by Ken Skier
I know what you’re thinking.
Here’s some nut trying to get me to toss my Nikes and run barefoot.
No.
The last thing I will do is encourage you to run without shoes.
But I run without shoes.
I’m a guy just like you. I love to run. And frankly, I envy the runners I’ve known who have run every day for years, without ever losing a day to injury. I wish I could be like that. Just lace up my running shoes and run out the door–any time I feel like it! Without limping back in through that same door afterwards. But my body has never let me do that.
Some people can run whenever they want, without injury.
Then, sadly, there are the rest of us.
I’ve had over four hours of surgery on one knee, and my surgeon tells me it needs more. “A train wreck”–that’s what he called it. (And this was after the second major operation!)
I’ve had needles stuck deeply into my heel and my spine, by gifted doctors who gave me back the gift of mobility. I’ve had a physical therapist yank on my leg like he was pulling a tree stump from the ground, in order to correct a substantial leg-length discrepancy. (Then he did it again! )
Two years ago I had a number for Boston, and plantar fasciitis struck me with uncanny timing in mid-February, preventing me from even walking down my driveway until long after Marathon Monday.
I’m just one of those poor suckers who took up running and immediately encountered injury after injury. The knee. The hip. Lower back. Heel. Something inside the foot. You get the idea.
But running is a powerful drug, and after every injury I learned everything I could about what might cause it; then I changed my behavior so I would never get that particular injury again.
I was very good at this. I never got the same injury twice.
But I am a big guy (six foot three, and from time to time over 200 lbs)–and since I tore my ACL many years ago, I have always known that running would be a challenge for me. So I started running in very heavy, super-supportive Motion Control Shoes. That didn’t help. Then Stability Shoes. But I got more injuries. Moved on to racing flats. They worked much better. And ultimately I tossed the shoes altogether, and began running barefoot.
The injuries stopped.
In 2010 I ran 20 races barefoot, and then 21 in 2011. Even now, just a few days into February, I have run two races barefoot this year, and have already run barefoot half a dozen times at an indoor track.
I don’t run barefoot because I think it’s cool, or because I read “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. I don’t believe that Nike and the other shoe companies are engaged in a massive conspiracy to injure runners through intentionally-hazardous footwear, so we will all buy more shoes in order to prevent injury. I think the people at Nike love running just as much as we do, and do their best to give us the shoes and other gear that will let us run. I don’t have an agenda, and I’m not out to proselytize.
I’m just a runner, like you. I love to run. And by running barefoot, I finally found a way to do so, without injury.
But I will NEVER urge you to join me!
If you are running now without a problem, DON’T CHANGE A THING! Stay with your shoes, your training program, and thank your lucky stars.
Running barefoot isn’t a religion. It’s just the final thing I’ve tried that has, thankfully, worked for me.
When you see me at a race, I hope you won’t think, “There’s that barefoot guy.” I hope you’ll just think, ‘Boy, that guy sure loves to run.”
Just like you.
See you at the next race!
–Ken Skier is also known as “Run with Ken”–”the Running Photographer”
See his photographs and HD videos at http://runwithKen.com
© 2012 by Ken Skier