A Passion for Running

Hi Susie. Hi Jon.

Nope. Not doing any of this barefooted. I’ll be wearing my trusty (if not overly colorful Puma H-Streets). The truth is, I’ve given up on barefoot running and probably not for the reason most people would suspect.

I spent a good deal of last May through August/September running in my bare feet. Towards the end, I had a setback which I believe was a bit of a stress fracture. The stress fracture was not solely (pun?) a result of running barefooted. It was a result of me doing something stupid while running barefooted.

That said, even with that injury, I was really happy to run without shoes and I would continue if it weren’t for the winter season. Most barefoot runners in the US simply have no idea what a winter really is (sorry, it’s true). They talk about running through the winter but, from what I know, their coldest winter days are probably not even as cold as our warmest.

Where I live, we have very typical winter temperatures ranging from -4 to -22 Fahrenheit. In other words, it’s pretty much impossible to run barefoot in the winter.

With the spring melt off, I’m looking at least five months off from running barefoot. Five months is a long time. A long time to lose the conditioning/toughening up of ones soles.

And I’m not willing to start over every year.

Besides, I couldn’t be happier with my form, and the strength in my feet right now.

Capiche?