A few days ago, I got a new pair of minimalist running shoes and went for a 10 mile run. When I came back, I discovered that I had developed two fairly large blisters on the side of both my feet. I have decided to treat them with peroxide, Neosporin, and air...
I wanted to go for another run today in the rain, but I wanted to protect the blisters, so I put some Neosporin on the blisters with cotton swabs and some athletic tape. I also decided to wear a different pair of shoes. By the second mile, I could tell that things were not going well. All I was doing was aggravating the wounds more as they kept chaffing the side of the shoes, despite the protection. What was worse, as I discovered later, the protective layer that I was using was starting to slip off.
I debated toughing out the pain and pushing through, but then decided to use my own advice. There is some pain you can push through and it will make you stronger, then there is other pain that is a warning to you to stop. In this case, I decided it would be best to stop... so, two miles in, I started walking home.
The chaffing got worse the longer I walked, so I loosened the shoes and that worked for a little bit, but then it started getting hurting even more; this is when I realized the tape and cotton had slipped completely off. So, a little over a mile from home, I made the decision to just take the shoes off.
At this point, I started walking barefoot in the middle of town.
Now, I've been an advocate for minimalist and bare running, having read from people who advocate simple, flat shoes to running completely barefoot. I've even tried running and walking on the road completely barefoot before and found that I could do it successfully, but only in short spurts of 0.1 to 0.2 of a mile. On grass and the beach, however, I could run for hours barefoot.
Minimalist footwear is the balance between the natural way to run (barefoot) and modern dangers and challenges (asphalt and broken glass). Barefoot Ken Bob in his book Running Barefoot: Step by Step advocates to take off your shoes and socks and stand in gravel in order to become acquainted with the gravel... I tried this and became quite acquainted with it... gravel is a cold, hard man who doesn't like people, so I decided I would put a layer between my feet and it.
In any case, walking a mile, out of my shoes gave me a different perspective. I walked on uneven, disordered, broken sidewalk. I walked on broken and bumpy asphalt. I walked through puddles, in grass and all over the place. While I can't say that I enjoyed every part of the walk, it didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. It felt a little weird at times, a little uncomfortable at other times, but it also felt good. This experience also gave me a bit more encouragement to try walking and running unshod from time to time.
In summary, I learned a few things today:
1.) blisters suck
2.) it feels better to walk barefoot than to walk in shoes that chaff your feet
3.) walking barefoot isn't nearly as bad as it looks
4.) tomorrow, I'll run in my luna sandals... no chaffing problems when there is nothing to chaff against.
Thanks for reading!
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