the soles of my feet aren’t used to this, despite conditioning everything else for 6 months or so now. But I got on with it.
I wondered if I’d get some funny looks from passers by, but actually I was too concerned about looking where my feet where landing to notice if anyone noticed my bare feet.
It was a really cool experience. I’ve never felt better on a run before. Sure, my soles have a lot of conditioning to do and had had enough after 5k and which point I transferred to the trusty huaraches. But aside from one part of the run half way through where the path changes into a particularly nasty bit of rough tarmac on the inside of a bend in the road that is littered with small stones, the run was smooth and nice.
I think I’m going to try and alternate between the barefoot running shoes and actually barefoot for the short term. I’ve wondered since stepping up to 10k distance with my barefoot shoes is the reason I’d got friction blisters is the fact that I’d been wearing socks with them. So I’m going to try using them without socks to see if that makes any difference. But I do like the idea of being able to run without any shoes at all and realise the only way to truly toughen my soles up for this is to do some running unshod. Now I realise it’s totally possible – bring it on!