Tuesday 14 December 2010

Hobby #1 - Barefoot running

I have never been the kind of person who enjoys running. I tried it a couple of times, and it didn't work for me. It was painful, boring and made me feel horrible.

Around September 2009 I saw Christopher McDonald being interviewed on the Daily Show, promoting his book, Born to Run. As I listened something chimed with me. The whole concept of running without cushioned, supportive shoes and the fact that (in McDonalds' opinion) expensive Nike and Adidas shoes may actually be causing injuries fitted in with my lefty, Guardian reader sensibilities.

It is my belief that running barefoot, and wearing minimalist footwear in my daily life is a more biomechanically correct way of running, this in turn reduces stress on my knee joints and back.

Mainly though, running barefoot is fun!

So, having listened to Christopher McDonald talking passionately about the Tarahumara indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico - I searched the web and found references to huarache sandals. These are the home made, traditional footwear of this tribe of super athletes - who routinely run 100 mile races over some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world. Not only that, but they continue to run well into what many of us would consider to be old age.

I found a local saddle maker and bought some thick leather and a couple of lengths of leather thong. Then I followed the simple instructions I found on Barefoot Ted's site (PDF here - the tying technique is the hardest part).

I was hooked. Running in them felt so liberating. Although they are not without problems (in the wet the leather gets very slippery, plus the knots if not tied correctly can cause blisters), running in them is about as close to running barefoot as you can get.

They are very light-weight, and in dry weather they are more backup footwear of choice if I am running barefoot over terrain I am not familiar with.

Total cost - £4.00


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