Freak Shoes

Yesterday I completed my first regular outdoor run in my Vibram FiveFinger shoes. I purchased them at the beginning of January and had been contemplating purchasing them since the middle of last year. The shoes look funny, I'm not going to lie and what's even worse than how they look is how childish you feel trying to put them on for the first time. It's harder than it looks trust me.

I had read a lot about these FiveFinger shoes starting sometime last July or so. I love to run barefoot. I grew up being barefoot and to this day putting shoes on is the worst part of getting dressed. I just love the feeling of my feet being free. As I read more the theory behind what Vibram's are and how they work became very intriguing to me. The thought process behind who they were and why they felt their shoe worked just made sense to me. I believe that God created your body go function perfectly all on its own so the theory that regular running shoes takes God's perfection and changes the dynamic of it was a logical reason as far as I was concerned as to why injuries occur.

As someone who hadn't ever really been injured I didn't have a compelling reason to buy the shoes outside of sheer curiosity. At the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) last year, I talked to every person I saw cross the finish line in them about what they liked about them. Each person had their own unique life changing story. I became more and more convinced I needed to buy a pair and finally in January I did.

I did a lot of research before I purchased them, talked to a lot of people and took my time trying them on. I learned through my conversations that my calves would be worked in a way they hadn't in years and to not expect to run more than a mile or two the first few times out. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that this couldn't be true, I mean I run marathons, how could I have trouble running a mile or two? And then I ran my first mile in them. I was exhausted and my calves were burning. What a big difference.

When I first started running in them, I started slow, on the treadmill and I sounded like an elephant running. My feet pounded down and the sound bounced from the walls of the gym. It was as if I was telling everyone in the gym to look at me and my "freak shoes" as my friend nicknamed them. I kept at it though because I had been told that once I got used to them everything would change, my stride, my speed, my muscles. So I kept at it. A little at a time each week. Finally yesterday I went out and did I normal 6 mile run in them. When I finished my legs were dead tired as if they had just run 16 miles and not 6. But it was that good tired, the tired you get when you know you just worked your muscles out really hard. I have had no pain in my heels since I started running in them and I can already feel a difference in my stride both in them and when I change over to my brooks.

I'm still a newbie. I don't have any life changing stories to go along with them yet but I will say so far, I'm sold. I'll keep you all updated on it though.