Un-Soled

Yesterday I found myself with canceled evening plans, so I stopped by my local running store to pick up new running sneakers for my upcoming May events (mostly upon realizing that I have two marathons, a distance race that could turn into a third marathon, a 5-mile race and a 4-mile race - yes, all in May alone and there's no way in hell that my most recent pair that I only purchased 9 weeks ago would hold up) and a new pair of socks. 

I was also mildly excited about checking out their other shoe inventory.  Now, I don't think I will ever become a full-fledged barefoot runner, however, upon finishing Born To Run a second time, I have been toying with the idea of adding a small smattering of barefoot running to my routine as foot-strength training.  Barefoot running seems to be the latest craze and everyone I talk to who has considered buying or owns a pair of Five Fingers seems to be absolutely die-hard about going barefoot.  I've heard the "compelling" argument from various sources on why we should be shedding our shoes and sneakers to reduce injury and to run the way that humans are morphologically designed to run.  I've listened to the reasons, I've debated with some crazy people, I've read the articles, I even had the pleasure of discussing all of this directly with Dan Lieberman one-on-one _during_ a half marathon; I know all about it, but just haven't jumped on the bandwagon myself.  Why?  Well, I have two reasons:  my left foot and my right foot.  I was born with collapsed bones in both feet and have zero arch.  I've worn fiberglass orthodics since I was 12 years old and have been wearing a more flexible plastic pair once I started running marathons.  Yes, yes, I know the barefoot people are cringing while reading this because I know that they will be the first ones to tell me that the reason why I don't have any arches is because my feet are so used to shoes. 

But I only wore Keds as a kid, despite my protesting, because my parents couldn't afford cushy sneakers.  I was that dorky, embarrassed kid in gym class wearing the canvas flats with no cushioning while everyone else pumped up their Jordans.  I hung my head in shame. 

It was on a family trip to Walt Disney World where we all learned about my feet and their lack of arches.  Even though I even went hiking in my Keds on a regular basis in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I had never experienced the level of pain that I experienced on my second 13-hour day of walking around on concrete at the theme parks all day with my parents.  I was literally, in tears.  As a result, and after a long day at the doctor's office, I've been wearing custom orthodics ever since, except in the summer when I strictly wear flip flops and in the office and out and about at night when I strictly cram my trainwreck feet into cute heels.  Therefore, I'm still a skeptic about this barefoot running business, but just for kicks (pun intended) have been considering picking up a pair of KSOs to muck around in once a week as "foot strength training". 

So, you could imagine my shock when I stopped into my running store and upon asking about Vibrams, was met with the totally opposite response from the shop owner (and serious local athlete) from that I've received from, well, everyone else.

This of course, stopped me dead in my tracks and I spent the next 20 minutes or so picking his brain on why he won't sell Vibrams.  His reasoning is that far too many amazing runners are completely screwing up their running by going sans-shoe and therefore doesn't support it.  As a very serious long time distance runner, local coach, and triathlete, he feels that it's his responsibility to promote responsible injury management and risk reduction, and although the barefoot community believes this can be accomplished by shedding shoes, he has seen far more stress fractures than injury improvement from barefoot running.  To boot, he also noted that countless runners (both clients, customers and local athletes) have completely shredded their toes by wearing Vibrams, one local runner even developing a nasty hip problem due to major gait changes.  Sure, there's plenty of articles and hype touting the benefits of barefoot, but he feels that the actual injurious experiences of countless folks who have adopted Vibrams far trumps the press. 

Personally, I'm still undecided, but I do know that everything in moderation is obviously the way to go (shoes or no shoes) and any changes to a routine requires time.  However, I've also learned recently not to tinker with something that has been working mainly without issue, as evidenced by my wonky stomach.  I did find it intriguing to finally hear someones take on all of this who is not in support of shedding shoes, since everyone else seems to be going crazy about it.  Maybe more thinking and researching is needed for me.  Until then, I'll keep on trucking along in my Mizunos that resemble living room recliners.