This is something that I hear often when I wear my Vibram Five Fingers - aka VFFs. I admit, they do look wild. They're like toe socks....but they're shoes. Vibram developed these little beauties as an alternative to barefooting and they can be used for all sorts of activities: running, hiking, sailing, climbing, living life, etc etc. I discovered them last year when I started reading about the benefits of barefoot running. At first this seems really crazy, I know. But after reading heaps of information, trying it out myself, and thinking logically - it just makes sense!! I know I come dangerously close to sounding like a whacked out conspiracy theorist when I go on these tangents, but let's try to ignore that for just a bit. People weren't born with shoes glued to their feet. In fact, people ran for thousands of years without running shoes. All sorts of little sandals have been developed over these thousands of years to protect the bottoms of feet from jagged rocks and such, but "support" was never the aim there. I won't really get into it here, but I will say that since running shoes became popular people have injuries that didn't even exist before. Wearing shoes (especially ones with support) change the way your foot hits the ground and the way your body moves. Any incorrect motion - like the altered way your foot hits the ground in shoes, as tiny as it may be, repeated over and over and over again will cause injury. Running in VFFs feels incredible - you feel easily 30 pounds lighter and it makes running feel FUN. Remember how capture the flag on a warm summer night felt? Running through neighbors' yards without a care in the world. That's how I'd describe running in this little babies. Carefree, injury free, and fun! (and you quickly get used to how they look) You don't have to believe me though, try it out for yourself. And until you do, don't knock it.
Sooooooo looks like I've taken the plunge and joined the world of blogging! I'll probably just talk about some of my running adventures and other running related topics - injuries, races, training, etc.
I guess I'll give you (ALL the people reading this) a little background info. I come from a family of runners: mom, dad, brother - all runners! When I was little my favorite thing to do was ride my bike along my mom or dad as they ran, and as I got older my mom was constantly trying to get me to run. I'd go on little running kicks and run maybe 3 or 4 times before giving up and that would be it. I did a few 5ks though in those younger years and really enjoyed the atmosphere of races. When junior year of high school rolled around though I made the wild decision to join the track team and I loved it. I loved practices and meets, but mind you, I was terrible. I only raced in the fake 800 - the event they throw in at the end of meets so that the "B team" can feel like they participated as well. I think the best I ever ran was a 2:45 or around there. Senior year I decided to do track again as well as cross country. Even though I really enjoyed both of these running still hadn't stuck with me yet as something I needed to do. It wasn't until the following year when I was stuck at home and attending Rutgers Camden that I finally picked it up as a full blown addiction. And when I say addiction I don't mean the type of exercise addiction that sends stick figure girls into rehab or anything - just something that I needed to do every day for my sanity, self esteem, and mental & physical health. I ran all through college and it really transformed my life for the better. Stress at school? Head out for a run! Hungover from last night and feeling disgusting? Head out for a run! I even helped several of my roommates get into it and at one point we had ourselves a little 80 Guilden track team!
After college is when things really changed for me. I remember the exact turning point: I was sitting on Jon and Garret's sofa in Jersey City watching the New York City Marathon on TV and I thought to myself "I'd love to do a race" so I googled "races in New York" and discovered the fabulous and all encompassing New York Road Runners. NYRR is incredible, they have races of all distances and sizes almost every weekend. There is no other running organization like them in the world. I signed up for my first race - the Hot Chocolate 15k in December of 2007. My mom came up to run it with me and we had a blast. After that I thought "maybe I can do a half marathon......" and signed up for the Manhattan Half Marathon in January of 2008. My friend Adam from college ran that one with me, and though he suffered frost bite I think he enjoyed it as much as I did! At that point I was hooked. In 2008 I ran several halves as well as the New York City Marathon and the Knickerbocker 60k.
To date I have run 10 half marathons, 4 marathons, 1 ultra marathon, and 1 stair race. Think I'm hooked? You're right. I have a long term goal of running a marathon in all of the 50 US states. I have other goals such as the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, the Antarctica Marathon (yep, thats right), London Marathon, etc etc I could go on forever.
Even though I've been somewhat sidelined since the Miami Marathon on January 29th with strange hip pain, it looks like I'll be running 13.1 New York on April 3rd. This series looks really fun and I first heard about it at the NYCM expo this year. I think it's cool that there's another 1/2 series other than the RnR series. Even though I've only run a handful of times in the past almost two months I think I'll be okay for the race, I'm pretty used to the 1/2 distance at this point. Funny how mileage perspective changes. Two years ago I would have considered the 2010 version of myself crazy for something like this.
