I’ve been “barefoot running” now for about a year at this point. Overall, I think the results have been better than expected — though my original expectations were pretty low.

While some people get into barefoot running because they’ve read about the Tarahumara, decided it’s the secret behind African Olympic success in running, or heard some interesting biomechanical or evolutionary argument, I admit that I primarily got into it because the shoes are more compact and easier to carry in my work bag (my company has a gym). Given that benefit, I decided I’d just hope that some of the other touted benefits were true.

One lesson that I would impart on those who might be interested in also trying out barefoot running is to take it slow. For instance, no matter what you do, don’t make your first major experience barefoot running your first time running a half-marathon. If you do, you might look like this guy:

This was the Allstate New York 13.1 around April of last year. I didn’t do too badly for my first half-marathon — 2:09:28, which is a little under 10 minutes a mile. However, one thing that’s definitely true with barefoot running and Vibrams is that you feel the road much more. That’s usually billed as a good thing. That’s actually less of a good thing near the end of 13 miles, feeling every dip, chip, and rock in the road on your blistering feet.

Now, I didn’t actually go run the half marathon entirely unprepared. I exercise pretty regularly, and during this particular month started ramping up my regime to 3-5 miles each workout (I normally do one at a very fast pace each workout). Despite this (admittedly sparse, but not zero) preparation, the two things that really got me were not enough callouses on the side of my toes and on the ball of my foot (they ripped and tore from the unfamiliar motion/shoes), and not enough calf conditioning.

The rips and tears are self-explanatory and probably could stand for me not making them any more graphic. Nowadays, I wear “toe socks” so that I don’t get as much chaffing, which seem to work pretty well (if only I’d used them for any of my races… oh well, next time…). On the calf side, there was a week or two of limping and very staccato stair-stepping (couldn’t really bend my legs too well — I kind of looked like a clockwork toy clattering down stairs).

Despite my complaining, running barefoot did have one particularly large benefit for me — the lack of “arch pain.” Before barefoot running, I’d always had extreme pain in my arches (which are actually less arches and more, well, lines) whenever I ran for long periods of time. I originally thought that it had to do with my shoes, but it didn’t seem like any particular pair of shoes made the problem go away (I had a pair of New Balances that helped a bit, but didn’t fix it). Although the pain went away a few hours after running, it always vaguely worried me since it didn’t feel particularly healthy. This time, though I certainly had other complaints, I didn’t have this particular problem.

Since then, I’ve run another half marathon and a 10k. Both have been “barefoot” in Vibrams. I think I’ll definitely keep running these races, since they give me good exercise “goals,” which I’ve lacked since college crew and martial arts. I’ll probably also continue to run barefoot as well — the shoes are still compact and on net it does seem beneficial. Now, if only I could be more photogenic during these things…